The fastest, cheapest, frequently best food on Seoul's streets.
Vendors, food trucks and stalls: the cheapest, fastest, frequently best food in Seoul.
The bindaetteok stalls in Gwangjang Market are Seoul's most legitimate street food: mung-bean pancakes fried on cast-iron griddles alongside mayak gimbap.
Try: Bindaetteok (mung bean pancakes) and mayak gimbap
The Myeongdong pedestrian strip turns into one of the densest street food corridors in Asia after 16:00, with stalls selling tteokbokki (spicy rice.
Try: Tteokbokki, corn dogs, egg bread (gyeran-ppang)
Namdaemun Market hotteok stalls fry thick dough discs filled with brown sugar, cinnamon and crushed peanuts on flat irons in the market's main food lane.
Try: Hotteok (sugar-filled fried pancakes) and kalguksu
Sindang-dong Tteokbokki Town is the origin neighbourhood of the modern spicy tteokbokki -- Ma Bok-rim developed gochujang-seasoned rice cakes here in 1953.
Try: Tteokbokki (various styles: original, cheese, rabokki)
Tongin Market coin lunchbox: buy a tray and brass yeopjeon coins, fill the tray from banchan stalls, then eat in the communal hall at the market back.
Try: DIY coin-currency lunchbox: banchan selections from market stalls
The night stalls around Dongdaemun Design Plaza serve the garment workers who sew through the night, with soondae, eomuk and gimbap until 05:00 every day.
Try: Soondae (Korean blood sausage), eomuk (fish cake), gimbap
The Hongdae strip around Hongik University generates dense street food every evening: chimaek, takoyaki, and Korean corn dogs from the university exit.
Try: Chimaek (Korean fried chicken and beer), takoyaki, crepes
Sambodang sells only one item from a maroon-awning stall halfway down Insadong-gil: a fist-sized hotteok stuffed with brown sugar, cinnamon and chopped nuts, fried to order in front of the queue.
Try: Hotteok (brown sugar and nut filled pan-fried pancake)
The Itaewon strip around the main road and the side streets toward the Hamilton Hotel is home to Seoul's most international street food scene: halal kebab.
Try: Halal kebabs, falafel, Thai street food, South Asian snacks
Noryangjin Fish Market operates 24 hours but the pre-dawn hours -- from 01:00 when the auction floor runs -- are when the market is most viscerally alive.
Try: Live seafood: raw abalone, sea cucumber, crab; sashimi sets