When I first climbed the stairs out of Itaewon Station, I almost turned back down into the subway to head back to Myeongdong. Before I’d even walked a few blocks, I was hit by neon signs in English, a McDonald’s wedged between two souvenir shops, and a bar on the corner blasting Top 40.
I’d ventured to Seoul on my first weekend trip from Gangwon-do, where I was living as an English teacher, to wallow in beautiful palaces and eat at traditional night markets. None of what I first saw in Itaewon matched what I first pictured Korea’s mega-capital to be like.
It wasn’t until I explored Itaewon a little more that I realized I’d judged the neighborhood too swiftly off its least-interesting stretch. The same station that spat me into Seoul’s most foreigner-friendly blocks also sits a short walk from Korea’s first mosque and one of the city’s most famous food streets. One subway hop in either direction turns into a hillside cocktail bar scene or a street lined with embassy gates and European-style cafes.
Here’s how I’d spend a day moving through Itaewon to squeeze in all its highlights. (And even give yourself a chance to actually enjoy this divisive Seoul neighborhood.)
How I’d plan a 1-day Itaewon itinerary for a first visit
Start your morning with Turkish coffee at Kervan Café
After arriving at Itaewon Station, take Exit 3. Walk east along Itaewon-ro to Usadan-ro, the street that leads to Seoul Central Mosque, and turn right. Before tackling the full upward climb, I’d grab a coffee first at Kervan Café (17 Usadan-ro 10-gil).
Kervan runs a much bigger restaurant down on the main strip (192 Itaewon-ro). This small branch skips all of that and sticks to coffee, tea, and pastries like baklava and Turkish delight.
The Turkish coffee at Kervan Cafe comes thick, strong, and unfiltered, nothing like the Americano I’d seen on offer at every other corner in Seoul. It’s the right kind of jolt before walking uphill.
Kervan Café opens at 9 am, early enough to anchor the start of a full day without forcing travelers out the door at dawn.
Make the climb to Seoul Central Mosque
From Kervan Café, the walk up to Seoul Central Mosque (39 Usadan-ro 10-gil) continues a few minutes further up the same street, and every one of them is uphill.
(Grab a coffee and some Turkish pastries to-go from the cafe on your way out. I guarantee you’ll appreciate having them for this short, but steep-ish trek.)
Seoul Central Mosque opened in 1976 as South Korea’s first mosque. The domes and the minaret rising above Itaewon’s rooftops look and feel nothing like the rest of Seoul.
When I walked into Seoul Central Mosque, I expected the inside to match that scale. What caught me off guard was how small the men’s prayer hall felt in comparison to the exterior. (It’s modest enough that overflow prayer mats get laid outside during Friday prayers and Eid.)
Stepping inside, the mosque feels more like a neighborhood place of worship than the big landmark it appears to be from the street below.
Non-Muslim visitors are welcome inside Seoul Central Mosque, but I wouldn’t plan on spending more than 15 or 20 minutes here. Modest clothing is required. There’s a dressing room by the entrance with coverings if anyone shows up in something too exposed.
Try to skip visiting the Seoul Central Mosque on Friday between noon and 2 pm if you can help it. That time is set aside for Jumu’ah, the main weekly prayer. Non-Muslim visitors aren’t allowed into the prayer halls during that window.
The streets ringing the mosque are where this stretch of Itaewon earns its identity. Halal restaurants, a halal butcher, an Islamic bookstore, and a halal supermarket all sit within a block or two.
If something here catches your eye, go ahead and grab it. But don’t fill up too much: I’ve got a couple of great lunch options coming up not far from here.
Browse Itaewon Antique Furniture Street
From the Seoul Central Mosque, head back down toward Itaewon Station and the Hamilton Hotel. The stretch running south along Bogwang-ro from Itaewon-ro is known as Itaewon Antique Furniture Street, and it’s one of the odder pockets of this neighborhood.
Itaewon Antique Furniture Street started as American soldiers began leaving Seoul after the Korean War. Throughout the 1960s, soldiers stationed nearby sold off their furniture and household goods before shipping back to the US. It eventually spawned a permanent strip of antique dealers.
When I heard about Itaewon Antique Furniture Street, I walked in expecting Korean antiques. And my guess was a little off.
The furniture here is mostly European and American, from wardrobes to dining sets. It’s the kind of heavy Western pieces I’d never guess originated from a departing soldier’s apartment rather than an estate sale in Lyon or London.
That mismatch between the street’s name and what it actually sells is worth knowing before you go in looking for hanbok chests or celadon pottery.
Around 100 shops lined the stretch at its peak. There’s enough to check out here that an hour disappears fast if old furniture and vintage clocks are your thing.
(If they’re not, I still think spending ten minutes walking through is worth it just to see the contrast from the rest of the city.)
One thing I should point out is that parts of Itaewon Antique Furniture Street now sit inside a redevelopment zone. Some of the longtime shops along the stretch have already been forced to relocate.
What’s here now may look different in a few years. It makes this street less of a permanent fixture than most lists of things to do in Itaewon make it out to be.
Eat lunch around Bogwang-ro
Even more interesting than the antiques around here (well, at least to me) are all the food options within a stone’s throw. There’s a ton of restaurants clustered around Bogwang-ro, Bogwang-ro 60-gil, and Itaewon-ro, covering just about every global cuisine.
To stay with the Turkish theme from our morning coffee, Sultan Kebab (126 Bogwang-ro) has been serving halal kebabs since 2007. I’d stick with ordering their popular lamb kebab. The meat comes off the spit thick and well-seasoned. The falafel would make a great side if splitting a meal with your travel buddy.
For a more casual (and slightly unusual lunch option for a South Korea trip itinerary), I’d go for Itaewon Taco (124 Bogwang-ro). This straightforward Mexican spot is across the street from Sultan Kebab and serves surprisingly good birria tacos and golden quesadillas.
Kyochon Pilbang (127 Bogwang-ro) looks like the fanciest of the three from the outside. The entrance is a large black paintbrush mounted on the wall. Pull it down, and the door slides open in speakeasy style.
“Pilbang” means calligraphy brush studio, and the brush shows up again on the plate. Instead of tossing the chicken in the sauce, the kitchen brushes it on.
I’d skip the full omakase set meal unless I was heading to Kyochon Pilbang for dinner. The Pilbang Signature Platter gets the same four Kyochon flavors (soy sauce, spicy red, honey-glazed, and corn) for a fraction of the price.
It’s still plenty of food for a lunch stop on a time-crunched Itaewon itinerary.
Climb up to Haebangchon
From Itaewon Station, hop onto Line 6 of the Seoul metro to Noksapyeong, the start of the hillside side of Itaewon. If you found Old Itaewon flat and loud, this will be a welcome break.
Let’s walk up Noksapyeong-daero from the station to the intersection with Sinheung-ro. This street climbs straight up the hill into Haebangchon, or HBC for short. The reward shows up fast, with N Seoul Tower on the summit of Namsan rising right above the neighborhood, and the Han River and the rest of Seoul’s skyline opening up below to the south as you walk uphill.
Before you commit to the hike, I’d recommend stopping at the Magpie Brewery Taproom (244-1 Noksapyeong-daero). It’s just a block up from where Sinheung-ro splits off and starts up the hill into Haebangchon.
Magpie has been pouring beer in Seoul since 2011, when four friends started what became South Korea’s entire craft beer scene. The actual brewing now happens on Jeju Island, so this taproom/brewshop is more of an outpost than a working brewery.
I’d order the Pale Ale over anything seasonal. It’s the one that’s been on tap since the start. It comes out bright and citrusy with a clean finish. (A solid change of pace from heavier Korean flavors like kimchi or barbecue, if you ask me.)
From Magpie, the walk up Sinheung-ro starts back at that split. It’s about 15 minutes uphill to Haebangchon proper.
The neighborhood’s name means Liberation Village. Refugees settled the hillside here after the Korean War. It stayed one of Seoul’s poorer neighborhoods for decades before cafes and bars started moving in.
Today, Haebangchon still feels like a real residential neighborhood that bars and cafes have moved into, not one that’s built for them. (Like the areas around Itaweon Station.) That lived-in feel is worth the climb if Old Itaewon’s “charm” wears thin by this point in the day.
NOTE: I wouldn’t bother with the whole hike up to Haebangchon if my legs were already cooked for the day. The hill doesn’t ease up until near the top. It is, however, worth the slight pain, in my opinion, for the beautiful views over the district.
Walk Daesagwan-ro in Hannam-dong
After the climb through Haebangchon, Hannam-dong is a different kind of detour. This is the quiet, upscale side of Itaewon. (Think: embassy gates instead of dive bars.)
Getting to Hannam-dong from Noksapyeong means backtracking through Itaewon Station. Daesagwan-ro, our first stop in Hannam-dong, is a short 7-minute walk east along Itaewon-ro from the metro station.
Daesagwan-ro literally means Embassy Road in Korean. And the name isn’t an exaggeration.
Embassies for Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Switzerland, Laos, and Slovakia all sit within a few blocks of each other along this street and the side alleys off Itaewon-ro 54-gil. Diplomatic cars with blue plates are a regular sight here. I didn’t expect this many countries packed into a few residential blocks of Seoul.
The Hyundai Card building on Itaewon-ro is a useful landmark for finding your way through here. Inside is the Hyundai Card Music Library, which contains a massive collection of vinyl records that you can listen to with high-fidelity headphones.
NOTE: The Hyundai Card Music Library is only open to actual Hyundai Card holders. Unless you’re already a member (or can navigate a confusing process in Korean), it’s a tad difficult to plan a stop here to listen to some tunes.
(I would, however, still totally stop by to take a peek inside the building and enjoy the beautiful views over the city from the terrace.)
The Hannam-dong area is the quietest part of our whole day. Take time to wander the streets here and check out its European-style cafes, like Cafe Le Sens (35 Daesagwan-ro), for a taste of their black cream salt bread paired with a coffee or matcha.
I’d say it’s well worth a slow walk around here if old Itaewon and the climb up to Haebangchon wore me out, and I wanted to end the afternoon with something calmer.
(If time is tight, though, this is the easiest part of the itinerary to cut out.)
Admire traditional Korean art at the Leeum Museum of Art
Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art (60-16 Itaewon-ro 55-gil) is one of the most popular places to visit in Itaewon. It’s just a couple of blocks away from the embassy district on the opposite side of Itaewon-ro, about 10 minutes on foot.
Three different architects (Mario Botta, Jean Nouvel, and Rem Koolhaas) designed the three buildings of the Leeum Museum of Art. Each one looks nothing like the others from the outside.
The permanent collection of Korean traditional art in the M1 building is free to view. The contemporary exhibitions in M2 charge admission and require advance booking.
The Leeum Museum of Art is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:30 am to 6 pm, closed Mondays.
I’d only set aside time to fully explore the Leeum Museum of Art on a time-crunched walk through Itaewon if art were my jam. The architecture, however, is still, in my opinion, worth a look from the street, even if I decided to skip the special exhibitions.
End the day with dinner and drinks along Itaewon World Food Street
By the time Hannam-dong winds down, Itaewon World Food Street is just getting started. It sits behind Hamilton Hotel, back near where the day began at Itaewon Station, and it doesn’t really wake up until after dark.
The strip went up between 2011 and 2013, and the name promises more of a food crawl than what’s actually there. I expected a string of restaurants. What’s actually there reads more like a nightlife strip with food worked in. Bars and clubs carry just as much energy as anywhere serving dinner.
During the day, Itaewon World Food Street feels close to empty. After dark, it’s one of the loudest stretches in all of Itaewon. (And the one that carries much of the area’s seedier rep among first-time visitors.)
There are so many choices here that I feel a tad ridiculous even attempting to give a rec here. (Not to mention the restaurants and bars here seem to flip before the ink even dries.)
MapleTree House (26 Itaewon-ro 27ga-gil) is one of the better picks I’ve seen in the area for Korean BBQ. It’s stylish and serves high-end cuts you don’t find in most BBQ joints, like Jeju black pork and Hanwoo beef. (As a Canadian, their maple galbi really catches my eye, too.)
I never say no to authentic Mexican tacos and margaritas, and Casa Cuervo (Itaewon-ro 27ga-gil) would be my pick for it in Itaewon. It’s not just snazzy and colorful (the murals and Frida Kahlo artwork are a nice touch), but it’s also got a comfy rooftop terrace with views of Namsan and N Seoul Tower.
There’s no shortage of pubs, clubs, and dive bars here to start your Seoul nightlife hijinks. (This area is why Itaewon didn’t rub me right the first time I visited.)
Instead of the usual cheap foreigner and backpacker joints, I’d opt for something a little less grungy for some cocktails, like Soul Train (54-4 Itaewon-ro 27ga-gil). This vintage music lounge is stacked with vinyl records and spins a constant beat of old-school R&B, soul, and hip-hop.
(Even though rock and metal are more my jam, this place has got “chill” written all over it.)
More places to visit in Itaewon
Obviously, spending one day in Itaewon isn’t enough to see everything the area has to offer. If you’re staying longer or want a few tweaks for your plans, here are a few other places I think are worth checking out…
War Memorial of Korea
The War Memorial of Korea (29 Itaewon-ro) sits near Samgakji Station on Line 4 or 6 of the Seoul metro. Admission is free except for occasional special exhibitions. Six indoor exhibition halls cover Korean military history back to the Bronze Age, alongside a combat experience room and an outdoor area holding around 100 tanks, planes, and other vehicles.
The Statue of Brothers sits in the southwest corner of the outdoor area. It depicts two real brothers from the Korean War, a South Korean soldier and his younger brother fighting for the North, meeting on the battlefield and embracing.
(The emotion captured with this sculpture stuck with me more than even the interesting military artifacts I saw at the memorial.)
I reluctantly left the War Memorial of Korea out of our day in Itaewon because, in my experience, it isn’t a quick stop. I’d plan on 2 to 3 hours here. And the indoor Korean War exhibits get heavy in places, and can kinda put a damper on the day.
The War Memorial of Korea also sits on its own stretch of Itaewon-ro, away from everything else in this itinerary, so it doesn’t fold naturally into the rest of the day. I’d only add it on if I already had a full day free or a real interest in Korean military history. Skipping it is the right call if the day’s already tight.
The War Memorial of Korea is open from 9:30 am to 6 pm and is closed on Mondays.
National Museum of Korea
The National Museum of Korea (137 Seobinggo-ro) is the largest museum in the country, with more than 310,000 pieces in its collection and roughly 15,000 on display at any time. Admission to the permanent exhibits is free.
The Room of Quiet Contemplation is the one gallery I’d go out of my way for. It holds two gilt-bronze Pensive Bodhisattva statues, National Treasures Nos. 78 and 83, dating to the late 6th and early 7th centuries.
Yongsan Family Park surrounds the museum building itself, with a small lake, an artificial waterfall, and clear views of N Seoul Tower from parts of the grounds. (It’s an odd thing to find this far from Namsan.) The park sits on what used to be a golf course inside the old US Army Yongsan Garrison. The US returned the land in 1992, and the museum opened here in 2005.
The National Museum of Korea is open from 10 am to 6 pm most days, and until 9 pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Visiting this part of Yongsan should be a separate trip, not an add-on to this Itaewon itinerary. Ichon Station sits on a different line than the rest of this guide, and would require a line change at Samgagji Station.
The museum alone is worth half a day for first-time visitors interested in Korean history and art. I wouldn’t try to squeeze it all into the same day as the rest of Itaewon, though.
Getting there
I’ve mentioned five subway stations in this guide, but to get this day in Itaewon started with public transportation, you only need one: Itaewon Station.
Itaewon Station anchors most of the day, from the morning visit to Seoul Central Mosque to Itaewon World Food Street.
Noksapyeong Station, one stop west on Line 6, will get you near the climb into Haebangchon.
Hangangjin Station, one stop east of Itaewon on Line 6, will be the return route after the walk through Daesagwan-ro and Leeum in Hannam-dong is done.
Samgakji Station and Ichon Station only come into play if the War Memorial of Korea or the National Museum of Korea gets added on. Both of those work better as their own trip than something squeezed into the same afternoon.
