RFK Rankings · Seoul
Best Restaurants for a Team Dinner in Seoul 2026
Team dinner · Seoul · 7 tables ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published June 20, 2026 · Updated June 20, 2026 · Reviewed by Fredrik Filipsson, Editor-in-Chief · How we rank · Corrections
The company dinner has its own grammar in Seoul, where hoesik is an institution: the senior colleague orders, the soju goes around the table, and the night is judged less on the cooking than on whether everyone could eat, talk and unwind in one room. A team dinner needs what a tasting counter cannot give. A table large enough to seat eight without splitting the party. A noise level that lets the quiet new hire be heard. A kitchen that sends shared plates rather than synchronised courses, and ideally a private room where the conversation stays in the family. These seven Seoul rooms, ranked, do that job, from royal-banquet halls built for a delegation to the galbi house where the night ends in soju and laughter.
1.La Yeon
Kim Sung-il's royal-Korean banquet on the Shilla's 23rd floor, private rooms and a Namsan view. Book it to host clients.
La Yeon, on the 23rd floor of The Shilla in Jung-gu, is the room for a delegation you want to impress. Chef Kim Sung-il cooks royal hansik, the multi-dish court cuisine refined over centuries in the Joseon palace kitchens, and serves it the Korean way, several preparations arriving at once for the table to compose and share rather than a synchronised European procession. That rhythm is exactly what a group dinner wants. Two Michelin stars, Hanwoo beef and clean-coast seafood, and a wall of Namsan Park and granite peaks through the windows. The hotel runs private banquet rooms that keep a team's conversation off the main floor. Set menus run roughly 220,000 to 350,000 won a head. Reserve a private room and let the host order for the table.
Book through The Shilla Seoul; request a private banquet room.
2.Jungsik
Yim Jung-sik's two-star modern Korean in a design-led Cheongdam room with private dining. Reserve it for a client team you mean to land.
Jungsik, in Cheongdam-dong south of the river, is where chef Yim Jung-sik rewrote modern Korean fine dining, and it holds two Michelin stars in the 2026 guide. The single tasting runs around 250,000 won and ends with the green-tea dessert moulded into the shape of Jeju's dol-hareubang stone statues that every table photographs. For a team dinner the draw is the polish: a sleek, grown-up room that signals you put thought into the night, plus private dining rooms that seat a group away from the main floor. It is impressive without tipping into stiff formality, and the plating gives a table that does not yet know each other well something to talk about. Book a private room well ahead and take the wine pairing.
Book on Catch Table or the Jungsik site; ask for a private room.
3.Born & Bred
Seoul's premium hanwoo grill across four floors in Mapo, private rooms and grade-1++ beef. Bring the team for the splurge night.
Born & Bred opened in Mapo-gu's Yeomni-dong in 2018 to put hanwoo, Korea's grade-1++ beef, at the centre of the meal, and it has become the city's destination grill and an Asia's 50 Best Discovery name. Spread over four floors, each with its own format from casual grilling cuts to a basement omakase counter, it is built for groups: private rooms, a butcher's run of cuts to share, and the communal ritual of cooking beef at the table that loosens a team dinner faster than any tasting menu. The casual course runs near 165,000 won; the hanwoo tasting climbs toward 350,000. Book a private floor, order cuts by weight, and let the staff grill the first round.
Book direct or on Catch Table; ask for a private room.
4.Yongsusan
A decades-old Kaesong royal-court banquet in a hanok-style Mapo room with private platforms. Book it for a formal company dinner.
Yongsusan has served Kaesong-style royal court cuisine, gungjung-eumsik, the banquet tradition of the Joseon aristocracy, for decades, and its Hapjeong room in Mapo is designed as a contemporary Joseon dining hall: dark timber, low tables on raised platforms, hand-painted screens and service in traditional dress. A full banquet arrives as a long sequence of small, refined dishes meant to be shared, which suits a company table that wants ceremony without a grill's smoke. Private rooms partition a group from the rest of the floor. Course menus run roughly 70,000 to 150,000 won a head, gentler on an expense account than the starred rooms. Reserve a private platform room for the team.
Reserve by phone; ask for a private room and the full banquet.
5.GiwaKang
Kang Min-cheol's new-starred Jongno hanok plating Joseon court recipes. Try it once for a team dinner with a sense of place.
GiwaKang, in Jongno, earned its first Michelin star in the 2026 guide and took the year's Sommelier Award with it. Chef Kang Min-cheol works from Joseon-era cookbooks and court manuscripts, filtering historical recipes through modern technique: a braised pheasant broth in a celadon bowl, grilled sirloin glazed in three-year-aged plum, steamed mung-bean jelly with chilled radish. The beverage list is deliberately Korean, nuruk-fermented rice wines and single-village soju the sommelier will walk the table through, which gives a team something to do together beyond eating. The hanok room reads as history without the museum dust. Tasting menus sit in the 180,000-to-250,000-won range. Book ahead and take the Korean pairing.
Book on Catch Table; take the Korean beverage pairing.
6.Kwonsooksoo
Kwon Woo-joong's quiet two-star hansik in Apgujeong, the neungi-mushroom capellini its signature. Reserve it for a small, dignified team dinner.
Kwonsooksoo, in Apgujeong, is the calm end of a team dinner. Chef Kwon Woo-joong cooks a refined modern hansik built on the Korean peninsula's seasonal produce, with the in-season neungi-mushroom capellini among the most discussed dishes in the city, and it holds two Michelin stars in 2026. The room asks you to slow down, which makes it the pick for a small senior table rather than a rowdy section dinner, a partner taking out a handful of colleagues rather than the whole floor. Service is precise and unhurried, and the cooking rewards a table that pays attention. Expect a tasting around 250,000 won a head. Keep the group to six or fewer and book a couple of weeks ahead.
Book on Catch Table; keep the party small.
7.Mapo Galmaegi
The galmaegisal galbi house that defines the Seoul company night. Take the team here when the point is soju and laughter.
Mapo Galmaegi is the democratic team dinner, the smoky galbi house whose name is shorthand for the after-work hoesik. The order is galmaegisal, pork skirt, grilled over the table with dwaejimakchang and a spread of side dishes, washed down with soju rounds that flatten the office hierarchy faster than any starred tasting could. It is loud, cheap by the standards of this list at roughly 25,000 to 40,000 won a head, and unpretentious, which is the point: nobody is performing and the whole team can come. The Mapo room is the one to know, though branches dot the city. Book a long table, arrive hungry, and let the grill run.
Walk in early or book a long table for the group.
Avoid for a team dinner
Mingles and the milestone tables
Mingles is Korea's only three-Michelin-star room, and that makes it a milestone rather than a hoesik. The Cheongdam dining room is small, the tasting runs around 340,000 won, and a table of colleagues will strain both the seat count and the budget. Keep Mingles for a two-person celebration and take the team somewhere built for a group.
Kojima and the omakase counters
Kojima and Seoul's best sushi counters sit you single-file facing the chef in near silence, served at his pace, which is the opposite of a night where a team talks, toasts and shares. Wonderful for two who already know each other, wrong for hosting a delegation. Save the counter for the one client you take alone.
Soigné and the intimate rooms
Soigné is a two-star room intimate by design, a low-lit counter-and-banquette space with a small seat count, which makes it a poor fit for a group that needs to sit together and be heard. Book it for a couple, and leave the section dinner to the banquet rooms and the grill.
Reservation strategy for a Seoul team dinner
Most of these rooms book through Catch Table, the app that has become Seoul's default for fine dining, while the hotel and royal-court rooms take a phone reservation directly. The single rule for a group is to ask for a private room when you book, not on the night, and to give the headcount up front: La Yeon, Jungsik, Yongsusan and Born & Bred all hold private spaces that book out two to three weeks ahead, faster around year-end when every company is running its own hoesik. A weekday dinner is easier to seat and quieter to talk in than a Friday.
Seoul does not tip, service is included and an extra gratuity is neither expected nor necessary, which keeps a hosted bill simple. Etiquette still matters: at the table the most senior person tends to order and pour the first round, and the host settles the cheque quietly at the end rather than splitting it in front of the team. For the grill rooms, let the floor staff cook the opening cuts; for the banquet rooms, take the set menu so nobody has to navigate a list. If the night will carry on, pick a room in Mapo or Gangnam, where the bars make a natural second stop.
Frequently asked
What is the best restaurant for a team dinner in Seoul?
La Yeon, on the 23rd floor of The Shilla in Jung-gu, is the top pick for hosting a team. Chef Kim Sung-il cooks two-Michelin-star royal Korean hansik served the shared-abundance way, the hotel runs private banquet rooms that keep a group off the main floor, and a Namsan Park view frames the night. Set menus run roughly 220,000 to 350,000 won a head. Reserve a private room and let the host order.
Where can you host a large group dinner in Seoul?
For a group that needs to sit together, book a private room. La Yeon and Jungsik both keep private dining rooms off the main floor, Yongsusan partitions a banquet table behind screens in its hanok room, and Born & Bred can give a team a private floor for a hanwoo grill. Reserve the room two to three weeks ahead and tell them the headcount when you book.
How much does a team dinner in Seoul cost?
Plan on anywhere from 25,000 to 350,000 won a head before drinks. Mapo Galmaegi's galbi runs roughly 25,000 to 40,000, Yongsusan's royal-court menus 70,000 to 150,000, GiwaKang around 180,000 to 250,000, Jungsik and Kwonsooksoo near 250,000, and La Yeon up to 350,000. Korea does not tip, so the menu price is close to the real bill, though soju rounds add up over a long night.
Do you tip at a team dinner in Seoul?
No. Tipping is not part of Korean dining culture, service is included in the price, and an extra gratuity is neither expected nor necessary. For a hosted team dinner this keeps the bill simple, since what arrives is what you pay. The host settles the cheque quietly at the end; there is no gratuity line to calculate and no awkward maths in front of the team.
What is hoesik and which restaurants suit a Korean company dinner?
Hoesik is the Korean after-work company dinner, a team-bonding ritual usually built around grilled meat and rounds of soju. For the classic version, Mapo Galmaegi's galbi house is the template. For a more formal company dinner, the royal-court rooms at La Yeon and Yongsusan or the private dining at Jungsik suit a delegation you want to impress. Match the room to whether the night is celebration or business.
Which Seoul restaurant is best for impressing clients at a team dinner?
La Yeon and Jungsik are the rooms for a client team dinner. La Yeon pairs two Michelin stars and royal Korean cooking with a Shilla-hotel polish and private banquet rooms; Jungsik brings a design-led Cheongdam dining room, two stars and private dining for a group. Both signal that you put thought into the evening. See the Seoul dining guide for more on each room.
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