Solbam

Verdict

Solbam lands at #55 on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants (2025) and holds a Michelin star, making it one of the most credentialed contemporary Korean tasting menus in Gangnam right now. At ₩₩₩₩ pricing with a wine list that runs deep into the $$$ tier, this is a considered spend — but the level of cooking, the progression of the tasting menu, the room justify it for anyone who takes Seoul's fine dining scene seriously. Book this if you want a structured, course-by-course argument for modern Korean cuisine. If you want something more casual or a shorter format, look elsewhere.

Portrait

Solbam opened in 2021 on the second floor of a building on Hakdong-ro in Gangnam-gu, it has moved quickly through the credential stack: Michelin star, Tatler Asia-Pacific Leading Restaurants 2025, La Liste 80 points (2026), and a spot inside the Asia's 50 Best top 60. For a restaurant less than four years old, that trajectory matters — it signals a kitchen operating with consistency, not just an opening surge. Chef-owner Eom Tae-jun runs both the kitchen and the business, the wine program sits under Wine Director Dong Yeon Ko, with a list of 400 selections across 1,300 inventory units weighted toward France, Italy, Spain, California.

The evening follows a deliberate two-part structure that is worth understanding before you arrive. You begin in a drawing room, atmospherically lit, separate from the main dining area, where drinks and small snacks establish the pace before the team leads you through to the dining room itself. The main room is described as bright and spacious, with an open kitchen as the visual anchor. That transition is intentional: Solbam is building a narrative arc from arrival to final course, the drawing room serves as a prologue. If you have been once and skipped the pre-dinner snacks or rushed through the opening stage, slow down on your return visit. The architecture of the experience is front-loaded.

The cooking works from Korea's seasonal larder as its primary material. Documented dishes include snow crab with cauliflower, abalone with bamboo shoots, Hanwoo with dallae (wild garlic). These are constructions that show technical precision alongside a clear point of view about what Korean ingredients can do within a contemporary tasting format. The service team is described as formal, presentation carries a theatrical edge, dishes arrive with deliberate staging. For a returning visitor, the wine pairing is the recommended path: the three or seven-glass option gives the sommelier team (Young Gil Choi, Hyeon Bin Park, Hae Chang Lee) the chance to move across the French and Italian core of a genuinely deep cellar. The corkage fee sits at ₩140,000 (approximately $104), which is on the higher side, bring something special if you go that route, otherwise the pairing is the better call.

Timing matters here. Solbam operates Tuesday through Sunday, dinner service only, opening at 5:30 PM and closing at 10:30 PM. Sunday is closed. If you are choosing between a weekday and a weekend visit, a Tuesday or Wednesday booking gives you a quieter room and a service team that is not stretched across back-to-back full houses. The kitchen's focus on seasonal ingredients means the menu shifts with the produce calendar, spring and autumn visits, when Korean mountain vegetables and domestic seafood are at peak availability, will give you the most representative reading of what the kitchen is doing. A late autumn or winter visit emphasises Hanwoo and heartier preparations; a spring booking catches the wild greens that are central to Korean culinary tradition. Neither is wrong, but if you are planning a first return after an initial visit, aim for a different season to see a different argument from the menu.

For a broader picture of Seoul's fine dining options, see our full Seoul restaurants guide. Comparable tasting-menu experiences in the city include Jungsik and Eatanic Garden, both operating at the same price tier. Outside Seoul, Mori in Busan is worth considering if your itinerary extends south. Solbam's position in Asia's 50 Best top 60 means reservation pressure is high and growing. Plan a minimum of four to six weeks out, treat any availability inside two weeks as a cancellation windfall rather than standard access. The restaurant operates dinner only, six nights a week (closed Sunday), which limits the total weekly covers. There is no walk-in culture at this level of Seoul fine dining. Confirmation of booking method is not available in our current data, check the official website at restaurantsolbam.com or use a Seoul-based concierge service if direct booking proves difficult. Phone: +82 70-4405-7788.

Practical Details

Solbam is located at 2F, 231 Hakdong-ro, Gangnam-gu, on the second floor, so confirm the entrance before arrival. For other nearby options in the neighbourhood, 권숙수, Kwon Sook Soo is another Gangnam-gu tasting menu worth knowing. Further afield in South Korea, Double T Dining in Gangneung and Pool House in Incheon offer different reference points if you are touring the country. For comparable contemporary tasting menus internationally, Alo in Toronto and César in New York City operate in a similar structural register.