Mugook
Restaurants · Bukchon & Palaces
Try a North Korean-style chicken set, with tender chicken on a plate, separate broth and rice, chives and small side dishes.
What vloggers filmed
Good to know
Why visit
- Mugook is worth considering for samgye baekban, a chicken-and-rice set with the meat and thick broth served separately. The Jongno branch's hanok, a traditional Korean house, adds atmosphere to a meal centred on gentle chicken flavours, dipping sauces and optional spicy sides.boninote
Start with the chicken set
- In a July 2026 account, writer_yeon described half a tender chicken with blanched chives alongside rich chicken-and-garlic broth and ginseng root. They found the soup unusually thick and the meat moist, preferring the samphire salt, made with a coastal plant, among the three dips. This is a useful starting choice if concentrated broth appeals more than a fiery main dish.boninote
Add a contrast to the broth
- Their squid-and-chicken salad supplied a spicy, cleaner-tasting contrast to the rich set. The writer liked it alongside the chicken but wanted more squid. If sharing, this offers a different flavour direction without ordering another large main; ask about the current portion before deciding how much to add.boninote
- Cheongguk chicken stew, made with fermented soybean paste, is another direction. The same group found its sauce sweet and strong enough to obscure the soybean flavour, and thought the chicken portion modest for ₩40,000. That is one group's reaction, but useful if you are choosing specifically for the taste of fermented beans.boninote
Leave flexibility around sightseeing
- The writer noticed large cauldrons inside the calmly decorated hanok. Their Jongno visit also involved a substantial wait: arriving at 11am, they joined behind 25 parties and entered around 12:30pm. The setting may reward a leisurely meal, but this account argues against fitting it tightly between timed palace activities.boninote
