Kwon Woo-joong's two-star hansik built on house-aged jang. Book CatchTable a month out for a Seoul proposal dinner.
The Reservation Problem at Kwon Sook Soo
The room is small and the address is hidden, on the fourth floor down an Apgujeong side street. The menu is fixed and the covers are few. And the booking line runs on Korean platforms, which is the wall a visitor hits first.
Kwon Sook Soo is at 37 Apgujeong-ro 80-gil, in Gangnam-gu. Chef Kwon Woo-joong cooks hansik (Korean cuisine) at the modern end, and the kitchen holds two Michelin stars in the 2026 guide. He learned from his mother, whose own father ran one of the most famous North Korean restaurants in old Seoul, and that lineage runs through the cooking. Small room, fixed menu, deposit required. That is the booking problem in one line.
How to Book Kwon Sook Soo
Locals book on the restaurant's own site at kwonsooksoo.com and on Korean reservation apps, with a deposit to confirm and email at [email protected] for questions. The catch for a visitor is that those channels usually want a Korean phone number. The way around it is CatchTable Global, the English-language platform built to book Korean Michelin rooms without a Korean number or residence card.
The room seats parties of two to eight and cooks to your numbers, so confirm the party size when you book and pay the deposit to lock the table. Weekend dinners clear roughly a month out; lunch and midweek are easier. Start the moment your Seoul dates are set.
Reconfirm a few days before through whichever channel you used. The deposit makes no-shows rare, but the kitchen still plans the menu around the covers it expects.
What You Eat
One tasting menu, the chef's call. Kwon builds it on house-aged jang, the fermented soybean pastes that define his cooking, layered through a sequence of Korean courses and banchan (the small side dishes). Take the pairing. It moves between wine and Korean traditional liquors, and it is the most interesting way to drink through a Korean tasting at this level. Flag dietary needs at booking, since the menu is set before you arrive.
The Smart Play
Book a lunch if dinner is gone; it is the same kitchen at a lower price and an easier table. Use CatchTable Global from abroad and give a date range rather than one night. If Kwon Sook Soo cannot be had on your trip, Seoul has peers worth the same effort. Mingles for modern Korean with a wine focus, La Yeon for the grand hotel-fine-dining version, and Onjium for the most scholarly take on the tradition.
Not for a spontaneous walk-in or a large group beyond eight. Kwon Sook Soo is a small fixed-menu room with a deposit and a strict cover count. Anyone wanting flexibility or a big table should look to a larger Gangnam dining room instead.
View Kwon Sook Soo on Restaurants for Kings →
Related Reading
- Our full profile: Kwon Sook Soo in Seoul.
- The wider city: Seoul dining guide and the hardest restaurant reservations in Seoul.
- By tier: how far ahead to book each Michelin tier.
- Strategy: how to get impossible restaurant reservations and the concierge route to booking.
- Occasions in Seoul: best for a proposal and best for a birthday dinner.
- Nearby tables: Mingles, La Yeon, and Onjium.
Frequently Asked Questions
How hard is it to book Kwon Sook Soo?
Hard, and harder still from abroad. Kwon Sook Soo is a small two-Michelin-star room that takes a limited number of covers and requires a deposit to confirm. Locals book through its own site and Korean platforms; visitors without a Korean phone number should use CatchTable Global, which handles foreign bookings. Weekend dinners go about a month out, so plan early and lock your dates first.
How far in advance should I book Kwon Sook Soo?
About a month for a weekend dinner, less for lunch or midweek. The room seats parties of two to eight and cooks a fixed menu, so it sells out predictably rather than chaotically. Book the moment your Seoul dates are set, pay the deposit to hold the table, and confirm the party size, because the kitchen plans the menu around your numbers.
How much does Kwon Sook Soo cost?
The lunch course sits in the 200,000 won range per person, with dinner higher, before drinks. The wine and traditional-liquor pairings add meaningfully to the bill. A deposit is taken at booking and applied to the final total. Budget upward of 300,000 won a head for a dinner with pairings once tax and service are in.
What should I order at Kwon Sook Soo?
There is no à la carte; you take the chef's tasting menu. Kwon Woo-joong builds it on house-aged jang, the fermented soybean pastes that define his cooking, so lean into the courses that showcase them. Take the pairing, which moves between wine and Korean traditional liquors and is the most interesting way to drink through a Korean tasting at this level.
Where is Kwon Sook Soo?
On the fourth floor of a building tucked into an alley at 37 Apgujeong-ro 80-gil, in the Apgujeong area of Gangnam-gu, Seoul. It is deliberately discreet, with no street-level fanfare, so check the floor and the alley address before you arrive. The nearest subway is Apgujeong, and a taxi driver will know the Apgujeong-ro landmarks nearby.