Tosokchon Samgyetang (토속촌 삼계탕)

Tosokchon Samgyetang (토속촌 삼계탕)

Address: 5, Jahamun-ro 5-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul 서울특별시 종로구 자하문로5길 5 (체부동)

Website: http://tosokchon.com

Budget:  KRW 15000 - 25000 per head 

 

A recommended place from the Korean tourism website itself, this place is a traditional korean restaurant serving ginseng chicken as their main specialty. 

The queue

You start the journey into the restaurant by doing the most Singaporean thing, you queue. And after a wait of around 20-30 minutes, you're ushered into the interiors which have a very nice and authentic korean feel to it. Wooden beams, tatami floors and low tables greet you before you remove your shoes to step into the room for your meal. The seating is all decided by the usher so no choosing if you're seated to someone you don't know. Spacing between seats are also rather narrow so you'll likely bump into someone along the way. Oh, you're expected to seat on the floor and for me, my legs went to sleep pretty quickly after sitting down.

Seafood pancake with spring onions. KRW 15,000 was one of the first few things we had and it was reasonable fragrant and quite generously filled with prawns, squids and spring onions. We found it ok and not mind blowing.

The star of the day was the ginseng chicken, also at KRW 15 000 which was the signature dish of the restaurant. It came with some ginseng tea and a small cup of additional ginseng wine you can add into the dish. The taste itself was nice and tended towards a more bland side. Possibly due to them using only the best ingredients and no msg. The chicken is boiled to tenderness and breaks apart easily while the inside is stuff with a ginseng root and rice. The overall combination is pleasing for a one time try to understand how authentic korean ginseng rice should taste like. 

I would have liked to have perhaps some soy sauce to add into the dish as it was really quite bland otherwise. The ginseng taste is definitely there but even that was not strong enough. 

Overall, the experience was an interesting one and could be enjoyed if simply for the authenticity of the korean dining experience.

Verdict: Try if you're near the place and with a lesser queue.