A Korean restaurant in the middle of an Insadong alley, under timber beams and a folk-painting tiger.
FIG. 01CHAPTER 01
— CHAPTER 01
Ten years in the middle of an Insadong alley.
Doma Insadong is a Korean restaurant at 6-1 Insadong 8-gil, in the middle of an alley lined with craft shops and tea houses. The business has been registered at this address since 2017, and we have been cooking sotbap — rice steamed to order in its own stone pot — for close to ten years. Many guests walk over after seeing Gyeongbokgung Palace, Gwanghwamun, Bukchon, Jogyesa Temple or Cheonggyecheon, which makes this a Korean restaurant as much for visitors as for the neighbourhood. Traditional Korean culture and traditional Korean food, still alive in the middle of a very modern downtown.
FIG. 02CHAPTER 02
— CHAPTER 02
A soybean paste stew twenty years in the making.
Our glass door says, in Korean, “the best soybean paste stew in Seoul.” That is our own claim and we stand behind it: it is the dish we have been making the same way for twenty years, and it comes with every sotbap set and every charcoal-grilled set on the menu. You can also order it on its own for ₩8,000. At a Korean restaurant, we think everything is judged by the bowl of stew.
FIG. 03CHAPTER 03
— CHAPTER 03
Timber beams and a folk-painting tiger.
Above the entrance hangs a minhwa — Korean folk painting — of tigers with magpies, rabbits, a cauldron and an open fire. Inside, thick timber columns, walls built from salvaged old doors and low pendant lamps set the room. For makgeolli we pour Boksoondoga, Jipyeong and Buja Makgeolli, with Sejan Makgeolli served as an aperitif. The idea is simple: a Korean restaurant should look and feel like one, not only taste like one.
— CHAPTER 04
Menus in four languages.
We keep printed menus in Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese, and each dish lists its ingredients and how it is cooked — so a first visit to a Korean restaurant does not have to start with guesswork. The gondre and lotus-root sotbap has a vegetarian option; just ask a member of staff. Takeaway is available alongside dining in.
WHY DOMA
Looking for a Korean restaurant in Insadong?
Doma Insadong is a Korean restaurant in Jongno-gu, an easy walk from Gyeongbokgung Palace, Gwanghwamun, Bukchon, Jogyesa Temple and Cheonggyecheon. Traditional Korean food and traditional craft streets, in the middle of downtown Seoul.
The programmes below featured Doma Insadong and the specific dishes listed.
Matissneun Nyeoseokdeul (Comedy TV)
Black pork shabu-shabu
MBC Live Today
Soybean paste stew and the short-rib sotbap set
SBS Live Today
The stew sets (pork shoulder, chicken thigh, mackerel, yukhoe bibimbap) and the three sotbap — short rib, spicy Iberico, and Jeongseon gondre with lotus root
