Restaurant in Seoul, South Korea
Serious cooking, easy to book.
Trid holds back-to-back Michelin Plate recognition (2024 and 2025) and delivers a service experience that punches above its ₩₩₩ price tier in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. It is the right call for food travellers who want attentive, unhurried dining without committing to the cost of Seoul's full tasting-menu rooms. Booking is easy — a few days' notice is usually enough.
Trid earns its back-to-back Michelin Plate recognition (2024 and 2025) the right way: through a service approach that matches the seriousness of its contemporary kitchen without tipping into the stiffness that plagues some of Gangnam's more formal addresses. If you are after a mid-tier price point (₩₩₩) with the kind of attentive, unhurried attention usually reserved for rooms charging considerably more, book Trid. If you want full Michelin-star spectacle and a longer, more theatrical tasting menu, look elsewhere on this list — but know that you will pay for it.
Picture a Tuesday evening in Gangnam-gu. The neighbourhood hums with the particular energy of Seoul's most polished district — office workers wrapping up late, couples navigating the side streets off Seolleung-ro. Up on the second floor of a low-rise building, Trid runs at its own pace, indifferent to the noise below. That calm is not accidental. It is the defining characteristic of a room that has spent two consecutive years earning Michelin recognition by doing the fundamentals unusually well.
Trid opened on that second-floor address at 16 Seolleung-ro 162-gil and has built a Google rating of 4.8 across 28 reviews , a sample size small enough to note, but consistent enough to trust. Small review counts in this range almost always reflect a deliberate, high-retention crowd rather than a viral one. Guests who return tend to rate consistently, and 4.8 is a difficult number to maintain unless the kitchen and front-of-house are aligned.
The cuisine is classified as Contemporary, which in Seoul's current dining context means a kitchen that draws on seasonal ingredients and modern technique without committing to a single national tradition. For the food enthusiast who travels specifically to understand a city's cooking right now, this is a meaningful choice. Contemporary at the ₩₩₩ tier in Seoul is where chefs tend to work with the most freedom , not constrained by the grand-tasting-menu format that dominates the tier above, and not limited to a single-course focus that defines the tier below.
The service philosophy is where Trid separates itself from comparable ₩₩₩ contemporaries, and it is worth dwelling on this given the Michelin Plate designation. A Michelin Plate is not a star , it denotes a restaurant where the inspectors found good cooking worth noting, not necessarily a complete fine-dining experience. But at Trid, the front-of-house treatment reads more like a one-star room than the designation suggests. That gap between the formality of the award and the warmth of the actual experience works in the diner's favour. You are not paying for ceremony, but you are receiving something close to it.
Practically, this matters for anyone deciding between Trid and the ₩₩₩₩ options in the same city. A meal at Jungsik or Eatanic Garden will cost you a tier more and deliver a longer, more composed tasting experience. Trid asks less financially and returns a room that does not feel like a compromise , which is the cleaner value proposition for a two-night Seoul itinerary where you want to spread spend across multiple restaurants rather than anchor one evening entirely.
For the food traveller who treats a city's dining options as a research project, Trid is also a useful data point. Seoul's contemporary scene has matured rapidly, and the ₩₩₩ bracket now contains genuinely skilled kitchens that would have sat a tier higher five years ago. Restaurant Allen and Exquisine occupy similar territory and are worth comparing across a multi-day visit. If you are extending the trip outside Seoul, Mori in Busan and Double T Dining in Gangneung offer strong regional counterpoints to what the capital is doing at this level.
The Gangnam-gu address is practical: well-connected by Seoul's metro, close to the Seolleung and Yeoksam stations, and in a neighbourhood where the surrounding options for a pre-dinner drink or post-dinner walk are solid. The second-floor location means you will pass through a staircase or lift rather than walking directly off the street into the room , a minor logistical note for anyone with mobility considerations.
Two consecutive Michelin Plates tell you the inspectors kept coming back and kept finding the kitchen consistent. Consistency at this price point is harder to maintain than a single strong performance, which is the more important signal here. Trid is not riding a debut-year wave of attention. It is doing the same thing twice in a row and being recognised for it both times. For anyone building a Seoul itinerary around restaurants, that is the kind of information that moves a venue up the list.
Our full guides to Seoul restaurants, Seoul hotels, Seoul bars, Seoul wineries, and Seoul experiences are available if you are planning a broader trip. For contemporary dining references outside Korea, César in New York City and Smoked Room in Dubai offer useful international benchmarks in the contemporary-at-accessible-price-point category.
Booking difficulty at Trid is rated Easy. With a small review count and no Michelin star, this is not a room that requires weeks of advance planning. A few days' notice should be sufficient for most evenings, though weekend slots at popular Seoul restaurants in Gangnam tend to move faster than weekday tables. Confirm availability directly , phone and website details are not currently listed in our database, so your leading route is through the venue address or a local concierge service.
Price sits at ₩₩₩, placing it in the mid-upper range for Seoul dining , expect to spend meaningfully but not at the level of the city's full tasting-menu rooms. Dress code, hours, and specific booking policies are not confirmed in our current data; treat the experience as smart-casual appropriate unless the venue advises otherwise.
Quick reference: Trid, 2F 16 Seolleung-ro 162-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul , Contemporary, ₩₩₩, Michelin Plate 2024 and 2025, Google 4.8/5 , Easy to book, mid-upper Seoul price tier.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trid | Contemporary | Michelin Plate (2025); Michelin Plate (2024) | Easy | — |
| 7th Door | Korean, Contemporary | Michelin 1 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Solbam | Contemporary | Michelin 1 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Onjium | Korean | Michelin 1 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| L'Amitié | French | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| Zero Complex | Korean-French, Innovative | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
How Trid stacks up against the competition.
Specific dietary policy is not documented in available venue data, which is common for smaller contemporary restaurants at this tier in Seoul. The safest approach is to check the venue's official channels before booking — especially for strict requirements like shellfish allergies or vegetarian menus — since contemporary tasting formats often have limited substitution flexibility.
Trid is a contemporary restaurant in Gangnam-gu holding Michelin Plate recognition in both 2024 and 2025 — a consistent signal of kitchen quality without the price ceiling of a starred room. At ₩₩₩, it sits in the mid-to-upper range for Seoul dining, so expect polished food and attentive service without the ceremony of a full tasting-menu institution. It is a good entry point into Seoul's serious contemporary dining scene if you want Michelin credibility with a lower booking barrier than Onjium or L'Amitié.
Booking difficulty is rated Easy, so a few days' notice is typically sufficient rather than the weeks required at starred Seoul venues. That said, Friday and Saturday evenings in Gangnam-gu fill faster than midweek slots, so book 3 to 5 days out to be safe. If your schedule is flexible, a Tuesday or Wednesday reservation is the path of least resistance.
Yes, for a solo diner wanting a credentialled meal in Gangnam-gu without the commitment of a long omakase, Trid at ₩₩₩ is a practical choice. The easy booking rating means you are not competing for a single counter seat weeks in advance. Solo diners who want more counter interaction and a theatrical format might also consider Zero Complex, but Trid offers a lower-pressure alternative.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
