Chill and Aesthetic Seoul Part 2: Hannam-dong, Itaewon & Haebangchon
Chill & Aesthetic Seoul, Part 2: Hannam-dong, Itaewon & Haebangchon
Quiet money on the hillside, the most international street in the country, and a pojangmacha-alley market that never really changed — and that's exactly the point.
If Seongsu-dong is Seoul at its most forward-facing, then the triangle of Hannam-dong, Itaewon, and Haebangchon is Seoul at its most layered. These three neighborhoods sit almost on top of each other on the south slope of Namsan — you can walk between all of them in twenty minutes — and yet they feel completely different. Old money and quiet boutiques in Hannam. The whole world squeezed onto one main street in Itaewon. And then Haebangchon, still a little rough around the edges, still a little local, still doing its thing despite everything that's happened to the neighborhoods around it.
I've had some of my favorite Seoul meals in this part of the city. I've also done some of my best shopping here, which is saying something given that I live in Seoul and could technically shop anywhere. There's a texture to this hill — the narrow streets, the embassies tucked behind high walls, the smell of something good coming out of a basement restaurant — that nowhere else quite replicates. Let me walk you through it.
1. 한남동 (Hannam-dong) — Where Seoul Shops When It's Not Trying
Hannam-dong is old money made photogenic. The neighborhood sits just north of Itaewon and has historically been home to embassies, senior government officials, and the kind of families that have lived in Seoul since before there was a subway. The streets are quieter here, the buildings lower, the vibe noticeably more restrained than anywhere else on this side of the Han.
But in the last several years, the shopping has quietly become some of the best in the city. Not the Myeongdong kind of shopping — not skincare chains and K-pop merchandise — but the kind of shopping where you find a Korean designer you've never heard of who turns out to be extraordinary, or a concept store that carries exactly three brands and does it with complete confidence. The main strip runs along Itaewon-ro and the side streets branching off it toward the hill, particularly around the Hangangjin Station end.
Formerly — The Concept Store That Knows What It Is
Formerly 🛍 Hannam Shopping Anchor
Formerly is the kind of store you walk past once, stop, and go back in. It's a multi-brand concept store focused on Korean independent designers — clothing, accessories, objects — selected with a very clear editorial eye. Nothing here feels accidental. The space is calm and unhurried, the staff don't hover, and the curation keeps changing which means it rewards repeat visits. If you want to find Korean fashion that isn't streetwear and isn't the same brands you've already seen in Hongdae, this is where you come.
The Hannam Book Alley — Where the Neighborhood Reads
Books on the Hill (한남동 책방 거리) 📚 Slow Morning Stop
The cluster of independent bookshops that has formed in Hannam-dong over the last few years is genuinely one of the more pleasant surprises the neighborhood offers. These aren't the big Kyobo-style chains — they're small, independent spaces, some with excellent coffee, some with a very specific curatorial identity (art books only, translated literature, Korean contemporary poetry). The Dokseo-dang-ro area in particular has a handful of these in close proximity. Go on a weekday morning before anywhere else has opened and you'll have them largely to yourself.
More Hannam Shops Worth Knowing
모이아 (MOIA) 👗 Korean Women's Fashion
MOIA is a Korean women's clothing brand with the kind of restrained, wearable aesthetic that Hannam-dong does well — clean silhouettes, considered fabrics, nothing trying too hard. It sits in that comfortable space between everyday and elevated, which is exactly why the neighborhood's residents shop here. If you find most Korean fashion either too casual or too costume-y, MOIA is worth a look.
블루엘리펀트 (Blue Elephant) 🕶 Korean Eyewear
Blue Elephant is a Korean eyewear brand that fits the Hannam-dong sensibility perfectly — frames that are interesting without being loud, considered without being precious. The kind of glasses that look like they were chosen carefully but not agonized over. The Hannam store is worth stopping into even if you're not in the market right now, just to try a few pairs and see what the brand is doing. The edit is tight enough that it never overwhelms.
Dr. Althea 🌱 High-End Vegan Skincare + Spa
Dr. Althea is high-end vegan skincare with the kind of formulas that take themselves seriously — clean ingredients, beautiful textures, packaging that feels considered without being ostentatious. The Hannam flagship is the place to experience the brand properly, and what sets it apart from just being another skincare shop is the spa attached to it. If you've been doing a lot of walking around the neighborhood (and you will have been), booking a treatment here is an excellent way to spend an afternoon. The facial menu uses the brand's own products, so you come out knowing exactly what worked on your skin and what to buy before you leave. One of the more enjoyable ways to spend money in Hannam-dong.
Glowny 👗 Korean Women's Fashion
Glowny is a Korean women's clothing brand that sits comfortably in the Hannam aesthetic — feminine without being fussy, contemporary without chasing trends. The pieces work as separates or together, which is the mark of a brand that actually thinks about how people dress rather than just how things look on a rack. A good stop if you want something wearable to take home that doesn't scream tourist souvenir.
Where to Eat in Hannam-dong
소울다이닝 (Soul Dining) 🍷 Hannam Date Night
Hannam-dong has no shortage of good restaurants but Soul Dining sits apart because it actually feels like it belongs here — the kind of wine-forward Korean-influenced dinner spot that the neighborhood's residents eat at on weeknights. The menu changes with seasons, the wine list is well-considered, and the room is dark enough that everything looks slightly more beautiful than it probably is. It's a grown-up meal in the best sense. Reserve ahead.
브레드05 (Bread05) 🥐 Morning Bread Stop
A small bakery with a serious attitude toward bread. The croissants have the right amount of structural integrity — not so flaky they disintegrate, not so bready they feel like regular pastry. The sandwiches are good and filling enough to count as a proper lunch. Bread05 has the quiet confidence of a place that doesn't need to announce itself. A perfect first stop before working through the shopping streets.
2. 이태원 (Itaewon) — The Most International Square Kilometer in Korea
Itaewon has always been complicated. It grew up around the US military base at Yongsan and became, by accident, the one place in Seoul where you could find a non-Korean restaurant before that was a normal thing. Turkish kebabs in the 1980s. Mexican in the 1990s. Ethiopian, Lebanese, Nigerian, Indian — a whole improbable United Nations of food concentrated on one street, served to a mix of expats, soldiers, and Koreans who wanted something different.
The neighborhood has been through a lot. The tragedy of October 2022 cast a long shadow that took years to lift. But Itaewon is still here, still doing what it has always done — absorbing people from everywhere, feeding them, and asking few questions. The restaurant and café density on and around Itaewon-daero is genuinely extraordinary. On any given block you can eat Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Middle Eastern, and Italian within about two hundred meters. It's chaotic and it's wonderful and there is nowhere else in Korea quite like it.
Where to Eat in Itaewon
Vatos Urban Tacos 🌮 Crowd Pleaser
Vatos is one of Itaewon's most durable institutions, which is saying something given the turnover on this street. Korean-Mexican fusion that sounds gimmicky and turns out to be genuinely good — the kimchi carnitas tacos are the flagship item and they've earned that status. The space is loud and fun and family-friendly in a relaxed way. Order the nachos to share while you wait for your tacos. Kids reliably approve. The lines on weekend evenings can be long — go for an early lunch instead.
Passion 5 🎂 Pastry Landmark
Passion 5 is Paris Baguette's attempt to build a genuine artisan patisserie and it worked better than most people expected. The space is spread across multiple floors — a bakery, a chocolate shop, a gelato counter, a wine and cheese section — and the croissants and entremets are legitimately impressive by any standard. It's also just a beautiful place to spend an hour in the afternoon. Bring kids for the chocolate section and the ice cream. Come alone for the kouign-amann and a coffee upstairs.
Cafés Worth Sitting Down In
Café Bora 이태원점 💜 Purple Everything
You know Café Bora from Instagram — the purple soft-serve, the bora latte, the entire aesthetic built around that one shade of violet. The Itaewon branch is less crowded than the Insadong original and the drinks are exactly as good as advertised. Order the soft serve. Take the photo. It's fine. Some things deserve their popularity and this is one of them.
Club Espresso ☕ Serious Coffee
One of Seoul's oldest specialty coffee roasters, and it still makes some of the best espresso in the city. The Itaewon location has a dark, slightly moody interior that feels completely at odds with the concept-store maximalism that's taken over so much of Seoul's coffee scene — and that contrast is exactly why regulars love it. Go here when you want actual coffee, not a beverage experience.
3. 해방촌 (Haebangchon) — The Neighborhood That Stayed Itself
HBC, as everyone calls it, sits on the steep northern slope of Namsan, a ten-minute walk uphill from Itaewon. It was settled after the Korean War by refugees and displaced people — 해방 means liberation, a reference to the liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945 — and it retained that working-class, slightly-outside-the-mainstream character for decades. Artists and expats started moving in during the 2000s because rents were cheap and the streets had personality. Gentrification followed, as it always does, but HBC somehow held onto more of its original texture than most Seoul neighborhoods in its position.
The streets here are narrow and steep, the buildings irregular and stacked up the hillside, the vibe noticeably more laid-back than anywhere down the hill. There are good independent bars, small restaurants, some excellent coffee — but the thing that keeps drawing me back is the 신흥시장.
신흥시장 (Sinheung Market) — The Real Reason You Come to HBC
신흥시장 (Sinheung Market) 🏮 Don't Miss
Sinheung Market started as a conventional local alley market — the kind that used to exist in every Seoul neighborhood before the supermarkets and convenience chains arrived. At some point, someone strung red lanterns down the alley. Then a few young vendors set up outdoor pojangmacha-style stalls. Then the bar in the middle got a reputation. Then more people came. And now Sinheung Market on an evening is something that genuinely cannot be replicated: a narrow alley lit by red lanterns, warm light spilling from small stalls, the smell of tteokbokki and pajeon and something grilling, a mix of Korean regulars and expats and tourists who found their way up the hill, everyone standing or perched on low stools, nobody in a hurry.
The food here is the honest, unfussy kind — tteokbokki, sundae, haemul pajeon, eomuk on sticks, cold makgeolli poured from a kettle. Nothing costs very much. The vendors are the same families who've been here for years. You eat standing up or on a small plastic stool, and the couple next to you might be on a date and the group on the other side might be a family of four with grandparents, and the person across from you is photographing their tteokbokki for reasons you understand completely because the lantern light at this hour is genuinely beautiful. It's the most Korean evening you can have in a neighborhood that has otherwise changed significantly, and that's exactly why it matters.
Other HBC Spots Worth Knowing
경리단길 (Gyeongnidan-gil) — The Main HBC Strip
Gyeongnidan-gil is the main commercial street running through HBC and it has some of the best independent restaurant and bar density in this part of Seoul. Italian places opened by Koreans who trained in Italy. A Thai restaurant that actual Thai residents visit. A small natural wine bar with excellent cheese. Nothing flashy, nothing trying too hard. Walk the length of it slowly and eat based on what looks right. That approach works better here than any specific recommendation, which will have changed by the time you read this anyway.
Southside Parlor 🍔 HBC Institution
Southside Parlor has been in HBC long enough that it counts as part of the neighborhood's identity. American-style burgers and comfort food, a good cocktail list, a deep back room that fills up on weekends. The burger is genuinely one of the better ones in Seoul — proper brioche bun, good beef, the right condiment ratios. Go for the late-evening meal after you've done Sinheung Market and want to sit down somewhere with a drink.
The Full Day Plan: Hannam + Itaewon + HBC
- 10:00am — Start in Hannam-dong. Stop at Bread05 for breakfast before anywhere else has crowds.
- 10:30am — Walk the Hannam shopping streets — Itaewon-ro side streets and uphill toward Namsan. Browse Formerly and the book alley. No rush.
- 1:00pm — Lunch at Vatos in Itaewon (beat the crowd) or a Korean set from somewhere along Gyeongnidan-gil.
- 2:30pm — Afternoon coffee at Club Espresso or Café Bora depending on your mood. Walk Itaewon-daero in both directions — there's always something new.
- 4:00pm — Walk uphill to HBC. Wander Gyeongnidan-gil. Stop at Passion 5 if you need a sweet break.
- 5:30pm — 신흥시장 starts waking up. Get there early for the best stall selection and a good spot before the evening crowd arrives.
- 7:00pm — Stay in HBC for dinner or walk back down to Itaewon. Southside Parlor is a good call for a final sit-down meal with drinks.
What I love most about this triangle of neighborhoods is that they show you Seoul's layering in miniature. In one afternoon you go from a quiet hillside shopping street where the stores look like they belong in a design magazine, down through the loudest and most international main street in the country, and then up again to a narrow alley of red lanterns where a grandmother is ladling tteokbokki from a pot that's been on that same spot for longer than most of the concept stores in Seongsu have existed.
That range — quiet money to organized chaos to something genuinely old and local — is Seoul compressed. And it's all walkable. That's the thing about this city. You can cover twenty years of urban history in twenty minutes on foot if you know which direction to point yourself.
Have you been to Sinheung Market? What did you eat? And is there an HBC spot you think I missed? Drop it in the comments — especially if it's been there a while. 🏮
— Your Korean Umma Guide
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