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After a cancelled 2020 trip to Korea, my friend and I finally made it to Korea three years later. Seoul was truly a shopper's paradise for skincarem, beauty and cute things. With the lack of Google Maps availability, it was a bit harder to navigate than a lot of other countries I've been to and Naver Maps takes some planning and getting used to, but the gluten-free food research... was hard. Most Koreans do not know the umbrella term 'gluten' and coeliac disease is not common in a lot of Asian countries. Koreans eat a ton of kimchi, so it's not surprising that they're known to have pretty good gut health. They also won't be knowledged on cross contamination, so depending on how sensitive you are, be wary. It's not impossible to find good gluten free Korean food, but it's just a mission. And will you fall victim to being glutened? Unfortunately, probably :') Spoiler alert: I did.
There are many gluten free bakeries dotted around Seoul, so you definitely won't starve, but if like me you don't particularly have a sweet tooth and are more interested in gluten free Korean and Asian food, then all is not lost. Here is a small guide to eateries I visited and a few tips to hopefully make your GF travels easier.
Korean Coeliac Card
If you're a coeliac, you probably know by now that you can just google the country you're going to plus 'coeliac card' to get a translated file to print off for your travels. However, is it useful in Korea? No, not really. We used it the first few times were attempting to find some places around our hotel to eat and everyone just reads the card and gets overwhelmed and says they don't have anything you can eat. The card is quite wordy too, so you're better off researching some Korean foods that are generally gluten free, findin the restaurants that serve these dishes and then downloading the 'Papago' translation app so you can ask a few questions when you're there to double check the dish is safe to eat.
A Lot Korean Dishes Are *Not* Gluten Free
I always thought bibimbap and kimbap were gluten free and that I would be able to eat these to my heart's content in Korea, but these foods are actually not gluten friendly. A lot of dishes like these will have marinated meats, imitation crab meat and even the vegan/vegetarian options are most likely contaminated. Korean cooking uses a lot of soy sauce, gochujang (red pepper paste) or doenjang (soybean paste) which all contain gluten. I also did not have any kimchi whilst I was there as some kimchi can also have gluten.
If you speak Korean or have Korean friends who can translate for you, then you'll have much better luck with finding GF dishes. I did go out with my friend who speaks Korean and we chanced upon a random quiet restaurant and she asked them to make me a kimbap that left out the gluten ingredients.
Do your research before you travel, and also look up other recommendations on YouTube, TikTok etc. as my list is not comphrehensive. We were quite lazy and I mostly just kept eating at the same few places around my hotel because it was just easier. I had a few other restaurants on my list, but didn't end up going to them as we completely forgot we were going when it was Chuseok (Mid-Autumn Festival) and many restaurants were closed during the public holiday dates.
Korean Dishes That *Are* Gluten Free
Below are some dishes that tend to be gluten-free, but please do check with your server when ordering!
∙ Seolleongtang - ox bone broth
∙ Albap - a bibimbap rice dish with fish roe
∙ Galbitang - beef short rib soup
∙ Yukkaejang - soup made with shredded beef and vegetables
∙ Banchan - small Korean side dishes served with rice
∙ Soondubu jjigae - tofu stew
∙ Samgyetang - ginseng-jujube soup with chicken
Tips
∙ Download the 'Papago' app for translating
∙ Bring gluten free snacks with you (I bring gluten free oat bars, Itsu GF cup noodles etc. with me when I travel as a back-up)
∙ Always ask and double check with the server if you're unsure about something
∙ In general, avoid anything fried or sauce-y
∙ Bring GF soy sauce with you (I carried mine around in a tiny shot-size bottle)
∙ Learn what Korean dishes are GF so you have a rough idea of what you can and can't eat
Restaurant Recommendations
Stall at Gwangjang Market
££££
Gwangjang Market is pretty large and has so many stalls, selling a variety of things. When we went, the other sections of the market were not so busy, but the food area was packed. There is a specific stall with a small seating area inside that sells one kimbap option and it is gluten free. It is a pretty basic kimbap rolled into vertical rolls, filled with rice, shredded carrot and daikon (pickled radish). The seasame oil was a bit heavy for my liking, but nevertheless still a good cheap eat and satisfied my kimbap craving.
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Inamjang
££££
You know it's a good place when you only see Koreans and no tourists here! We came for seolleongtang which is ox bone soup. You get a large, steaming bowl of the broth with meat, rice and glass noodles inside. The soup is not flavoured and you can salt to taste. This was near our hotel so we went a few times and I also had the gopchang jeongol which is beef tripe soup - ended up liking this even more than the seollongtang and was one of my favourite meals of the trip.
이남장 을지로본점, 16 Samil-daero 12-gil, Jung-gu
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Hooked Poke
££££
This is a little eatery serving poke bowls. You order on the screen by the door when you go inside and the poke bowl options are also customisable. I came here about a million times to eat in and to get a takeaway - the same dish over and over. The aubergine and shiitake mushroom poke bowl can be made gluten free, but you will have to ask them at the counter to remove the mushrooms (as they are marinated in teriyaki sauce) and any sauce, and just ask for more aubergines instead. You can choose the kind of rice on the screen, choose if you want certin things removed (like the onions) and also have the option to have half salad and half rice. I tried both options and will say the rice on its own was way better, and the salad was pretty much just raw lettuce leaves. The poke bowl also has other veg in it like chickpeas, sweetcorn and beetroot. A very tasty poke bowl and the brown rice was cooked just right.
18 Samil-daero 12-gil, Jung District, Seoul
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Korean BBQ
££££
Korean BBQ is favourite for many, and is gluten free, wooo. Granted, you will have to select the non-marinated meats and will have to pretty much stick to just the meat, but you can also eat the lettuce leaves and order plain boiled rice as a side dish. I can't remember the name of the one we went to in Hongdae as a friend took us, but our favourite meat was the really thin beef slices. There are so many Korean BBQ places around, and you can also find quite cheap ones that have unlimited meat.
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Balwoo Gongyang
££££
We reserved a place here for lunch and it was a really interesting experience. Balwoo restaurant serves temple food set meals so you can experience eating like a monk, and they are also familiar with the term 'gluten' here. Of course, there is no meat and everything is vegetarian. The service is good and everyone sits in their own little room for their meal. Fruit and vegetables are not as abundant in Korea as a lot of other countries as there is very little arable land there, so this was a treat for us as we were genuinely feeling a little fibre-deprived. There are many little dishes to the course and the majority of it was very nice, although a few vegetables tasted quite earthy, but we are just not used to eating some of these leaves normally. Overall, a unique meal.
71 Gyeonji-dong, Jongno District, Seoul
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Spain Club
££££
Decided to switch it up a little and have some European food. I had the squid ink paella and it was so good. Service was decent and the price was a little higher than the average meal we'd been having, but the paella was huge and I couldn't finish it, so took the rest away after.
26 Apgujeong-ro 10-gil, Sinsa-dong, Gangnam District, Seoul
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Ogawa
££££
This was my first ever omakase experience, so in terms of everything else I ate in Korea, this was expensive, but compared to the very little I know about omakase, this is one of more 'affordable' prices I've seen for it and definitely would have been way more expensive at home in London. This was definitely my favourite meal from the whole trip and one of the best food experiences I've had. Honestly, I didn't know what half the fish/seafood were, but everything tasted amazing. In this instance, I just gave the server and chef my coeliac card and I did bring my own gluten free soy sauce and casually whipped out my own little bottle whilst making awkward eye contact with the chef :)
Most of it was fine, but the chef did make changes to a few of dishes for me so that they didn't have sauce on it. You have to pre-book this place as they only open for set hours for lunch and dinner time and I think the whole restaurant only seated about 11 people. But the food was delicious, I was having a foodgasm with every morsel and the price was well worth it. Our dinner course was around £60-65.
서울특별시 종로구 당주동 5 지하 1층 5, Dangju-dong, Jongno-gu
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Buddha's Belly
££££
Came here because it was close by to where we were shopping. We didn't make a reservation and it was pretty busy around dinner time, but it didn't us long to get a table. Had a Thai green curry and it spicier than what I normally can handle, but curries are usually a safe gluten friendly option.
205 Sapyeong-daero, Seocho District, Seoul, South Korea
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Bongmilga (Cold Noodle)
££££
This place serves cold noodles, a recipe deriving from North Korea, and we came here on recommendation of it being gluten free, but when we asked the server, she actually said the dish could not be made gluten free. I instead had rice with a side dish, which was very spicy-looking diced octopus. The octopus honestly was diced so small that I literally couldn't even pick up any of the bits with my chopsticks and it seemed to be mostly spicy sauce. However, the server was extremely nice and probably saw that I was struggling (my spice tolerance is basically non-existent) and they made me a (savoury) mung bean pancake on the house. It was so nice :') Definitely recommend the pancakes, but I would not go out of my way to come here because it was quite hard to find and not particularly close to anywhere else we were venturing to.
664 Seolleung-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
서울특별시 강남구 선릉로 664 건설빌딩 109호
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Plant Yeonnam
££££
A popular vegan restaurant that has gluten free dishes. I had a cookie (although they did say it may not be 100% GF, but I felt fine after) and then we came back for dinner and had a rice dish made with black beans. Not the best meal I had, but was not bad and tasted healthy.
197-32 Donggyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul
서울시 마포구 동교동 197-32 1층
Gluten Free Bakeries
Although I didn't go to any specific bakeries myself, I did compile a list as back-up incase I needed to go to one!
∙ Sunny Bread
∙ Emu Bread
∙ LaPause
∙ Vegan and Beyond Bakery
∙ Bread Worker
∙ Raw Law Green
∙ Alien Mill Cafe
∙ Magnolia
