u/owler-15

Korea certifies long-running restaurants as 백년가게, places that have served the same dish for decades. Some are famous, a lot are tiny neighborhood spots almost nobody writes about.

Curious what this sub's favorites are. I was going through the official list on a map recently (here if useful: https://seoulstart.com/heritage-restaurants) and realized I'd only been to a handful.

Which ones are worth going out of your way for?

https://github.com/seoulstart/awesome-korea-travel

Open-source, multilingual list of the resources travelers to Korea actually end up using: planning and the best time to visit, money and payments (tax refund, WOWPASS, prepaid cards), getting around (Korail, SRT, KR PASS, T-money, the maps apps that actually work in Korea), Seoul, Busan, Jeju and beyond, things to do, food, and festivals by season.

Available in 20 languages. Every entry anchored to an official source first (government portal or tourism authority), with resident-tested guides alongside. CC BY licensed, so anyone can fork or translate.

Sharing in case it's useful. Open to PRs if something's missing.

https://github.com/seoulstart/awesome-build-for-korea

If you're a foreigner, an English-speaking resident, or really anyone in Korea building something here, a side project, a startup, an app, or freelance work for Korean clients, this might help.

Korea runs on a different tech stack than the West. Stripe coverage is thin, so most teams use a Korean payment gateway plus the KakaoPay, Naver Pay, and Toss wallets. Real-name identity verification (본인인증) is often mandatory, Google Maps barely works so you use Naver or Kakao Maps, and login usually means Kakao or Naver, not email.

This is an open-source, multilingual list of the resources you actually reach for at each layer: payments, identity and 본인인증, maps and address lookup, messaging, AI/LLM for Korean, MCP servers, and public/government data. Every entry is annotated for whether the docs are in English, whether there's an SDK, and whether you can sign up from outside Korea as a foreign founder or developer.

Available in 15 languages. CC0 licensed, so anyone can fork or reuse it.

Sharing in case it's useful. Open to PRs if something's missing.

https://github.com/seoulstart/awesome-living-in-korea

Open-source, multilingual list of resources covering the questions that come up most often when foreigners are settling in or already living in Korea: visas (D-2, D-10, E-2, E-7, E-9, F-2 through F-6), housing (jeonse/wolse), NHIS health insurance, banking, taxes, work, Korean language (KIIP/TOPIK), family life, pets, and leaving Korea.

Available in English, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, Russian, and Mandarin Chinese. Every entry anchored to a Korean primary source (government portal or official guide). CC-BY licensed.

Sharing here in case it answers questions that come up in this sub repeatedly. Open to PRs if you spot something missing or stale.