Then it was the last part of our trip, a few days in the capital of Korea (they don’t call it South Korea over there, understandably…)

First was the local (to our hotel, anyway) branch of Craftworks Taphouse. See here bars and restaurants under office blocks, bus stations and the like tend to be grimy, ugly, scary experiences but not so in Japan and Korea. They’re a chain, very nice food, very solid range of their own beers and guest ones from other breweries too…

We ended up over in Itaewon one night and had two vastly differing experiences. I’d read in an article that Reilly’s Taphouse was a spot worth checking out.

Maybe we caught it on a bad night but it was almost empty, smelled a bit greasy and we were told that only 5 taps were working…

About a ten minute walk away Magpie Brewing was a completely different proposition. Despite that it’s quite hard to find (down a side laneway, down a grimy flight of stairs) inside it was cool, stylish, full of bright young Seouites, food smelled great and the in-house beers were super. This is one you need to make the effort to seek out…

 

(Check out other posts from the same trip from Tokyo and Kyoto and Hiroshima)