Typical KOREAN BREAKFAST at Kimbap Cheonguk + SEOUL TOWER TOUR | Seoul, South Korea

Unreal. I can't believe I'm trying this for the first time, 10 days into my trip, first time I'm eating it. Bearnaise, Korean style, with delicious sauce on top. That might be my new favorite dish. Good morning, everyone. I hope you're all doing well. This is David Hoffman from David's Bin here in beautiful, sunny Seoul, South Korea. Today I'm very excited because I'm taking you to eat a typical Korean breakfast, which involves some sides, maybe some mandu, which are Korean dumplings, and today we're also going to try tonkatsu, which is a pork cutlet with a sweet sauce. And this restaurant is a franchise that's actually located right next to Seoul Station, which is right there. And after we eat, we're going to go straight up the mountain to Seoul Tower to get incredible views overlooking the city. Are you guys ready? I'm very hungry. I brought my appetite. Let's go. So this place is called Gimbap Jongguk and it is a very popular chain of a gimbap restaurant here in Korea. Now, what gimbap restaurants typically serve are classic Korean dishes. You get things like bokkeumbap, fried rice. You get things like ramen, which is the Korean noodles. You get mandu, the Korean dumplings, and you get other kinds of dishes, some meats and a few other types. And of course the gimbap, the Korean rice rolls. So it's a really great place to grab a delicious meal that's also inexpensive. Alright, check out this feast. Oh my god. I love it. We got the kimchi mandu. These steamed dumplings are fantastic. We tried that yesterday and I am in love with it. So we got more. We got the banshee rice. So we have the mixed veg, cold mixed veg. We have the kimchi. No meal in Korea is complete without the kimchi. You have to get it with a Korean pancake. They chopped it up, right? We have the yellow radish. Here we have egg. Looks like an egg with some vegetables, like an omelette cut up as well. And then the star of the show, the pork cutlet. The pork cutlet is called tonkatsu. It looks amazing. It has this like super red sauce on top, like reddish brown. And we got some cabbage on the side. We have some rice. Enough talking. Let's start. Let's start with the egg right here. It's a veg omelette. That's what it is. Here in Korea, it's chopstick travel. Wow, it's so good. Okay. Next up, I'm gonna go for some of the veg. Oh, I love the veggies here. Veggies in Korea. There's no better country in the world for veg. Oh wow. Super fresh, crunchy, very moist. Little bit of kick at the end. Not too hot, but just right. That's what I love also about Korea. They always throw a little spice. It's one of the countries, I think it's the only country where like almost every single thing has a little kick. Maybe Thailand too. Here we have the yellow radish. Good palate cleanser. Mmm. Very crunchy. Extremely crunchy. Oh man, I love this. We haven't been eating it too much, but I gotta say the few times I've tried it, it's amazing. I think it's like a leek pancake. Mmm. Wow. Savory pancake. That's what it is. No, I have to get another one, man. That's what it is. Oh wow. From there, starting to tingle in my elbow lip. It's hot. It's really hot. And then the kimchi. And this is extremely hot. As you can see, we got the red chili paste right there. Why not? Spicy fermented cabbage. All day long. And next up, we're gonna try the mandu, the kimchi mandu. Nice steamed dumplings. I just love the presentation here too. They're beautiful. Mmm. I'll say, now this is my all-time favorite dumpling in the world. The kimchi is really hot, so they give you like an abundance of kimchi. There's so much in there. Very thin dough. Love how they steamed it. You also gotta grill it as well, but I rather have it steamed. It's healthier, right? And over here, there's a star. Get some of that sauce. This is gonna be so good, man. All right, let's cut this up. Let's cut this bad boy. Wow. And the portion is extremely generous. Wow. Look at that. Lots of good pork. Nice and crispy. Okay, let me get a piece. It's delicious. It's sweet. The sauce is very sweet. Feels almost like a marmalade, but it's not a marmalade. I don't know exactly what it is. Do you know? I think it's like a sweet, it's kind of a sweet gravy. Sweet gravy? Okay. It pairs perfectly well with the cutlet. You know, it's fried. Nice piece of pork in the middle. Oh my god. It's a super filling dish. It was too much. It's a huge portion, too. Unreal. I can't believe I'm trying this for the first time, 10 days into my trip. First time eating it. Yeah, huge portion. So basically, it's like a milanesa, you know? Milanesa, Korean style, with delicious sauce on top. That might be my new favorite dish. Non-spicy, non-spicy. David, this tonkatsu is absolutely unreal. This Korean breaded pork cutlet. I loved your comparison to a milanesa. Like it's so similar to a milanesa, a schnitzel. But what really separates it, obviously, is the sauce on top. Kind of sweet sauce. Tangy sauce. Oh my gosh, I love how crispy it is on the outside. I mean how tender it is in the middle. Unbelievable. And what's amazing about these places, these kind of gimbap restaurants, is they tend to be open 24-7 and everything that's listed on the menu is available any time of day. So walking at 9 in the morning, you can get this. 12 noon, no problem. Midnight, again, it's there. It's just unbelievable. All these typical Korean food items available any time of day. You gotta love that. Now let's head to Seoul Tower. It's actually right up here up a hill. We have to take a taxi though. You can walk it but I think it's easier to just take a taxi. And once we get there, we're gonna have to jump into a cable car and go all the way up to the station. So you've done this before, right? Yeah, yeah. It's such an incredible view. The reason being is that the the tower is actually located on top of a I consider it more of a hill. Technically, it's called a mountain. What is the name of it? It's Namsan. Namsan. Yeah, Namsan. And yeah, you get an entire view of the city. It's incredible. Wait till you see it. Dude, we're on a hill. I can't even get out of the car. Here we go. Okay, so when you come into the tower, if you want to take the cable car up, specify cable car. If not, it'll drop you up in the park like they did for us. And we're gonna actually just walk straight to the tower. It's 2,100 meters. It's not that far. I think maybe 15-20 minutes. I hope so. And then once we're done, then we'll hit the cable car down. Yeah, I've actually gone up this before. We're gonna get some great vantage points. And I mean, we got to burn off the Tomcats anyways. It's not that bad of a hike. I mean, it's gonna take us like 20 minutes. It's fine. If you guys are nervous about the hike, don't be. It's not that bad. And there's also resting areas. Yeah. A lot of people just, you know, they'll go up a little bit. The rest, we're trying to get there a little quicker. So we're just speeding up, but obviously it's a little steep. And there's buses passing by. I don't know if they take you to Seoul Tower. But, uh, what can I say? Yeah, I mean, the thing I'm liking the most right now is that there's enough shade and breeze that it's actually cooler here than it was in the city. Oh, yeah. I love the oxygen. But we are sweating because we're going uphill, obviously. Yeah, we're going really fast, too. We're like just non-stop, non-stop. But every time we see the sign, we, you know, cover an extra 100 meters. Then we have like 1600 meters to go. And there it is. Look. Wow, dude. What a viewpoint. What a view. Oh, pretty incredible. Oh my god. I didn't know it was this big. Oh, that's Lotte World Tower right over there. Right there in the hazy distance. Wow, that's incredible, man. Dude, it's amazing because Namsan Park is this huge green area mountain right in the center of the city because to the right, to the left, behind us, in front of us, we have just skyline. Oh my god, dude, that looks like Beverly Hills right there. Yeah, that's part of the Beverly Hills of Seoul right there. Yeah, seriously. I mean just right there in the center of the city on this little hill. Yeah. Dude, this is my favorite viewpoint so far. Yeah, it's amazing, huh? It's also my first one. Sam, you getting tired or what? A bit. Oh, man. I mean, yeah, I'm out of shape for sure, but having a giant tongue cast in the belly doesn't help. Because it doesn't aid the process much. But it's been great. I mean the breeze is making it manageable. We'll be there soon. Yeah, and I recommend coming here in the morning or in the late afternoon. Don't come here when it's like midday. It's probably way too hot. Way too hot, way too many people then too. Yeah. Oh, we're almost there. 1,200. Halfway. We made it here to another vantage point. It's a whole different area of the city. That was south. Here we have west. We have all these traditional houses. We have some more skyscrapers, a lot of green area, and then right here to the right we have Seoul Tower. Dude, there's so much green up here. So much green. Wow, man. Seeing a city from observation deck changes your whole perspective. I mean, you could really understand what this place is all about. And I really love this neighborhood right in front of us. There's like two churches, all local housing, and then behind you have all these skyscrapers. Okay. All right, let's continue and get to the tower. After a 20-minute hike, we are here at Seoul Tower. Yes. Oh my god, we need water. So bad. Buy tickets. Yeah. Go up. Go up. Let's go. Okay, so as soon as you enter the building on the first floor, you have a lot of retail, a lot of LG screens, and then you have the ticket office, right? They cost 10,000 won per person, 8,000 for kids. I think. I'm 100% sure it's 8,000 for kids. So like nine dollars per person. Pretty affordable. And to get to the top, you have to actually go to the fifth floor. I don't know what this... Okay, there's an elevator right there. Let's go to the elevator. Follow me. And once you get here to the fifth floor, you have another elevator. But before that, there's a lot of retail. Dude, how many retail shops are there? Cafe right here, souvenirs. Oh, that's the line? You can shop until you drop. Let's get in that line. It's like a Seoul Tower. 236 meters high. This observation deck is not so big. It's a circular observation deck, obviously. In the middle, you have this candy store, and you have all these beautiful views of Seoul. Just lots of windows, all things. Just windows, windows, windows. Over here, you have a gift shop, more gift shops. Oh, there's always a gift shop in every single observation deck. And then right up here, it tells you what's in this direction. So right here, we go. Osaka. Over there, you have... What is it? Suva, Fiji. I mean, damn, man. This is amazing. Sam, what do you think? It's unbelievable. I mean, this is one of the biggest cities in the world, and being up here at the tower, you just get a sense of that. Just the sheer size of this place. It just keeps going and going in all directions. Sprawling in all directions. And what's the name of that river? That's the Han River. The Han River? Wow. So the Han River is part of the new city. So the Han River is the border with the new and the old. This is the old city. That's the new city. That's where you used to live, right? Yeah, I lived on the Seoul side for a while. And yeah, it's just as big as this side now, to be honest. It's huge. By the way, the reason the audio is so bad is because a security came up here. One of the security guys said, hey, put away the microphones. So we put them in our bags. And that's why it sounds like this. You know, you're getting literally every single sound from this observation deck. Sorry, guys. Dude, that was incredible. What a crazy view of Seoul. Like in every direction. Such a sprawling city. Half of the country's population is living here. 20 plus million. It's unbelievable. And the thing that always surprises me so much is that there's so many mountains in the background. I mean everywhere you look there's mountain ranges. Korea is very mountainous. And yeah, it's just a spectacular view. I love the contrast between the high-rises, the ultra-modern buildings. And there's still a pocket of traditional homes in South Korea as well in Seoul. And so you just what a contrast between the old and the new. It just shows you how fast Seoul is moving into the future. Yet, it's still trying to retain its past. So as soon as you exit, you take the elevator down. It takes 25 seconds. Really fast. You come here to this huge platform. There's some retail, there's a burger place, a gift shop. And then right over here is the cable car. And that's part of the experience. So let's take the cable car back down to Seoul. Let's do it. As you head down this ramp to the funicular, you can see there's a lot of locks. These are love locks. Obviously, you come with your wife, your girlfriend, you put a lock, you write your name, and then you're here for life. Where's our love lock, man? I love you. Crazy amount of love locks. And what you have to do here is just keep making your way down. I don't see it. It's here somewhere. It's down there. Oh, it's down there? Okay, let's go down there then. Oh, wow. Tteokbokki. There we go. Cable car. Showtime. And this one actually cost money. The one we had in Daegu cost nothing. Daegu was free. Yeah, Daegu was free. What does it cost? Wow, 7,000 per person? One way. 9,500, round trip. Not bad. We're sardines in a can right now. Three minutes. Where's the exit? This way? No, exit that way. Okay. Wow, what an epic morning we just had. Starting it off with a typical Korean food breakfast. The tonkatsu, super delicious sweet pork cutlet, and the kimchi mandu. Oh my god. I'm even thinking about it right now. My mouth is watering. And then after that, we hiked all the way up to Seoul Tower, the second highest observation deck in the city. It's right in the center, right in the middle of this park, overlooking everything. You got mountains, skyline, river, greenery, just incredible. Next time you guys come to Seoul, I highly recommend going up to Seoul Tower and eating a typical Korean breakfast, maybe every single day if you can. Hey guys, if you love this video, give me a thumbs up, leave me a comment below, subscribe to my channel, his channel, and we'll see you in the next travel food adventure in Seoul, South Korea. Peace!