I was in Seoul for a conference a few years ago, and it was pretty obvious that there was a "tourist halo" around the Conrad and other big western hotels. Once

I was in Seoul for a conference a few years ago, and it was pretty obvious that there was a "tourist halo" around the Conrad and other big western hotels. Once you got outside that, you very quickly started to find eateries where they don't accept western credit cards, there's no English on the menu, and there might not even be a person on staff capable of speaking competent English. But like, the small group I was with ended up at a place like this that did Korean BBQ: we showed the proprietor the cash we had, and basically they brought out a selection of delicious things, took our money, and that was that. I guess it's possible we might have been disappointed, but it ended up being a great experience, and certainly far more true to the experience of a local than eating in one of the hotel restaurants.