Korean restaurants in London
23 places
Assa
££The budae jjigae - army stew - is the order, and it is among the best in London in a room that spends nothing on looking the part.
Cake & Bingsoo
£Bingsoo - shaved milk ice piled with fruit, ice cream and syrup - built for hot weather and shared between a table.
Calong
£££Chef-owner Joo Won runs a blackboard menu that puts subtle Korean seasoning through European cooking - a bistro rather than a small-plates repeat.
CheeMc
££Honey butter powder on double-fried chicken - the most-cited Korean fried chicken in central London.
Chick and Beers
££Family-owned, double-fried, and widely held to be the best Korean fried chicken in London - in the middle of New Malden's Koreatown rather than in town.
Chung'dam
££££Named for Seoul's Cheongdam-dong and priced accordingly - the three-tiered pyeonbaek steam box of prawns, mussels and brisket is the thing to order.
Imone
££A small family-run room on New Malden high street, strong on seafood and with halal chicken options that most Korean kitchens do not offer.
Jin Go Gae
£££Real charcoal rather than gas, which is why it is the purist's choice in a town full of Korean grills.
K-Town BBQ
££London's first all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue - industrial room, fixed price, and built for a table that intends to stay a while.
Buffet format at a fixed price. Service charge is added on top.
Korean Grill Kensington
£££Tabletop grills at every table on the corner of Courtfield Road - it sits under the Millennium Gloucester but has its own entrance and none of the hotel-restaurant feel.
Mexican Seoul
££Ashley Chipchase went from a Brick Lane street stall to a canalside room near Victoria Park in 2023, and the Korean-Mexican pairing turned out to be more than a gimmick.
Miga
£££A family-run kitchen that moved from New Malden to Hackney in 2024 and was named Time Out's best restaurant in London - the yughwe beef tartare with crisp Asian pear is the dish everyone writes about.
Mukbap
££Entirely vegan Korean cooking - a category that barely exists in London - served with the warmth of a family kitchen.
Naru
££A Shaftesbury Avenue standby whose dak twigim - crisp fried chicken bites with a choice of sauces - is the order.
Olle
£££Table grills in the middle of Soho, so the New Malden format without the forty-minute train.
Pochawa Grill
£££A neon-pink Korean pub format dropped into Chinatown - you grill at the table and the room is built for a night rather than a meal.
Sagye
£££Korean cooking on the Isle of Dogs rather than in the Wharf itself - kimchi jjigae portioned out between bowls for a big table, a mile south of the office towers and all the better for it.
Seoul Bird
££Judy Joo and Andrew Atkins soy-brine the chicken for a day before double-frying it - a counter format rather than a sit-down room.
Seoul Matjib
££Tteokbokki with exactly the right chew, served without ceremony - the New Malden room people go to when they want feeding rather than impressing.
Sollip
££££A Korean husband-and-wife team cooking European technique through Korean ingredients - the daikon tarte tatin with kimchi is the signature. One Michelin star.
Sorabol
£££Twenty years on New Malden high street, where the owner will still tell you the right ratio of lettuce, garlic, leek and kimchi to build a wrap.
Tongdak
££A New Malden chicken specialist that trades almost entirely on the Korean community's own recommendation rather than on guides.
Vegan Yes
££Chef Mauro's Florentine cooking and Dr Min's Korean heritage on one vegan menu since 2016 - toppognocchi puts rice cakes and gnocchi in gochujang passata.