Private-room Korean restaurant near Deoksugung Palace: Modam Dining

A refined Gwanghwamun Korean restaurant with individual private rooms, serving high-quality hanjeongsik (Korean set-course meal) courses — great for family gatherings or a formal matchmaking meal: Modam Dining.

Where is Modam Dining Gwanghwamun, and what are the hours?

Modam Dining Gwanghwamun is a hanjeongsik room restaurant a 10-minute walk from Gwanghwamun Station Exit 6, in the basement level of Deoksugung D Palace. It's open daily 11:00–22:00, with a break time 15:00–17:00 on weekdays only, and last order at 20:10.

Entrance and interior: inside the Deoksugung D Palace basement

Modam Dining is a Gwanghwamun Korean course restaurant located in the basement of D Palace near Deoksugung Palace.

There are plenty of good restaurants in the D Palace basement, and this one has clean restrooms and a pleasant, uncrowded interior. That said, it's a bit of a walk from the station, so if you're coming on foot rather than by car, it's best to give yourself extra time ☺️

Private rooms and partitioned hall seats for family gatherings

From the entrance, Modam Dining has a tidy, refined atmosphere as a Gwanghwamun hanjeongsik room restaurant. Inside there are several independent private rooms, and even the hall tables are separated by tall partitions — I'd recommend it for meeting important guests, family gatherings, or a formal matchmaking meal!

At the table right next to us, a young couple was dining with their parents, chatting warmly while enjoying the hanjeongsik course — it looked really nice 🙂

The menu: 7 Modam table-setting sets and 2 specials

Before the main dish, several courses are served in sequence, making Modam Dining a great place to experience a complete hanjeongsik course. You can choose from 7 value-for-money Modam table-setting sets or 2 more special Modam Special sets, and the hanwoo bulgogi hot pot set and hanwoo gopchang (beef tripe) hot pot set require a minimum order of two people.

There's a wide range of drinks that pair well with the Korean course, like highballs and traditional liquors, and they seem to run a corkage-free event regularly!

What we ordered: two set meals for 77,000 won total

At Modam Dining Gwanghwamun, we ordered the bori-gulbi set at ₩37,000 and the abalone tteokgalbi set at ₩40,000, for ₩77,000 total. Ordering a Modam table-setting set gets you salad and seasonal porridge first.

Salad and seasonal porridge, with chopsticks on every plate

Every salad came in a generous portion, and I was impressed by the thoughtful touch of a single pair of chopsticks placed on each salad plate! I personally dislike everyone's individual chopsticks sweeping across shared dishes, so this made me happy from the start of the meal 🙂

The seasonal salad with yuzu dressing was refreshingly tangy!

The mustard vegetable salad with pine nut sauce had crunchy cucumber that felt like a dish on its own,

and the cheongyang chili water kimchi came in a generous portion too — so refreshing and great as a side dish to eat throughout the main course 🥰

Sharing the salad onto beautiful jade-toned small plates before the main course felt good and tasted good too — Modam Dining is a great Gwanghwamun Korean restaurant for family gatherings.

Three appetizers: ceviche, Modam tempura and perilla oil capellini

Following the salad came three appetizers: ceviche with seasonal raw fish and pickles, Modam tempura, and perilla oil capellini.

The Wando flounder ceviche and

the perilla oil capellini whetted the appetite,

and the Modam tempura — chewy, plump shiitake mushrooms fried up — was a work of art! Fancier and more textured than any meat tempura I've had, this shiitake tempura is something I definitely want again 🥰

The mains: bori-gulbi with brown rice green tea, and abalone tteokgalbi

Timed to our eating pace, the main dishes arrived: bori-gulbi with brown rice green tea, and abalone tteokgalbi. Ordering two different sets on purpose turned out to be a great choice.

For the bori-gulbi (dried yellow croaker), a skilled staff member deboned the whole fish in about a minute with expert hands,

and the main dish arrives with a hearty spread of four side dishes, today's soup, and multigrain rice. This is a lineup parents can't help but love 😙

The four side dishes all tasted wholesome and healthy.

Eating the bori-gulbi over rice soaked in brown rice green tea tasted like a royal feast, honestly haha

And the abalone — need I say more. The tteokgalbi, made with domestic beef chuck flap and pork foreleg, had such incredible sweet-and-savory flavor that one bowl of rice per person wasn't nearly enough.

Sujeonggwa to finish the dinner

A clean, refreshing sujeonggwa (cinnamon-persimmon punch) rounded off the meal with real polish — a successful dinner at this Korean restaurant near Deoksugung Palace!

Whether you're bringing parents, elders, an important guest, or a date, Modam Dining is a great-value Gwanghwamun Korean restaurant where anyone can enjoy a satisfying hanjeongsik course meal.