This is fascinating… A post appeared recently on a Facebook group called Seoul Eats:
Start of a thread on the Seoul Eats Facebook group
The short answer:
Michelin stars quick answer
But a more complete answer eventually popped up:
The best answer to the original post.
And then this excellent observation appeared:
Accurate observation on the fine dining situation in Korea.
While we’re not typically in the market for Fine Dining experiences, this one comment is very rateable to almost every aspect of eating in South Korea.
The thread is continuing and is very interesting, not from a Western versus Korean food angle (which it may deteriorate into), but as Chris says, Western food Koreanized. And that’s a HUGE distinction.
There are oases of food done correctly, and we try to spend the most of our time at those places when we’ve got the craving. One place we went to recently was Brooklyn – The Burger Joint, where the burgers and chili cheese fries were not over sweetened and tasted just right.
Brooklyn Works Burger @ Brooklyn – The Burger Joint
There was also this phenomenal pizza place in Gangnam called Brick Oven New York Pizzeria that did a great job on a pesto chicken, feta, and spinach thin crust pie a few weeks ago.
Pesto chicken, feta, and spinach pizza from NYBOP
We also very much enjoy Korean BBQ, spending one or two nights a week at our ‘local’ down the street.
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- Jenn says ‘No more’ at the BBQ
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- At Sorrae. the Korean BBQ joint in Suji-gu.
And we really like some of the Korean street food, like hotteok, tteokbokki, and pretty much everything else on this page.
The problem is that there is Koreanized Western food masquerading as Western food and that, my friends, is quite the shock to more than just the palate; and that is the crux of the issue pointed out by my new friend Chris.