Sanchon: Vegetarian Temple Food From Korea

Sanchon or “Mountain Village” is one of the most famous restaurants that specialize in traditional vegetarian food served in Buddhist temples. The food is made from organic vegetables fresh from the mountainside. If you are tired of all the fried and grilled food in Seoul, this is definitely a great place to go to.

The location was a few restaurants away from my hotel – Tria Hotel. I came to dine here during lunch with M’s relatives.

The restaurant is located on the second level and instead of sitting on chairs, you sit on the floor. For those who are cannot cross their legs or not accustomed to sitting on the floor, you may feel uncomfortable dining here.

We ordered a set meal and a bunch of banchan arrives at the table. There are over 10 small dishes that arrive at the table made out of different vegetables. Even though these portions are small, it was a lot of food! Each dish had its own unique taste. Some spicy and some non-spicy.

Next, they gave us a plate with pork, perilla leaves and some other vegetable. We ate these together and it was so good!

There was even kimchi stew and a side of tofu that came along with it. There was a lot of food and it just kept coming.

There was also tofu soup.

Then there was more soup and then rice. By this point, we were SO FULL. I haven’t eaten this much in a long time. The meal was my favorite in Korea. It was a tad pricey than other meals in Korea, but it is so worth it to try this experience. I haven’t had this type of dining experience before and I loved it!

After the lunch we headed on up to Seoul Tower to check out the view of Seoul. It’s just amazing how large the city really is. We were fortunate that the monsoon storm disappeared so we were able to see most of the city clearly.