P'yongyang Restaurants

I've had Korean Cold Noodle Soup many times, but only once in North Korea. All the other times were south of the border.

But in all the Koreans I've spoken to, they all said North Korean's "Nang Myeung" (Cold Noodle) is the most famous food of North Korea, other than ginseng.

The one I had was not anything special compared to those I had in South Korea, but you can't travel all the way to North Korea and NOT try it.

Favorite Dish: The cold noodle soup is just that, noodles in a cold broth, served with a small mixture of greens. Koreans eat this more commonly during colder months, believing it is better for their health.

You can't choose where will you eat because whole trip is usually define in advance. Also, you hardly can choose food. The only thing when they make a difference is if you are vegetarian or not; or if you don't eat sea food or not. But even then we had some funny situations.

Food is average, nothing special. And you won't starve, you are country's guest so there'll be plenty of food for you.

Favorite Dish: Korean BBQ

We came here on our last evening in North Korea and the food was top rate. It was a duck barbeque restaurant where you cooked the food yourselves at your table and was good fun. Included were bottles of beer and even some rice wine.

Most of the restaurants that tourists will be able to eat at have the same basic menus and quality of food. The revolving restaurant on the top of the Yanggakdo Hotel offers a basic breakfast for guests, but also offers a room with a view while having either a dinner or a casual drink at the end of the day.

The food is slightly above average, but the view is quite memorable.

Favorite Dish: Basic meals of bulgogi (expensive) or noodle dishes (cheap) are the standard fare.

We ate a couple of times in two of the Yanggakdo Hotels restaurants. The first night of the tour we ate at the No.2 restaurant and had soup/bread, beef burger, salad and beer served to us by girls wearing traditional Korean dresses. We also had breakfast every morning which consisted of toast, eggs, coffee and yoghurt. The food was fairly good but not as good as other restaurants that we went out to in the city.

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This was lunch on our first full day in Pyongyang in a restaurant opposite some embassies, including Romania and Iran, on a street called Sariwon Street in the east of the city. Don't ask me what the restaurant was called but the food was great. You cooked it yourself in a small pot in front of you which was good fun.

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After we had visited Kim Il Sung's birth place at Mangyongdae, we had an outside barbeque picnic lunch at a place called Ryonggak Mountain. Again the food was excellent and a food way to cook and eat. We had, what we hoped were, beef and duck on skewers which we cooked on a small grill on the table, salad, bread and more bottles of beer.

Such restaurants as there are, are devoted to foreign guests. They are huge buildings, rather sterile and very grandiose, in which there are about a dozen diners. The picture is of the Juche Tower, the view from the top is very impressive and as you can see, when the 'flame' is illuminated very impressive at night - especially when the rest of the city is effectively black. It's designed as a monument to Kim-Il Sung's ideology and every aspect of it's dimensions (right down to the number of bricks) reflects the life of KIS. Directly in front of it is the main river, and two huge fountains, like the Jet D'eau in geneva - except these are the tallest fountains in the world - as the guide will tell you.
Probably one of the few places in the world where the restaurants open when you arrive and shut when you leave. And each diner has his/her own waitress (no waiters).

Favorite Dish: All the food is good (if you like noodles). Dairy is best avoided. Dog is strictly for those with no taste buds. Mars Bars are in fairly short supply.