Zagat Surveys Seoul’s Dining Scene
KOREA TIMES
01-27-2010 17:11
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
Move over kimchi and make room for pasta and curry. According to the Zagat survey, the best food served in Seoul can be found in an Italian restaurant while the most popular is Indian.
To answer the perennial question of what to have for dinner, tech-savvy iPhone users to household characters from “Sex and the City’’ and “The Simpsons’’ turn to the internationally best-selling restaurant guide.
This “dining bible’’ has now tapped into Seoul’s eclectic culinary scene, which, the survey says, reflects the latest global food trends.
“We are really pleased to add Korea to over 100 countries where we currently survey. And with the new guide we trust local consumers and international travelers can now see how exciting Seoul has become as a world-class culinary destination,’’ Ted Zagat, who is co-CEO with his wife Nina, told reporters at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Seoul, Wednesday.
Zagat partnered with Hyundai Card in 2006 to launch the 2010 Seoul restaurant guide. Korea is the third Asian country after Japan and China to be covered by the franchise.
“In addition to Korean cuisine, the dining scene in Seoul is vibrant with global influences. The diversity of Seoul restaurants is evident by looking at some of the top winners (of the Zagat survey),’’ he said.
The newly published book features 287 restaurants around town that have been ranked and reviewed by 4,398 Seoulites in the categories of food, décor and service. Ristorante Eo, providing Italian fare in Cheongdam-dong, topped the ratings for food, while Continental, the French restaurant at the Shilla Hotel, Jung-gu, was noted for best service. Naos Nova in Yongsan received the best reviews for ambiance while Ganga’s Indian cuisine was voted as the most popular.
The results, moreover, reflect what is gastronomically in vogue in the world. “It’s really fascinating to see how cities tended to be very local in terms of cuisine, and more and more around the world we see other types of cuisine coming in and being appreciated by local diners,’’ said Zagat.
The New Yorker moreover said he was a big fan of kimchi and Korean barbeque. According to the survey, the top Korean restaurants are the Bamboo House, Yeoksam-dong; Myongwogwan, Sheraton Walker Hill Hotel; Woolaeoak, Daechi-dong and Jung-gu; and Yongsusan, which can be spotted all over the city.
Food is like an ambassador representing a country and Korean tourism could benefit from having more restaurants around the world, said Nina Zagat.
An English version of the Seoul restaurant guide will be made available online (www.zagat.com) and in print.
The lawyer couple began the survey in 1979 in New York, as a pastime asking what friends thought about local eateries. The guide has since been proclaimed a “dining democracy’’ (CBS) since it turns to thousands of diners rather than a handful of connoisseurs. This caters well to Korea, a country that is dominated by fiercely opinionated, food-loving power-bloggers.
“Our belief remains the same, that the shared opinions of thousands of avid consumers are inherently more accurate than just one professional critic,’’ said Ted Zagat, explaining that it allows room for disagreement. “We are trying to help you, empower you, to make smart decisions for yourselves. We think you want to go to different restaurants on different nights.’’