Eating Vegetarian or Vegan in Seoul (Without Living on Convenience-Store Salads)

Korean food looks plant-heavy. Namul (seasoned vegetables), tofu, kimchi, bibimbap. So a lot of first-time vegetarians assume they can just order the vegetable dishes and be fine — and that's the trap. Kimchi is made with jeotgal (salted shrimp or salted anchovy), and it's a core ingredient, not an optional one. Doenjang-jjigae (된장찌개), sundubu, and miyeok-guk are almost all built on anchovy stock. Bibimbap usually comes topped with beef or egg, and tteokbokki comes mixed with fish cake. There's more "looks vegetarian" food here than you'd hope.

That said, Seoul is one of the easier big Asian cities to do this in — for two reasons: a 1,500-year-old temple-food tradition, and a vegan restaurant scene that exploded after 2020. What you need to know is where to go and how to ask.

Why is temple food the right answer for vegetarians?

Temple food (사찰음식) comes out of Buddhist monastic practice, so it has no meat, fish, or dairy to begin with, and it also leaves out the "five pungent vegetables" — green onion, garlic, chives, and two others. It works for low-FODMAP diets too. You don't have to explain "I'm vegan but also can't have garlic"; it just lands.

Insadong has the most of it. Places like Oh Se Gae Hyang (오세계향) serve temple-style and Buddhist-Chinese vegetarian food in a hanok building with around 60 seats. Hangwachae is an all-vegan temple-food buffet in Insadong at about ₩15,000 a head. If you want a more formal tasting menu, there's temple-food fine dining like Bium — no garlic, no onion, no stock.

Where do Seoul's dedicated vegan restaurants cluster?

• Itaewon and Hannam-dong — the highest density of fully vegan restaurants and cafés in the city. Plant Cafe & Kitchen is the closest thing Seoul has to an original Western-vegan staple: burgers, bowls, a rotating brunch.
• Haebangchon — the hill neighbourhood below Namsan (남산). A run of small vegan cafés and restaurants.
• Yeonnam-dong (연남동) — next to Hongdae (홍대). A growing number of cafés with vegan options.
• Myeongdong (명동) — worth knowing for Korean-vegan spots like Vegan Kitchen while you're sightseeing.

Use HappyCow for the map. You can filter for fully vegan versus vegan-friendly, and the reviews are from people who actually eat this way — more reliable than a sponsored list.

What do you have to watch for at a regular Korean restaurant?

• Kimchi — standard kimchi contains fermented shrimp or anchovy. "Vegan kimchi" and temple kimchi exist, but you have to ask.
• Soups, stews, hot pots — anchovy-and-kelp stock is the base. That's most doenjang-jjigae, sundubu-jjigae, tteokguk, miyeok-guk.
• Bibimbap — beef and egg toppings are common (you can ask for it without). Some of the namul is seasoned with fish sauce.
• Tteokbokki — comes with fish cake mixed in, and the soupy version uses anchovy stock. The gochujang sauce itself is usually vegan.
• Japchae — usually has a small amount of beef.
• Pajeon — egg in the batter, often seafood.

What's reliably fine: plain namul side dishes, braised tofu, dotori-muk (acorn jelly), kong-guksu in summer (a cold soy-milk noodle soup — confirm it's not on stock), and the Indian, Thai, and Middle Eastern restaurants in Itaewon.

Can you get by on convenience stores and bakeries?

You can, but it's grim as a plan. Most convenience-store triangle gimbap is tuna or bulgogi, so you're down to the seaweed-and-vegetable ones, plus a growing line of plant-based ready meals (look for the "제로미트 / 언리미트" type products). Bakeries are hard — dairy and egg in almost everything. The way to not end up "living on convenience-store salads" is to save the neighbourhood information above before you go.

A Note From Daniel — our real human editor

More locals are going vegan now, so dedicated vegan restaurants are opening — but there still aren't many, and staying fully vegan is genuinely difficult here. A friend of mine from India has a hard time with it. He'll be told a dish has no pork, and then find out later that pork fat was used somewhere in the cooking. Getting a clear answer takes more than one question, and even then it isn't always complete.

Is the Jingwansa templestay worth it?

Jingwansa is in Seoul (on the edge of Bukhansan (북한산) National Park) and is world-famous for its temple food — it was on Netflix's Chef's Table, and its head monk has taught temple cooking to a White House chef. The templestay program ("Relish the Nature") is ₩60,000 for adults, and because Jingwansa fills fast you should book at least a month ahead at eng.templestay.com. The meal is baru gongyang — you help prepare it, eat in silence, and wash your own bowl. Religion aside, if you're vegetarian this is worth half a day.

Mina's Tip

Put one temple-food meal in Insadong and one vegan neighbourhood — Itaewon, Hannam, or Haebangchon — into your itinerary before you arrive. Do that and you won't have the trip where you order "the vegetable dish" and it still tastes like anchovy. Walking into a random Korean restaurant and hoping is the version that disappoints.