The World's Best Restaurants · 2026
Seoul, Republic of Korea
Kwonsooksoo makes its case through depth of Korean practice rather than spectacle.
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Kwonsooksoo makes its case through depth of Korean practice rather than spectacle. Kwon Woo-joong opened the Seoul restaurant in 2015 and named it for the professional cooks of the royal court. His menu begins with rare seasonal ingredients gathered across Korea, then draws on house-made jang, vinegars, fish sauces, kimchi and preserved preparations built for use over years. The meal's individual doksang table and its progression of small dishes give form to a specifically Korean hospitality language. By restoring little-seen kimchi, building direct channels with growers and foragers and placing those materials inside a contemporary restaurant, Kwon connects preservation with future authorship rather than museum display.
House-made jang, vinegars, fish sauces, kimchi and long ferments give the kitchen a material memory that cannot be assembled for a single menu season.
Direct work with regional markets, growers and foragers brings overlooked mushrooms, plants and historic kimchi back into an active culinary vocabulary.
The individual doksang table, traditional drinks and succession of small preparations shape the experience on Korean terms rather than borrowing ceremony wholesale.
The live house menu verifies current operation; chef identity, fermentation practice, continuity and cultural consequence are corroborated by three independent ownership groups. Confidence remains below the cohort's strongest cases because the official English site exposes limited current dish detail, and no firsthand service claim is made.
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