Seongsu Thai restaurant to end a day trip: cilantro noodles, Thanon55

I'm finally wrapping up my Seoul day trip! After eating tacos around Seongsu, and ice cream before that, I really wanted something refreshing. And when you want that, rice noodles come to mind, right? So I went to Thanon55, a Thai restaurant in Seongsu cooked by actual locals, with lots of regulars.

• Location: 16 Ttukseom-ro 9-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, 1st floor, Unit 203
• Hours: 11:30-22:00
• Closed every Sunday

Where is Thanon55 in Seongsu?

Thanon55 is a Thai restaurant on an alley off Ttukseom-ro 9-gil, a little away from Seongsu's main street. The building has an unusual layout, but the sign makes it obvious from far away that this is a Thai place, so it wasn't hard to find.

A local-style interior and a Thai owner

The inside is cute and cozy, like a Thai local eatery picked up and moved here. And both the owner and the staff are Thai! A place like this can't be bad.

Each table has four kinds of spice containers. Chili flakes and sauces are set out so you can season to your taste, and a self-serve corner lets you grab side dishes easily.

Here's what we ordered that day.

• Gamjatang rice noodles (pork bone soup-style rice noodles)
• Mu thod curry (fried pork with curry)
• 2 extra cilantro

What does Thanon55's best-selling mu thod curry taste like?

Mu thod curry comes with curry sauce, well-fried pork and rice. We ordered the small size, and the portion was just right. The Thai-style curry is egg-based and silky-soft, and it already looked delicious.

I mixed the curry into the rice and topped it with the pork. The flavor is so mild that even people who don't usually like curry could eat it with no issue, and the freshly fried, crispy pork goes really well with it. Honestly, it was my first time trying mu thod curry, and I ordered it because it's Thanon55's best-selling dish. There's a reason it's the best seller! The soft, nutty flavors balance each other so well, and it was so good. When it starts to feel heavy, dipping it in the chili sauce that comes alongside doubles the taste.

Thanon55's gamjatang rice noodles: how to eat them like hangover soup

The gamjatang rice noodles come with a really big bone in them! Sliced garlic on top got my mouth watering right away. I tried the broth first, and it settled my slightly greasy stomach right down.

The broth is already good, but when we added a bit of the chili flakes from the table, it became a proper hangover soup. The kick made it even better. Then I added the cilantro I'd ordered, and the bowl looked perfect.

The meat on the bone was so tender it slid right off at the touch of chopsticks, and the broth had soaked into it. The rice noodles had absorbed the broth too, and were cooked well, neither mushy nor firm. Eaten with cilantro, it really felt like eating in Thailand, yet the flavors are ones Korean diners can't help but like. Maybe that's why there are so many regulars, and when dinner peak hour came, lots of customers showed up.

How was Thanon55 as the last stop of a Seoul day trip?

Thanon55, the Thai restaurant in Seongsu where I ended my Seoul day trip, was even better than I expected. It tasted better because a Thai owner cooks it herself, yet the dishes suit Korean tastes perfectly. I even want to try their other rice noodles and dishes. My greasy stomach settled right down, and even though I hadn't drunk much, it felt like a hangover cure. It was a place I really liked.