Amazing Dining with Panoramic View of the City at N Seoul Tower in South Korea

Want to have a great dining with an aerial view of Seoul? There’s not a place in Seoul that can offer that like the N Seoul Tower!

N Seoul Tower is one of the most popular attractions in Seoul, South Korea. It’s been a landmark built in 1971 on top of the Namsan Mountain since opening to the public in 1980.

It’s the highest point (236.7 meters high) in Seoul! Even if heights aren’t your thing, I’d still suggest visiting this place on any first-time visit to Seoul. It’s like going to Eiffel Tower when you’re in Paris for the first time. You could say it’s a rite of passage into the city.

Also, It is known as Korea’s first general radio wave tower, the “N” in N Seoul Tower stands for “new”, “Namsan”, and “nature”.

The tower features a gift shop and restaurants on the ground floor. Visitors may go up the tower for a fee. There are four observation decks, as well as gift shops and two restaurants. Bonus: the observatory deck is a revolving restaurant, it rotates at a rate of one revolution every 48 minutes.

You will find the Namsan Park and the Namsangoi Hanok Village neaby. Be sure to take a stroll and check it out.

I have to say that I was very fortunate to receive a complimentary admission to the tower and a complimentary meal at HanCook, a Korean restaurant three floors below the revolving restaurant.

Getting there

Access by taxi or car is prohibited so you’ll have to walk, take a bus, or cable car, but I was coming from my day tour in Nami Island, so I was dropped off at the bus stop at the parking lot of N Seoul Tower by the guide.

It was raining cats and dogs when I was dropped off. Pedestrians were packed up under the gas station near the bus stop for shelter from the rain. I had to run up to the Seoul Tower Plaza through the rain with my Canon 5D Mark III DSLR Camera. I had almost nothing to cover it with except my hat, and luckily my camera survived when I arrived, but the rain and sky cleared out the second I arrived. I could have waited a bit earlier, oh well. At least I had arrived, I told myself.

Besides, that’s just for me, but you can take a yellow bus at Chungmuro station (Line 3 or 4) or at Dongguk University station (Line 3), either one of them will take you to the parking lot of N Seoul Tower. If you take bus No. 2, it will drop you off at the bus stop right below N Seoul Tower, and then you can walk up to Seoul Tower Plaza. After completing your tour, take the same bus at the bus stop where you got off. There is a bus every 6 minutes from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m.

Operating hours: 8am-12am daily
Bus interval: 5-6 minutes
Fare: 550 WON (~$0.50 US Dollars) — Free for Korean with disability and an accompanied person.

Otherwise, you can take a cable car. The cable car platform is a ten-minute walk from Myeongdong Station. I suppose that the way up by cable car would offer a great view of Seoul and a pleasant ride. Hm?

Operating hours: 10am-10:30pm daily
Fare:
– Round-trip: 6,300 WON (~$5 US Dollars)
– One-way: 4,800 WON (~$4 US Dollars)

Basement 1F (Lobby)

First thing I did was go to the Information desk to get my admission tickets which came with complimentary meal. The process was smooth and they confirmed my name in the system and handed me the tickets, but I had to wait for my friend, Hoon, who hosted me in Seoul. He is also Deaf.

So, I took a short walk around the lobby on the ground floor of the tower where I saw a glass wall with all of famous towers from all over the world and their size compared in a minimized ratio with information and data about the tower. It was quite cool seeing that.

Nearby you will see Alive Museum which was a smaller version of the 3D museum I went to in Philippines. There is a cafeteria, sweet bar, and gift shop on the floor as well.

Plaza  2F (Roof Terrace)

The wait for Hoon was actually longer than expected, so I decided to go up the Roof Terrace where I realized that it is the most romantic area of the whole Namsan Park! You’ll find plenty of greens and pretty flowers along the way.

Apart from offering a beautiful view of Seoul’s skyline, it is also known largely for its “Locks of Love.” Yeah, another one besides the one in Paris, France and Penang, Malaysia, except these locks are a lot more colorful (in my opinion)!

Definitely a great spot to take pictures and all that. I’d definitely recommend couples to come here for a romantic picture in Seoul! This could also be a great way for you to understand the loving culture of Koreans.

Don’t forget to visit the Love Padlock garden and take a photo in the Love Chair! =P

Tower 1F (HanCook) – Dining Meal 

When Hoon finally arrived, it was past our dinner reservation at HanCook restaurant at 7pm, but they let up anyways and insisted that we head to eat first before enjoying the observatory deck and rest of the tower.

Of course, we honored that and we were actually puzzled when we were brought to the top observatory deck, but that was when we realized that we had to go down two levels by stairs to the HanCook restaurant.

I was blown away by the buffet they had upon my arrival. The buffet bar offers delicious Korean porridge, noodles, pan-fried dishes, bibimbap, seafood, shrimp cakes, snails, diced potatoes, soup, salad, main dishes, dessert and many more!

It’s pretty much five-star to me!

You will need to order a lunch set or a full-course set menu to eat at the buffet.

Menu:
Dinner & weekend set: Adult, 45,000 WON (~$38 US Dollars)
Lunch set: Adult, 27,000 WON(~$28 US Dollars.)

Keep in mind that their menu changes seasonally. So, don’t expect the same thing from me, but trust me. Eat one of the food from their menu. They’re pretty darn good!

Although the restaurant doesn’t revolve like the N.Grill restaurant on the rooftop, Hancook is a great place to dine in style!

Anyways, Hoon and I were seated by their waiter. Our table was right by the window with a stunning view of the city with a sunset going on. We both ordered a pint of golden lager by Oriental Brewery (OB) for each of us, and it was quite smooth and delicious!

I’m not kidding the food here was so delicious! I’m not sure if you’ve melted at the food they had that I pointed out earlier too, but I melted at everything they had. So frigging delicious.

I ordered Korean Beef Tenderloin while Hoon ordered Oxtail. Although the wait was pretty long, but it was worth my time when the food arrived in a such art. The dishes were kind of small to me but the culinary art in the food blew me away.

The tenderloins I had was cooked to perfection and tendered with toppings of vegetables and herbs and spice. The meat literally blasted of delicious meat juice into my mouth when I first had my bite. Hoon and I exchanged bites from each other’s plate and Hoon, as a Korean local of Seoul, affirmed that the meat was one of the best in Seoul! I was surely glad to know that!

Besides, we had some salami salad, pork and rice, Kiminchi (Korean Sushi), and pumpkin risotto on the side. I cannot describe how good they were. You gotta try ’em yourself. Now, you have more reasons to visit HanCook when you’re coming to N Seoul Tower.

After the dinner, we couldn’t resist trying out their dessert bar and you gotta try their yogurt. It was so good I actually had a second bowl of the yogurt! I ended up trying some of their sweets at the dessert bar though! =P

While eating and chatting throughout the night, the lights of the city glowed up the entire site as the sky darken. It was gorgeous to look at. I can imagine it being quite romantic for a couple of sweethearts.

Tower 3F (Observatory Deck)

We finally wrapped up and a short stroll up on the observatory deck because I couldn’t resist a good photo op of the night view up there, but it was raining at the time. So, the view was kind of hard to capture on my capture due to the water drops on the window, but I managed though.

It was very beautiful but expect that the observation deck can get quite busy with people from all walks of life. Again, it is one of Korea’s iconic tourist spots and a must-visit for that bird’s eye view of Seoul. Hence why it’s usually packed. Who doesn’t love getting a bird’s eye of your surroundings?

Up here you would  see a Weeny Beeny candy store and the Ba:ng souvenir shop.

Pretty much if you want to take pictures of city lights, clearly come during the day. If you want to take picture of the city in general, come during the day. Be sure to keep an out on the weather because you’d want to come here on a good weather for better photo ops.

The minute I got out of the tower, I looked up the tower and it became some sort of a light art with its exterior illuminated by colorful LED lights. Quite a sight!

Hoon and I took the bus back to his apartment after taking pictures of the park and tower with the light art.

My Thoughts

Honestly, Seoul doesn’t have many restaurant you can enjoy the night view, so this is definitely a must-see attraction and must-eat spot! Because of that, I would highly recommend a reservation. However, it is a bit pricey but it is not that bad compared to the “five-star” atmosphere. Also, not super fancy and a bit relaxed.

There is no questions that you would enjoy your meal while watching amazing views of Seoul city from above. Grab it when you’re at it!

N Seoul Tower

• Address: 산1-3 Yongsandong 2(i)-ga, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea
  
• Operating Hours: (Note: Last Entry is 30 minutes before closing time)
  • Sunday to Thursday: 10.00am to 11.00pm
  • Friday and Saturday: 10.00am to 12.00pm 
• Email: malibushin02@cj.net
  
• Website: http://www.nseoultower.co.kr/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lovenseoultower