Dunkin’ Donuts in Korea is very different from the ones in North America. Everything is Korean-ized, so you will find things like sweet potato donuts, olive oil donuts, and other weird creations.
M and I were in Coex Mall and everything was under construction. We had very bad timing when coming here. Only a few shops were open and it totally sucked. We were roaming around the vast empty mall and found a Dunkin’ Donuts and we felt like it was time for a little snack.
As we were traveling in Korea near Halloween, they had some cute treats.
What is unique about Dunkin’ Donuts that drew me in was their breakfast and snack items. They look pretty decent.
When I saw their burritos I got kinda hungry. I actually have no idea if they have these in the North American Dunkin’ Donuts because I’ve never seen one. There is a Dunkin’ Donuts in Montreal but nowhere else in Canada.
Plastic food on display.
M and I shared the Spicy Chicken Burrito, Sausage Burrito and a Grapefruit slush.
Sausage Burrito (3,500 won) it’s a huge sausage with cheese, fried rice and chili sauce.
Spicy Chicken Burrito (3,500 won) has spicy chicken, fried rice and a blend of two types of cheese. It was a bit spicy.
Grapefruit Slush was really gross. It was very sweet and it was more artificial. It melted so slowly that we could of used a wider straw.
Overall Dunkin’ Donuts is ok. A bit on the mediocre side, but kinda reminds me of Tim Hortons in Canada.
I spent 5 days in Seoul, South Korea but I did not have enough time to visit all the places that I came across. Below are a few places that I thought were really cool and wanted to share with you.
Have you been to any of these places before? or is it now on your list of places to visit?
CNN opened their first CNN Cafe in Seoul. They are slowly expanding throughout the country. The concept of the cafe is to give people a space to work and enjoy coffee. They have free wi-fi, computers and printing services. Imagine doing all your work and staying up to date on breaking news around the world.
They also have locations at the local universities too. This is a student’s/ entrepreneur’s dream come true! Wouldn’t it be so awesome to have this in Vancouver?
Daiso is a large franchise of cheap household items at very affordable prices. It has even been dubbed the “Walmart of Asia” or the “Asian Dollar Store”. With over 2,500 stores in Japan, and 522 in the rest of the world they will continue to expand further into North America.
The prices in Daiso Korea range from 500 to 5,000 won. The one pictured here is a smaller store, but they have another location in Sinchon that is 3 floors.
Dunkin’ Donuts is huge in Korea. It’s not as big in Vancouver, but Koreans love this place to chill and have coffee. There are a lot of locations scattered all over Seoul.
They have very different flavours from the Dunkin’ Donuts in North America. For example – tofu donuts, green tea donuts and sweet potato donuts.
Ding Dong Cafe is a Traveler’s Cafe. When I passed by this place, I thought it was a scam to get tourist into the cafe. It turns out ding dong cafe is a restaurant that has a tourist theme. The interior is decorated with pictures from around the world and maps.
It was named one of the top 5 cafes in Hongdae by CNNgo and apparently has some good brunch.
My travel agent in Hong Kong did a horrible job at finding me a decent place to stay in Korea. The hotel that they wanted to book me in looked really rundown and was way overpriced for what it looked like. I decided to find my own accommodations and Trip Advisor suggested Tria Hotel for a nice budget hotel in the Gangnam area. It was under 100,000 won per night.
Since I was traveling on my own, I needed to find a nice and safe hotel that was affordable.
If you are wondering, I didn’t see anything related to the Gangnam Style song by PSY. I actually didn’t hear about this song till weeks after I came back home. (It’s a pretty good song FYI)
A lot of people complained about how the streets are filled with “sexy” hotels in the area. They aren’t wrong, there are a few around, but no one really bothers you during the day or night. There are lots of restaurants in the area, so it’s convenient if you want a snack or a meal.
Since I did book very last-minute, there was only a double bed room available.
The bathroom is very weird in my opinion. The wall and doors are frosted so you can kinda see into the bathroom. I was so glad I wasn’t travelling with anyone because this would be awkward seeing someones silhouette in the washroom.
They provide you with a TV and computer, but I didn’t use them since I brought my own laptop. There is wifi access in the room and there is no password to it. Just connect to the network with your room number.
They provide you with complementary combs, hair product, shower caps, hair ties, and mosquito repellant.
They also have toothbrush, toothpaste, a razor, and shaving cream. If you forget anything, they have you covered.
They also have shampoo, conditioner, and body wash.
They have a kettle for you to boil hot water for tea and coffee.
There was also a fridge in the closet. When I opened it, there were 2 bottle of water, a can of orange juice and a can of coffee. It was complementary!
I took all the coffee, juice, tea, and bottle of water. I hid them all in my suitcase so the cleaning ladies would replenish my fridge. It was complementary, so might as well take it all right?
If you need anything else like additional drinks or meals, they have a menu that you can order from their cafe. Do keep in mind, you do get complementary breakfasts every morning in their cafe. Unfortunately, I never went for the breakfasts since I wanted to go out for food.
On the last day, they have breakfast delivered up to the room. They will call you once you are back and they ask you for a time you want the food to be delivered. It was a sandwich and a coffee.
The coffee was drip coffee and you can add your own sugar and cream.
The sandwich is really big and it has a lot of vegetables, egg, chicken, and cheese. It was a decent sandwich. I think it tasted better because it was breakfast in bed. It was a lovely touch!
Travel Tips
Buy a T-Pass from the convenience store once you get out of the arrival gates. Having it will save a lot of time and effort of figuring out how to pay for transit. Just load it up and tap it everytime you get on the buses or subway. I would suggest taking the 6703KAL Limo Bus from Incheon Airport since it takes over an hour to arrive at the hotel.
It costs 14,000 won and it saves the trouble of overpaying for a taxi or switching subway lines. You can also take a nice long nap! The bus is air conditioned and the seats are confortable.
Get off at Renaissance Hotel and walk a few blocks. It’s not very far.
After getting off the plane, if you need a cell phone. The Incheon Airport has a few companies offering rental cellphones. I chose S-Roaming since it was one of the cheaper option. Plus, you get 50% off when you reserve a day before. You can rent smartphones or regular phones. I chose the smartphone since I wanted data to look at maps and use travel apps. It was a fair price and comes in VERY handy.
Final Thoughts
Tria Hotel was a nice hotel to stay at especially when having a last minute booking. The staff was very helpful and could help me store my luggages since my planes came at strange times. There are other cheaper options around town, but compared to other hotels, this is a good option. It’s nice looking, clean, and has a lot of amenities.
The location is far from most tourist locations, but the subway is very convenient and the green line does go to most tourist places, so not a lot of transferring.
Address:
677-11 Yeoksam 1(il)-dong,
Gangnam-gu, Seoul,
South Korea
Kona Beans was the closest coffee shop to my hotel. On my last day in Seoul, I decided to chill here before my bus arrived to take me to the airport. It has 2 level, upstairs is smoking and downstairs is non-smoking. It’s great that they give people this option.
Kona Beans is a cafe that originated from Hawaii. There are several franchise locations all over Seoul.
When ordering, you get the electronic beeper to indicate when your order is ready for pick up!
It’s really relaxing inside and you can do your work and have a drink. Its a good place to work since wifi is available.
Kiwi smoothie tasted alright. I don’t know why I didn’t order a coffee at a coffee shop, but I guess I felt like juice.
If I do come back next time, I will definitely order coffee instead. Nonetheless, it’s a nice cafe.
Words of Wisdom:
Another location at 42 Apgujeongro-gil is opened by a few of the mothers of the Super Juniors group
I was strolling through my last day of Korea finding a McDonalds to try to find a Kimchi Burger or something really cool and different than in North America. I wandered off into the Gangnam area and I found so many shops and restaurants.
Some items were similar to wat you would find in North America, but I had my eye on the Bulgogi Burger. They even have calories too so you know how much you are consuming. I also noticed they don’t sell fish!
It even has its own special wrapper! I laughed when I saw ” A sauce sensation”.
Inside you have the pork patty with the bulgogi marinade. It also has lettuce and mayo inside. The marinade made this burger sticky to eat if you aren’t careful. I wasn’t a big fan of this since it was a bit sweet and salty in some ways.
It was still fun trying out an item I would not get in Canada.
Kraze Burger is Korea’s burger restaurant. It was founded in 1998 and was the first restaurant specializing in hamburgers in Korea. They have locations all over Korea even the airport. As I was in COEX Mall, I knew I had to find Kraze Burgers to try some famous burgers in Korea. They are slowly expanding all over the world.
It was a long walk from the subway as the mall is very confusing to navigate, especially if you are a tourist. When I got here, there was a line out the door at 8pm! I waited about 10 mins to find a seat.
The K.B Original has 100% Pure Beef Patty, one slice of cheese, lettuce, fresh tomato slice, fresh onion slice, chili sauce, homemade pickles on a Baked Bun. They have a lot of crazy types of burgers but I really wanted to try the original Kraze Burger. It was a delicious solid burger that satisfied me, but it was expensive! I probably could have gotten 2 meals for the price of this burger.
Overall, it’s delicious but if you are in town for a short while, might as well skip this and try more traditional Korean food.
We Rate Kraze Burger:
Address:
Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu,
Seoul, South Korea
Burger King in South Korea serves different desserts than in Canada. Since I heard they had patbingsu (팥빙수) – shaved ice dessert, I needed to go see how it compared to other places. Eating patbingsu is very popular during the hot humid Summer time.
The menu had a lot of different desserts. Lots of ice cream and cold drinks. I was very tempted to order everything, but I only have one stomach.
Patbingsu comes with a bed of shaved ice, topped with canned pineapples, red bean, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and a dollop of ice cream. I was more impressed by the patbingsu at Burger King than at Miss Lee Cafe.
It tasted ok, but the red bean was very strange to me…but it’s probably because I don’t like red bean. The canned fruit was ok considering it was a fast food chain.
I wasn’t use to eating this type of dessert, but it was ok to me. It’s still cool to see the different desserts around the world offered at Burger King. If you are in Korea, definitely try Patbingsu at other restaurants that specialize in it….probably not Burger King.
