Gangnam, Sinchon, Hongdae are traditional hot place in Seoul. I spent all my twenties in those areas. I have lived in Gangnam since I was born, I graduated University and law school in Sinchon area. I almost felt boring on Sinchon and Hongdae.
Luckily, there is another kind of new place to go near Hongdae area. The name of the administrative district is Yeonnam-dong. There was a railway long time ago. Now the railroad is changed and there is a small park following the old railway. There is a small park with lawn, benches and flowing water in the middle of the area. There are restaurants, cafes and bars (I went there because of one cocktail bar) along side of the park. People named the area Yeon-tral park, added up Yeonnam-dong and Central Park in New York.
In this posting, I'll introduce the area and how to find out places using paid reviews to drag customers.
Alleys in Yeontral park
Fun of Yeontral park is to go up and down through the alleys. Small but tasty places are hidden in alleys. Some of them has modern and pretty interior designs. Some are old and outdated but famous with good taste. From the basement floor to the roof top, small shops are located here and there.
Menus are also various. From Korean traditional food to French dessert. There are famous Chinese restaurant with long history, traditional Korean drink Makkgeoli place, pizza and beer, high end cocktail bars.
My typical course in Yeontral park is like this:
-Go to Yeontral park slightly before meal time because I don't want to wait.
-Eat something heavy with drink.
-Go to pretty cafe and have dessert or go to cocktail bar for drinking
I personally like the place which name is '숨은골목(Soomeun golmok; meaning hidden alley). Its signature dish are fish. Fish are cook with typical Korean marinades and they go well with makgeolli. There are also other traditional drinks. Not many restaurants have all those traditional drinks so it's kind of fun drinking different one whenever I visit there. One of my friend who drinks really well introduced me this place and we almost crawled out after heavy drinking. We ordered spicy steam fish(I forgot the name of the fish..) and the flesh was melt down on my tongue with alcohol.
There is one of my favorite cocktail bar here too. I graduated University and also graduated from crazy drinking which basically means drink a looooooooooooot. To drink a lot, I usually drank soju and beer. I drank soju not because they were tasty but they were cheap. Gladly, now, I can enjoy tasty drinks even if they are bit expensive. My favorite cocktail bar was originally in Gyeonglidan-gil in near Noksapyeong and Itaewon. However the bartenders were kicked out while the bar was sold and one of the bartender came to this bar. That's how me and my friend came to this bar at first. After 2 years, that bartender again moved to other bar but we still go this cocktail bar.
Social media and Yeontral Park
Originally this area was old, quiet place. Hongdae and Sinchon area was always kind of hot place for young people even when my parents were University students but this area was resident area. Things were changed because of gentrification. There were originally small pubs, restaurants, handcraft shops in Hongdae area. However big corporations launched there shop and restaurants and building owners asked a lot of money for rent. Many small shop owners couldn't pay the rent and they moved out to near places which have still reasonable rent. That's how Yeontral park was first built.
As a result, restaurants, cafes and pubs are generally not franchise. Places are not that big, many places have only few tables, so it's not hard to see long waiting lines especially near lunch, dinner time. Because young people usually visit here and shop owners are not big corporations, many places are dependent on social media. Customers take photos using pretty interior design and utensils, upload it on Instagram or Facebook.
There is a pros and cons of this trend in Yeontral park.
Pros.
Things are pretty. Who doesn't like seeing pretty interior designs. They don't want to get bad reviews so service is not bad usually.
You can save energy and time to search good places.
Cons.
Some of them are only for showing on social media. Cups are pretty but too small, I can finish them with 2 sips. Furniture looks pretty but some chairs are uncomfortable to sit long time. It even looks like the shop owners want customers to go out quickly. Some places suggest free drink or other complimentary food and literally bought nice reviews. Those places where bought reviews are always disappointing.
How to avoid paid reviews
There are few tips Koreans using to avoid paid reviews. When you searched relatomng keywords on Naver and there are more than 3 reviews about one place from the 1st to 3rd pages, they are paid reviews with high probability.
Also, if you read any blog reviews especially Naver blog ones and found out meaningless Line character stickers, they are paid reviews with high probability. Shop owners paid to viral marketing companies, those companies paid some blogger to write reviews or to upload postings. Somehow all viral marketing reviews are soulless and I can feel that this person wrote the post unwillingly through the low quality.
When you searched the shop's instagram but you can't write reviews on comments, there might be the on going conflict between customers, Internet users and the owner. Not always but with high probability.
If you find any notification saying "you can get free drink/food if you upload this place with this hashtag blah blah~" are definitely using paid reviews.
I'm not saying all paid reviews are bad. I understand the owners need to advertise their shops. However I personally don't go places suddenly being seen on top of Naver reviews within shot times. Those places are usually very crowded because people just simply search with some keywords on Naver and pick where to go.
What else in Yeontral Park
There are narrow park area with lawn and some trees. Benches are always occupied and some people brought picnic mats. I always just went in to buildings but it looked fun people staying outside when the weather was nice. Buying some drinks and snacks from near convenient stores and having fun time outside would be fun.
Yeontral park is between Hongdae and Sinchon area. If you have meals and drink in Hongdae or Sinchon and have some peaceful time for 2nd or 3rd round, you can just come over this area easily.
I think this area will be doomed eventually due to gentrification. I don't want to be sarcastic but it was always like that. Every hot places were destroyed because landlords increased rent too high. People visit new places when they can find out new, creative items which big corporations never can provide. If small shop owners get kicked out by high rent, they will make another new hot place and big corporations and landlords will ruin it again. Itaewon, Sancheong-dong, Garosugil were all like that. I hope someday, this stupid circles are stopped.
Until now, Yeontral park is okay.
If you find any errors, have updated information or want to add some comments, feel free to let me know (Last update: 2019. 5. 31.)
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