Top Samgyetang restaurants in Jung-gu, Korea, Republic of

Tried the original soup but felt that the taste was quite light. Went at 2+ so it was quiet. There is a serving of gizzards which i tried for the first time. If yr looking for a stronger n richer taste then this will not suit.

generous portions at a no-frills restaurant. super speedy service.
melt-in-your mouth kind of chicken. i got the samgyetang with abalone and was disappointed it came with just one abalone but there was so much chicken so i honestly can't complain too much. also the kimchi was so delicious and fresh.
can get somewhat busy during lunchtime but there's plenty of seating.

This place is almost full when we came here just before dinner time. And there was a queue during dinner time.

The ginseng chicken is really delicious, and everyone should try it. The little cup of ginseng soju has a very strong ginseng taste. If you want to add more taste to the chicken soup, you can pour it into the chicken soup to dilute the alcohol taste. It makes the soup more tasty too. Abalone porridge will get cold fast, so make sure to eat it first.

They will give you cup of water, pickled radish and kimchi and a cup of ginseng soju when you sit down.

Each seated person must order one dish each. So make sure everyone in your party is ok to eat the food in the menu. They have a menu outside on the wall. Take a look before going in.
Actually the ginseng chicken serving size is just nice for one person. I thought I couldn't finish it but when it came, it was ok.

The counter guy knows English so if you know English, communication is ok.

Chicken was super soft and tender, soup was really really good. This place has been awarded Michelin star since 2017 till now. Very near to subway city hall station just exit 10 and walk 3 minutes to outlet

Soup taste 6/10, no wow wow taste.
Simple and Normal chicken soup.

Tasted once, don't think will go back for it.
No craving of the soup.

Stumbled upon this humbled and cozy upstairs restaurant while walking around Myeongdong street, and everything amazed me!

Firstly, the chicken ginseng soup is the only dish on the menu. Even tho the business runs by only ahjushi alone, but he’s very efficient and attentive. Vast variety of side dishes including the ginseng wine was served after we were seated for less than 5 minutes! And followed by 2 pots of fresh burning hot Chicken ginseng soup served in front of us.Ahjushi then briefly explained to us politely on where the cutleries are and how to start the dish. Even though it was in Korean but we roughly understand what did he mean.

The food portion is big, we couldn’t finished the side dishes at all. And it only cost us about 18 sgd each. I find it very worth it and definitely would return if I ever visit myeongdong again :)

Great Ginseng Chicken Soup. You get a whole stuff chicken inside every bowl. The Chicken is stuffed with rice and ginseng . Delicious. They also supply you with the standard Korean side dishes and ginseng wine which they produce themselves.

First time in Korea and we wanted to try Samgyetang. We came here at around 1600, it wasn’t packed. There is an English menu, you pick one of the Samgyetang soups which you can have wild ginseng instead of regular, there is also and option to add abalone too. We got the regular and one with abalone, they give you two kimchi side dishes, raw garlic and gochuj sauce. The Samgyetang comes out boiling! The whole chicken they give you is stuff with rice which is cool!

We had an issue with our abalone order. There wasn’t any abalone! We asked the waitress and she checked, talked with the cook, heard her say “aigoo”, a few minutes later she brought the abalone! Amazing food, definitely understand why they got Michelin recommendation.

It’s on the 2nd floor. A cozy place with boiling and nice Ginseng chicken soup with a bottle of Ginseng wine. There is a small plate of noodles to add to the soup. 18,000 won per person.

We chose this restaurant due Ginseng Chicken soup (Samgyetang) being a food that one must try, next location and reviews and could not have been happier. The "one man show", owner, chef, server, cashier etc. was awesome and frankly inspirational. Not chatty but super efficient and despite apparently speaking no English his communication on what we were supposed to do was flawless as if he had done it before. The meal was awesome tons of side dishes and the ginseng chicken soup was amazing in my opinion. Perhaps we did it wrong but for us there was no menu just sat down, and he took care of the rest; water, side dishes, ginseng wine, and big bowl of soup. I loved this place and the experience of witnessing this man's efficiency and work ethic certainly made it better.

Very good place to eat ginseng chicken soup. The original chicken is much more tender than the blackened chicken. Original chicken’s bones are so soft that you can eat and the meat melts in your mouth. The blackened chicken is chewier and the bones are not as soft. Definitely worth a visit.

Glad i found this old vibes restaurant coincidentally.. when i walked into i knew it would be my best lunch for ginseng chicken soup and i was right. Damn it was sooo yummy suit to my taste.. the chicken so juicy and tender and i was looking for the rice and they put it inside the chicken😋😋 everything blend well.. i’ll be back to this restaurant when i come back to Korea again

Good on English & Chinese friendly menu.
The reason I’m giving 3 stars on the food is because i was expected more stronger flavor.

The people here are super nice. The food is to die for. They gave me a free shot of ginseng liquor. The chicken soup os the highlight here. Try the mountain ginseng version if you like the bitter taste of ginseng. The standard chicken soup is very popular.

The best authentic ginseng chicken by far! They provide a bottle of ginseng wine for free! You must order the black chicken soup, which is believed to be better than normal chicken. Each chicken is stuffed with glutinous rice and a ginseng. Dip the chicken in their self made pepper salt. OMG it’s very delicious. Overall a very hearty meal, worth it!!

I ordered the samsen samgyetang, which is chicken broth with wild Korean ginseng. The dish came with a shot of genseng wine, peeled garlic, cabbage and radish kimchi, The broth was rich in ginseng aroma, and tasted delicious. The chicken meat was tender and juicy. The rice inside the chicken had nice texture and soaked with tasty chicken broth.

You know the food is extraordinary when a restaurant serves only one dish.
Not to mention, the chef, owner, server, cashier is one kind gentleman with homely hospitality.
Definitely a must-visit when you’re around the area. Cheers…

Superb quality for the price! Our group went there since there weren't much restaurants open at 8am. We were satisfied with the food quality and we were glad the waitress spoke Chinese too.
Would highly recommend the option with ginseng since the one with just chicken broth was slightly bland for our taste.

Amazingly good. There's a lot of 삼계탕 places around Seoul but this one is awesome. It only serves one dish, which is the renowned 'samgyetang' (chicken ginseng soup). When I went, there was one master at work who did everything, I assume it's the same for each visit. He told us he makes his own ginseng liquour, which is served to each person to drink. It's strong but you can definitely taste the ginseng. If you can finish it, you ought to because you can't take it home.

The dish has everything you want. You don't need to order anything more. It's got sticky rice cooked inside the chicken, and then later you're given a small plate of noodles to eat once you're halfway through. You've got lots of side dishes to eat with it to give your soup some extra oomph as well.

At the end, you're given some oolong tea to cleanse your palate.

It's an experience, you really don't need to move an inch, the owner is excellent and he knows his way around the restaurant, let him do his thing, trust me. He will tell you the same.

I had the ginseng chicken soup, it was so good especially the rice inside the tummy of the chicken

Wife had a abalone porridge that was very yummy as well

Highly recommend to eat here

Prices were also very reasonable, two thumbs up!

When i was here only 1 man was running the whole store but he was very attentive. Side dishes such as kimchi were refilled efficiently. Chicken was generous with a bottle of ginseng wine to add flavouring or you could choose to drink it as it is. Peaceful environment

Every patron has to order their own portion. Soup is good, chicken is tender but the rice within the chicken is too soggy and sticky to be nice.

Super underated!

This humble homely restaurant is run by a one-man show (mad respect to the kind chef) and serves bubbling hot deconstructed chicken soup with a bottle of ginseng liquor.

I poured half of mine into the soup and it tasted heavenly, drinking half of it on the side. Side dishes are also great. Super worth it for just 18000₩ if you ask me!

29 May 2023 - Ordered both white chicken (with Ginseng is 25000 Won while without Ginseng is 19000 Won), the taste was fine but I will think that we can try other places for ginseng chicken soup. The staff was quite pushy for us to place our orders and kept recommending the black chicken with ginseng which is the most expensive dish (approximately 30000 Won if I did not remember wrongly). As it was a Monday late morning, the place was pretty quiet, only around 5 tables filled. 🙂

Visited on 29th May 2023

Visited this place and there only 3 other tables having their meal. Decided to look at the menu before deciding what to eat. However, the attending staff keep standing beside the table and repeatedly recommending the most expensive Samgyetang. Feel irritated and thanks to our insistence to stick to our preference. 😂

Overall, the taste of the Samyetang is great. But the pricing is getting higher and higher after each year. 😣

Was overwhelmed as the menu is quite small and each one had to have a main dish. Seems that we got to order to ginseng chicken soup, the popular shop's highlight Samgyetang.

We managed to finish the baby ginseng chicken. One of us chose number 6 the normal Samgyetang, the other number 7, perilla Samgyetang. The basic one, soup is sweet and clear, a mini finger size ginseng was found inside each of our pot. The gluttonous rice was also well simmered and stuff into the chicken. The chicken flesh is tender, gentle peal and the meal is off. Dip it with the pepper salt. Good for a good day. The Perilla Samgyetang had stronger taste and slightly foamy and milkish like, no milk taste, just similar colour and texture.

The banchan we had free chicken blizzard. It was not that well seasoned but as I love chicken glizzard, I don't mind. Got one refill too, coz too shy to get a third. The other 2 banchan was served in 2 huge black pots, about palm size. U refill it when u need. Do not eat directly from the black pot. The banchan quality was not that good, the green veg was other. Other kimchi like veg was ok. The table opposite us had at least 2-3 pot refill.

Finally after paying, I saw some ginseng wine and some roasted salt displayed and to be sold.
As the English salt ginseng wine, chinese character writes ginseng soup. Unsure of what it was, we did not ask and exit the shop.

Ginseng soup is slightly more costly that nor al meal, likely because u got good soup, tender whole chicken, ginseng and banchan.

Hot flavoured water is served free too.

Cashier ,ade a mistake of passing us another 5 person's bill. Luckily we alr roughly tallied our bill and could point out the mistake which cashier apologised. Genuine mistake I guess, but just take note.

If i had a Korean grandma and she cooked for me ginseng chicken soup, I hope it would taste as good as this

Every taste brings back memories of childhood that I never had of me growing up in korea.

The taste of the soup is deep yet light, complex and hearty. It tastes of a century of love was poured into perfecting this recipe.

I also ordered chicken jewels. Very very yummy and crunchy.

The chicken claw cake is exceptional

I would definitely recommend this place for an authentic taste of Korea. Real soul food

Regular customer here every time I go visit to Korea. Always had the regular white chicken, which had already filled my satisfaction. However, this trip I was recommended their signature black chicken, a very rare sight in the states. We were approached by the very friendly lady manager(?) who had given us a detailed and clear explanation of the dish, so we decided to try it out. Was very surprised with the dish, as it had really energized me and gave me a healthy feeling overall, with its already delicious taste. Definitely a must visit place with its historical name and popular tourist location.

Lovely warm unassuming place with value on it's plate. Generous portion and very tasty. Tried first time abalone=delicious.
Good to see that the tradition is maintained despite being in a "touristy" area.
My Korean food journey just started 😉

This is a old samgyetang place with limited seating. There two variants and we tried both the classic and one that seemed to taste like it had red bean. The service was ok, seemed a little rude. The chicken was moist and tender, the abalone was firm and chewy but the soup can be a bit bland. The fried ginseng was unique but it had a slightly astringent and bitter taste. Overall, not bad.

Went for an early dinner here and as with past reviews, the person that greeted us was a man, who seemed to be the owner and later, as was found out, the chef as well.

The restaurant is located on the second floor of the street and going up the stairs, it was fairly quiet.
Walked in and the owner motioned to us to have a seat. It was early hence there wasn’t many people in the restaurant.

The place was clean and there were jars of ginseng and we ordered 2 ginseng soup.
The owner didn’t speak much English but he seemed welcoming.
Side dishes were served and the kimchi and the onions with sauce were especially nice.
Next a bottle of ginseng wine with a little glass was served.
Waited for the soup to be served and that’s when the tasting started.

The soup was nice and cloudy. Don’t expect an overpowering “ginseng taste” that some expect.
It has a delicacy of taste and the chicken meat is extremely tender without the chicken odour.
The meat was very tender and the soup was not salty which was a great thing. There is salt and pepper to match one’s expectation of saltiness expected.

The taste of ginseng can be enhanced if one drinks the ginseng wine while eating having the chicken soup. It was a wonderful combination where one can “adjust” the degree of ginseng taste as well. 

At the end of the meal, the owner served some tea and overall, the meal was excellent and will be back again whilst I am on my trip here.

Convenient location in Myeongdong! They offer a free ginseng shot once you’re seated. The chicken was great but was not able to finish it alone. Generous portions.

Their kimchi tastes homey.

Worth considering upgrading to premium black chicken ginseng soup.