Conference participants will receive a printed copy of this guide in their registration package. We make it available on-line in case you want to study it ahead, or if you arrive in Gyeongju before the conference. A version of this guide formatted for printing is here.
According to Sariel, coffee needs to be discussed before food. About five years ago Koreans have embraced the ``Starbucks wave'', and it's now easy to find a Starbucks clone on busy city blocks or university campuses. Surprisingly, it's not so easy to find good coffee in the Bomun area. The coffee in the Hyundai Hotel coffee shop did not meet our expectations (certainly not at the price). Find the results of our explorations below (after the restaurants).
The easiest place for having lunches and dinners is, of course, the Hyundai Hotel itself. There is an Italian restaurant (Pisa 피사, 1F), a Japanese restaurant (Nara 나라, 2F), a Korean restaurant (Pomun 보문, 2F), and a Chinese restaurant (Nanching, 남경, B1F). The coffee shop Sara (1F) also serves dinners. These are all quite expensive for Korean standards (and add 10% for service and another 10% for tax).
| There is a large number of alternative restaurants in walking distance. A simple Korean lunch would cost 5000-7000 Won. Nearly all of these restaurants can be found by walking along the ``lake walk'' (see photo), the footpath that goes along the edge of Lake Bomun (leave the Hyundai Hotel on the backside from the B1 floor after going down the large staircase in the main lobby, or walk down through the garden from the roof garden). |
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After leaving the Hyundai Hotel and hitting the lake walk, make a left turn. You'll hit more restaurants faster in this direction.
 | After a few minutes, you'll reach a building shaped like a boat [1]. The ground floor contains the restaurant Hobanjeong 호반정, serving simple dishes like soybean paste soup (된장찌게), beef rib soup (갈비탕), and cold noodles (냉면) for 5000 Won. You can also grill at the table, or share a large plate of stewed beef ribs with a group. There are tables outside overlooking the lake (and this looks like a nice place to drink a few beer on a warm evening). Sariel thought the food was edible, but not excellent. |
The same building also contains a little supermarket (probably the closest one to the Hyundai Hotel), and a new coffee take out (Mattini). The upper story of the ``boat'' contains a cafe/bar that looked quite nice but was never open when we tried.
 | A few steps further you reach another large building [2], clearly labeled ``Daemyung Resort'' near the top and ``Aquaworld'' in the middle. On the 12F is the Sky Lounge Laputa, with a great view. They serve Italian style food (pasta starting around 13000 Won, the special dinner set course for 17000, and other pizza, rice, and meat dishes between 20000 and 30000). |
 | Not on the lake walk, but on the opposite side of the main road in front of the Daemyung Resort is the San Marino restaurant [4] in a building shaped like a group of mushrooms. They serve pasta (13000), pizza (16000), and steak (28000). Their lunch set (soup, salad, steak, coffee) is 21000, and there is a little play room with a slide and a ``ball bath''. Open 11:30 am - 2:00 am, phone 054-745-1333. Sariel liked his steak. To get there from the lake walk you should pass the Daemyung Resort main buildings, then just before hitting the building with the octagonal tower turn left and take the wooden stairs up to the Daemyung Resort (which you then cross). |
 | In front of the parking lot of the Daemyung Resort is a three-winged building [3] with octagonal towers at the end of each wing. This contains several restaurants. In the near wing there is Cheon Nyeon 천년 (A thousand years), with a traditional Korean flair inside. You could try their Bibimbab. In the far wing in the basement there is a restaurant that specializes in squid and tofu. On top of this is a Korean fast food place (Daemyung bunsik 대명분식) for a cheap and quick meal. Try DDok-bokki 떡볶이 if you like spicy food. In the main part of the building is a restaurant insanely called Bersayu 베르사유 (they really meant to say ``Versailles''), where you can fry meat at the table. In the front wing is the coffee shop Jacob. It doesn't serve coffee in the morning, but does offer meals and turns into a bar in the evening. In the summer they might have tables outside on the wooden platform sticking out into the lake. |
 | Walking a little further, you'll reach the pier [5] where the duck-shaped ``pleasure boats'' take off. There is a restaurant right inside the pier, and many more restaurants in the tourist village [6] behind. Most of these serve very similar food at reasonable prices (5000-7000 Won). |
Finally, if you continue the lake walk for another few minutes beyond the pier, you'll reach Sandahwa (산다화, 054-748-8787), in another cute mushroom-shaped building. This seems a bit upscale, and serves Ddok-Galbi (떡갈비), a kind of hamburger steak made from marinated ribs.
After leaving the Hyundai Hotel and hitting the lake walk, make a right turn. You'll have to walk further in this direction, but if you persist there are some good restaurants.
 | After about 15 minutes (Sariel's speed), you'll reach a bay in the lake with three restaurants. The large two-building complex called Daeho (대호, Big Lake, 054-745-6202) specializes in meat. Slightly further is Yetnal Sundubu (옛날 순두부), which presumably serves Sundubu stew (순두부 찌게), a spicy stew/soup containing silk tofu. A bit further around the corner, directly on the lake, is Ramong (라몽, 054-745-8818) (formerly ``Romeo & Juliet'') [7]. This is a lovely wooden building with a high wooden roof and a great view on the lake. When we visited them in April, the menu included pizza (19000), fajitas (15000), pasta (14000), hamburger sandwich (10000), and some salads, but they were talking about modifying the menu. The manager speaks excellent American. |
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After another 5-10 minutes along the lake walk you'll reach the dam (where the lake ends). The path bends away from the lake and reaches the main road. Turn left and walk on the side walk next to the road until the traffic light, where you cross to reach Buk-gun Village 북군마을, where you'll find a large number of good restaurants [8]. (The trail makes somewhat of a detour. A good geometer should be able to figure out a short-cut on the way back.) Instead of walking, you could take a taxi to 북군음식촌 (a few minutes, 2000 Won), or rent a bicycle. 
Near the road, the village consists entirely of restaurants, whose concentration then tapers off towards the back. Many restaurants carry the 모범음식점 designation with the white Rose of Sharon, which I generally find a reliable indicator for good food. Many restaurants offer Sundubu (see above), but there is also 맛기찬낙지 specializing in octopus (at the entrance to the village), and some meat restaurants (keep right at the entrance to the village). Further back at the left there is 경주민물매운탕 (spicy soup from freshwater fish, grilled eel). Further back there are some restaurants in very nice-looking traditional style houses with nice gardens, for instance:
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There's hope that the new coffee take out Mattini will solve the problem (same building as Hobanjeong [1]).
Your next chance is the Lavazza coffee take out in the Daemyung resort [2]. After passing the resort building on the lake walk, just before hitting building [3] (with the octagonal towers), take the wooden stairs up to the Daemyung Resort. On the wooden deck there is the Lavazza coffee take-away. The coffee is good, and the prices excellent for the neighborhood (3000 Won for a Capuccino or Latte). You can get an extra shot (샷 추가) for 1000 Won, and you can explicitely ask for ``no sugar''. The opening hours are somewhat obscure: 7 am to 7 pm was claimed, but when the weather isn't perfect, they may not open or close early. There are wooden tables where you can enjoy your coffee while looking out over the lake.
We haven't tried the coffee in the Jacob coffee shop [3].
Finally, at the upper end of the tourist village [6] is a cafe/bar named Brahms 브람스 which has good coffee (open 1 pm to midnight).
In the Buk-gun Village [8] is an ``Italian cafe'' named Saem 샘, with a lovely garden, nice interior, and friendly landlady. No English on the menu, and the capuccino we tried tasted like it was made from an instant capuccino pack. Go there for the ambience, and to avoid the maddening crowds. (At the entrance to the village, turn left until you see the sign.)
If you go to downtown Gyeongju for sightseeing (the Daereungwon tombs park is on the edge of downtown), you can also find many restaurants there.
 | Well-known are the Ssam Bab (쌈밥) restaurants on the east side of the entrance to the tombs park. We tried a rather big and fancy one, 이풍녀 구로쌈밥 (054-749-0600) (they have peacocks and parrots outside), where a Ssambab Jeongsik (쌈밥정식) was 7000 Won. |
A simple but good restaurant with a nice inside courtyard is the Sukyong restaurant (수경식당, 054-772-3369) in Gyerimno (the street that goes along the east wall of the tombs park), pretty close to the north end of the park. They serve Boribab 보리밥, a kind of bibimbab where the rice includes some barley. Their dong-dong-ju 동동주 is very good, and the owner speaks some English.
 | A rather special experience eating in traditional houses open to a large court/garden, or actually sitting outside, can be had at Dosol Maeul 도솔마을 (054-748-9232, Jeongsik 6000 Won). You can find it by walking along the western wall of the tombs park (it's closer to the northern end than to the park entrance). Just keep the park wall on your right side, then you'll see the garden on your left. |
There are several Shilla king tombs (Nodong-ri, Noseo-ri) in a little park in downtown, and it's pleasant to take a stroll among them before or after a dinner. There are actually three restaurants from where you have a view on one the biggest tombs: the Japanese restaurant Kisoya 기소야, the steak/pasta restaurant The Terrace (054-773-8084, rice/pasta dishes 8000 Won, meat 10000-20000 Won), and the Italian restaurant Il Basilico (054-742-6447). The Terrace has a nice balcony upstairs overlooking the tomb where drinking a few beer on a warm evening must be rather pleasant.
Nearly all photos were taken by Sariel Har-Peled.