Farewell to the Emerald Isle, and hello to Namhan—specifically, beautiful Seoul, South Korea. Korean food has lots of rice, vegetables, and meat, and you’ll see plenty of each during your trip through the city’s restaurants. Side dishes, or banchan, are a key part of Korean meals, so there will be lots of those offered too. Let’s get started with your culinary tour of this modern city of lights and culinary delights!
Griddle cafe
Your first restaurant in Seoul specializes in small plates with a variety of delicious treats. Take a look at the dynamic offerings on your menu:
- Beef bulgogi
- Pork belly
- Beef bulgogi with rice
- Beef bulgogi with rice & kimchi
- Beef bulgogi with rice, kimchi, & lettuce leaves
- Beef bulgogi with kimchi & lettuce leaves
- Pork belly with rice
- Pork belly with rice & kimchi
- Pork belly with rice & lettuce leaves
- Pork belly with rice, kimchi, & lettuce leaves
- Pork belly with kimchi & lettuce leaves
- Odeng fish cakes
- Hotteok pancake
- Tornado potato
- Tteok-bokki
- Flavored milk
Beef bulgogi & pork belly
Bulgogi is thin, marinated slices of meat (usually beef or pork) cooked on a barbecue or stove-top griddle. This style of cooking has been popular in Korea for thousands of years, and no trip to Seoul would be complete without giving it a try. To start cooking your bulgogi:
- Tap on the bowl of marinating meat on the bottom-left corner of the counter.
- Once it finishes, tap it again to move servings of the bulgogi up to the platter located just above the bowl where your bulgogi marinated and cooked.
The other meat option for the restaurant’s entrée is slices of pork belly, or samgyeopsal. To prepare slices of this option:
- Tap on the cutting board in the bottom-center area of the left side of the counter. (Look for it right between the bowl of beef bulgogi and the rice cooker.)
- The pork belly will move its finished slices over to the platter automatically when it’s done. That platter can be found directly above the rice cooker.
Customer can order either beef bulgogi or pork belly. They will only order one type of meat per plate. They may order them without sides, or they may select one or more of the three available sides.
Rice is a staple of Korean cuisine, and it’s one of the possible sides for your bulgogi. You’ll have to cook it before it can be served. To get that started:
- Tap on the rice cooker located underneath the counter around the middle of the restaurant.
- When the rice finishes cooking, tap on the rice cooker to move servings of the side to the waiting platter above and to the left of the rice cooker.
The other two possible sides are kimchi and lettuce leaves.
- Kimchi—a side dish made from fermented vegetables mixed with a variety of seasonings—has a long history in Korea, and it goes great with rice and both of our meat options. The dish of kimchi can be found just above the platter of beef bulgogi. Tap on it to add a serving to the entrée plate.
- The container of lettuce leaves is located directly above the kimchi dish, and, similarly, you can add a serving of lettuce to the entrée plate by tapping on the container of lettuce.
Once all the ordered items are placed on the entrée plate, give it a tap to serve the plate to the waiting customer.
Street food
Customers may order one of three different types of fried street food. The three possible treats you’ll be serving up are odeng (fish cakes), hotteok pancakes, and tornado potatoes. You can find the three options arrayed around the deep fryer located on the left sedge of the right-side counter.
Below the deep fryer is the prep area for tornado potatoes. This crispy treat was originally developed in South Korea and has been a popular street food there ever since. They can come with toppings like onion, cheese, or honey, but the ones you’ll be serving up will be served up plain. To cook up the tornado potatoes:
- Tap on the bowl with the skewers next to it. One tap will start the potatoes frying.
- Tap on the fryer once the potatoes are done to move them up to the serving platter above the deep fryer. One frying session will fill up the platter with as many servings as is needed to bring the platter up to the maximum number it can hold.
To the left of the prep area for tornado potatoes is a dish holding the ready-to-fry skewers of odeng. These fish cakes are made from white fish and additional ingredients, like potato starch and vegetables. To get them ready for customers:
- Tap on the dish of odeng skewers to move them to the fryer.
- When they fryer is done, tap on it to move the finished odeng up to a platter on the top-left corner of the right-side counter.
Your customers’ third choice for tasty street food is hotteok. These pancakes are made from a dough composed of wheat flour, milk, water, sugar, and yeast for leavening. They’re then traditionally filled with a sweet mixture that can have sugar, honey, and other ingredients in it. To start cooking hotteok:
- Tap on the bowl of dough located directly above the odeng prep area.
- Tapping on the fryer after the hotteok is done will move the finished treat up to a platter located between the tornado potatoes and odeng platters.
Street food is served as individual servings. Though customers can ask for more than one type of street food, each type is served separately. Serving one of the street foods can be done by tapping on the platter of the desired item.
If you end up cooking a lot of street food, the deep fryer may need its oil changed. Changing the oil can also be necessary if food burns in the deep fryer and must be thrown out. The meter above the fryer will let you know when that needs to be done. Tapping on the deep fryer at that time will start the oil change, and you can start cooking new food as soon as it finishes.
Tteok-bokki
Another dish you’ll be offering is tteok-bokki—stir-fried rice cakes with things like boiled eggs, spicy chili paste, and scallions added in. To start cooking the tteok-bokki: Tap on the pan at the lower-right corner of the right-side counter. When the cooking timer runs out, the tteok-bokki will serve itself into dishes just above the pan where it was cooked. The number of servings plated will be equal to the number needed to put you at the maximum amount able to be held.
Flavored milk
No meal is complete without something to drink, and you’ll be serving customers flavored milk in this restaurant. Flavored milk is available in a wide variety of flavors in Korea; options such as banana, melon, coconut, and watermelon can be found in a lot of Korean stores.
You won’t have to make any choices in this restaurant, since you’re only offering one kind of flavored milk. The glasses are on the left side of the left counter, and serving it is done by tapping once on one of the glasses of milk. Like most beverages in the game, the glasses start filling themselves automatically when the level starts, and they’ll refill themselves as well when a glass is served.
Tips & tricks
Since there is only one entrée plate, there will be a lot of juggling on the left side of the counter. Sometimes you’ll get a string of customers in a row who all want either beef bulgogi or pork belly; they may even order one plate of each. In those rushes, focus on finishing the order for the customer with the lowest happiness level.
In those situations, it can also help to focus on one type of meat at a time. Filling orders for beef bulgogi first will let you start a new batch cooking while you fill the orders for pork belly. By the time you’re done with the pork belly, the beef bulgogi may be close to done. Refilling the rice during this time is also a great trick for maximizing your efficiency.
Seafood restaurant
Welcome to your next assignment: a seafood restaurant! Go over the menu to see what customers may order:
- Crab
- Crab with mushrooms
- Crab with peppers
- Crab with bean sprouts
- Crab with mushrooms & peppers
- Crab with mushrooms & bean sprouts
- Crab with peppers & bean sprouts
- Crab with mushrooms, peppers, & bean sprouts
- Octopus
- Octopus with mushrooms
- Octopus with peppers
- Octopus with bean sprouts
- Octopus with mushrooms & peppers
- Octopus with mushrooms & bean sprouts
- Octopus with peppers & bean sprouts
- Octopus with mushrooms, peppers, & bean sprouts
- Sea snails
- Sea snails with mushrooms
- Sea snails with peppers
- Sea snails with bean sprouts
- Sea snails with mushrooms & peppers
- Sea snails with mushrooms & bean sprouts
- Sea snails with peppers & bean sprouts
- Sea snails with mushrooms, peppers, & bean sprouts
- Grilled shellfish & garlic sauce
- Ice cream with bungeoppang waffle
- Ice cream with bungeoppang waffle & jam topping
- Aloe vera lemonade
Haemultang
One of the main dishes you’ll be serving here is haemultang, which is a spicy seafood stew packed with things like crab, octopus, lobster, squid, scallops, and shrimp. Your version features crab, octopus, and sea snails. Vegetables are also a major component of hemultang, so you’ll be serving up mushrooms, peppers, and bean sprouts alongside the spicy seafood.
Cooking haemultang is done in a different way than most other dishes. On the lower area of the left side of the counter there’s a big pot with a minus (-) and plus (+) sign below it. To start cooking your haemultang:
- Tap on the + sign. This will start heating up the pot.
- When the ingredients are done, the 3 types of seafood will move automatically up to the three holding platters on the left side of the counter. You can then turn off the pot by tapping on the – sign.
- Customers will order one type of seafood, and you can serve that seafood to them by tapping on the platter with the requested type.
From top to bottom, the column of platters holds crab, octopus, and sea snails. One tap will move a serving of the seafood to the center plate that’s just above the haemultang pot. If the customer didn’t order any vegetables to go with their haemultang, you can tap on the plate to serve the seafood to the waiting customer.
The three vegetable options are arrayed in dishes to the right of the central plate. Starting at the top of the column of dishes, the vegetables are mushrooms, peppers, and bean sprouts. Customers can order any combination of the vegetables (or none at all), and you can add the vegetables to the plate in any order—just make sure that the seafood is on the plate first. Tapping once on the chosen vegetable will add a serving of it to the plate. You can then serve the central completed plate by tapping on it.
Grilled shellfish
The second seafood option is grilled shellfish topped with garlic sauce. Cooking shellfish has a couple of steps. To get started:
- Tap on the bowl of iced shellfish located on a shelf in the lower-left of the center area of the counter.
- Each tap of the bowl will move an uncooked shellfish to one of the burners in the center of the counter.
- After the first cooking cycle finishes a plus (+) sign will appear next to the burner. Tap the burner to automatically add garlic sauce to the shellfish for a second round of cooking.
- When that second timer finishes, tap the burner to move the grilled shellfish to a plate just to the right of the burners.
- You can then serve the grilled shellfish to a customer by tapping on the plate.
Ice cream with bungeoppang
For customers with a sweet tooth, you’ll have smooth ice cream complemented with a delicious bungeoppang. Bungeoppang is a fish-shaped pastry usually filled with sweetened red bean paste, and it’s a popular winter street food in Korea. These pastries are often made in waffle-maker devices that have fish-shaped molds in them.
To start assembling your dessert:
- Tap on the container of ice cream located on a shelf underneath the right side of the counter.
- Each tap on the container of ice cream will move a serving up to the bowls located directly above the ice cream container. Adding ice cream to the dishes are required before any other toppings can be added.
- Customers will always order their ice cream with bungeoppang. The waffle maker is located to the left of the ice cream container. Tap on it once to start cooking a batch of bungeoppang.
- Once it’s done, tap on the waffle maker to move up as many bungeoppang as are needed to fill all the dishes with ice cream already in them.
- You can then serve the ice cream with bungeoppang to a customer by tapping on the bowl.
Some customers may want jam topping added to their ice cream with bungeoppang. Jam can only be added to a bowl that already has both ice cream and bungeoppang in it. The red jam is located in a bowl to the right of the ice cream container. Tap once on the bowl of jam to add a dollop of it to the bottom-most bowl of ice cream that does not yet have jam on it. You can then serve the jam-topped bowl by tapping on it.
Aloe vera lemonade
Lemonade is a refreshing drink for a hot summer day, and putting in a dash of aloe vera brings lots of additional nutrients into play. On the right side of the counter, you’ll find the glasses of lemonade, and you can serve one to a customer by tapping on it. As is true with most beverages, the glasses will automatically start to refill after being served.
Tips & tricks
The trick with this restaurant is managing the haemultang pot. You only have one serving plate, which means you’ll run into situations sometimes where every customer wants a version of haemultang. In those moments, fill customers’ orders based on whoever has the lowest happiness level.
If you start to run low on any type of seafood, tap on the + sign under the pot to start warming it up. You can then continue to plate and serve haemultang to the customers. When the pot warms up, it will automatically add new servings of seafood to the three platters. Juggling the heat for the pot effectively can really help make sure you have plenty of seafood available during a rush of haemultang orders.
Hot pot grill
Moving on to the final restaurant you’ll be working in during your stay in Seoul, you’ll be making several delicious Korean treats. Go over the menu to get you familiar with what your customers may ask for:
- Sinseollo
- Grilled eel
- Grilled eel with corn
- Grilled eel with soy sauce
- Grilled eel with ginger
- Grilled eel with corn & soy sauce
- Grilled eel with corn & ginger
- Grilled eel with soy sauce & ginger
- Grilled eel with corn, soy sauce, & ginger
- Jellyfish salad
- Jellyfish salad with carrot
- Jellyfish salad with lemon
- Omija tea
Sinseollo
Part of cuisine common in the Korean royal court, sinseollo is an elaborate dish usually made with meatballs, jeonyueo (seasoned, fried foods), mushrooms, and other vegetables that are simmered in a rich broth. This soup is served in a special pot that has a hole in the center where hot embers are placed to keep it hot.
Although no garnishes or sides are available to add to the bowls of soup once they’re served, the sinseollo itself requires assembly of ingredients before it can cook. The ingredients must be added in a specific order. To start making your sinseollo:
- Tap on the platter of sliced meet located on the upper shelf at the bottom of the left side of the counter.
- After that, tap on the strips of vegetables found above and to the right of the sliced meats.
- Next, tap on the meatballs found to the left of the vegetables strips.
- Finally, tap on the pot of broth found on the lower shelf below the sliced meat. This completes the sinseollo assembly and starts the cooking timer!
- Once it finishes cooking, tap on the pot at the upper-right corner of the left-side counter to plate one bowl of soup per tap.
- The sinseollo pot can hold multiple servings, and you can tap it again to plate up additional bowls. When there are no additional servings that can be dished out, the sinseollo pot will appear empty.
- Tapping on one of the bowls of sinseollo will serve it to the waiting customer.
Grilled eel
In the center counter you’ll find the cooking and plating area for the grilled eel and its complements. To start cooking the eel itself:
- Tap on the platter of eel located on the lower-right corner of the center counter.
- Each tap will move one serving of eel up to a grill pan directly above the platter.
- Tapping the grill pan after the cooking timer ends will move the grilled eel over to the bottom-most empty plate on the left side of the center counter.
There are 3 different additional food items that can be served with the eel. One of them requires cooking before it can be served. Corn. It's located in a bowl on the lower shelf of the center counter. To cook it:
- Tap on it.
- Each tap will move a serving of corn up to one of the pans in the center of the counter.
- Tapping on the pan once the cooking is done will serve the cooked corn onto the bottom-most plate of grilled eel that does not yet have corn on it.
The other two sides can be added without cooking simply by tapping on them.
- The ginger is located in a dish on the left side of the center counter’s lower shelf.
- The soy sauce is located in bottles just to the right of the dish of uncooked corn.
As with most sides, they can be added in any order if there is already eel on the plate. After tapping on the sides the customer has ordered, tap on the plate with those sides to serve it to the waiting customer.
Jellyfish salad
On a warm summer day, a cold jellyfish salad—called haepari-naengchae—can be an enjoyable side dish for a meal. Thin slices of crunchy jellyfish paired with colorful vegetables and bright seasonings and served on a cold plate are refreshing to the palate. To start plating up the jellyfish salad:
- Tap on the cutting board located at the bottom-right corner of the right counter. This will start slicing up the jellyfish.
- When the timer finishes, the sliced jellyfish will plate itself in neat piles on the plates on the left side of the right counter.
- The jellyfish can be served up without additional complements by tapping on one of these plates.
The customer has two different complements they can order with their jellyfish salad.
- Ribbons of carrot can be added by tapping on the bowl of carrots located just below the plated jellyfish. Each tap on the carrot bowl will add one serving of that complement to the bottom-most plate that does not yet carrots.
- Lemon can be added in the same way; each tap on the bowl of lemons found to the right of the carrots will add lemon to the bottom-most plate of jellyfish salad that does not yet have lemon on it.
Omija tea
Omija-cha—or omija tea—is a traditional tea made from dried magnolia berries that can be served either hot or cold. In your restaurant, the omija tea can be found at the top-right corner of the right counter. Like most beverages you’ve encountered, the cups of tea will start filling themselves as soon as the level’s challenge begins, and they will refill themselves after serving a cup to a customer. Tapping on a cup of tea will serve it to the waiting customer.
Tips & tricks
In this restaurant, the eel can be the tricky part. Customers can order it with or without corn, which means cooking corn in advance may lead to having it burn in the pan. Once you have more than one eel serving plate available, it may help to keep a serving of cooked corn in one of those plates. That way you will have one eel & corn plate ready to go at all times. This can help reduce the wait time for the customer since you aren’t having to cook corn to order every time.
Multiple bowls of sinseollo can be served from the sinseollo pot, so do what you can to tap the pot whenever you have a free moment. That will help with keeping your bowls full. If you run out of servings in the sinseollo pot, take a moment to tap the 4 ingredients to make a new batch so it can be cooking. This can be done even if you still have bowls of sinseollo waiting on the side of the counter. The sinseollo does not have to be plated right away, so there’s no risk involved in making a second batch to keep in reserve!