Season 2 ended in January 2026 with the strangest result a food show can produce: a champion with nowhere to book. Choi Kang-rok — the only returning chef from season 1 — took the title and the ₩300 million, having already closed his restaurant Neo back in 2024, and he says he is in no hurry to open another.
So this guide starts where the others end: what a fan can actually do with that.
The winner's food costs ₩1,500 at a convenience store
From February 2026, the dish that won the final — his sesame-tofu soup — exists as a GS25 collaboration product, alongside other cast items, at ₩1,500–4,500. A champion's recipe at convenience-store prices, available at three in the morning, nationwide. As a pilgrimage it is either the least satisfying in Seoul or the most honest one; either way it is the only taste of this season's winner on offer.
The runner-up is no easier: Lee Ha-sung, "Cooking Monster", is opening Oyatte in New York, not Korea.
Now the tables that do exist.
The bookable list
| Restaurant | Chef | Style | Price | Booking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soigné 스와니예 | Jun Lee | Contemporary tasting, 2★ | From ~₩70,000 lunch | CatchTable — opens the 11th · Naver |
| Sam Sam Sam 쌤쌤쌤 | Kim Hoon "Trend King" | Casual Western | ₩5,000–30,000 | Walk-in weekdays / CatchTable · Naver |
| Eatanic Garden 이타닉가든 | Son Jong-won | Modern Korean, 1★ | ₩50,000–100,000+ | CatchTable — opens the 1st · Naver |
The restaurants, one by one
Soigné 스와니예 — the splurge, done properly
Chef: Jun Lee 이준 — season 2's heavyweight white spoon
Style: Contemporary tasting — Korean ideas, French and Italian technique · two Michelin stars
Order: The "doughnut" appetiser is the one everyone photographs
Address: 2F, 46 Banpo-daero 39-gil, Seocho-gu · 서울 서초구 반포대로39길 46 2층
Subway: Express Bus Terminal Stn (Lines 3 · 7 · 9), then a short walk into Seorae's side streets
Price: Tasting menus from about ₩70,000 at lunch; dinner well beyond
Booking: CatchTable Global — tables open on the 11th of each month · Naver listing
If season 2 convinced you to spend real money once, spend it here — and if the 11th goes badly, his handmade-pasta sibling Doughroom books far more easily and carries the same hands.
Sam Sam Sam 쌤쌤쌤 — the one you can just go to
Chef: Kim Hoon 김훈, "Trend King" — the black spoon with the queue
Style: Casual Western with a San Francisco accent
Order: The lasagna is the famous one; the jambon-beurre pasta is the regulars' order
Address: 25 Hangang-daero 50-gil, Yongsan-gu · 서울 용산구 한강대로50길 25
Subway: Sinyongsan Stn (Line 4) — it is the block behind the HYBE building, which explains some of the queue
Price: Mains ₩5,000–30,000 — an ordinary dinner, extraordinary demand
Booking: Weekday walk-ins are realistic; CatchTable for certainty · Naver listing
The season's accessible answer: show food at street prices, no release-day alarm required.
Eatanic Garden 이타닉가든 — modern Korean, 36 floors up
Chef: Son Jong-won 손종원 — white spoon; his French room L'Amant Secret holds a star too
Style: Modern Korean fine dining, one Michelin star
Address: 36F, Josun Palace Hotel, 231 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu · 서울 강남구 테헤란로 231 조선팰리스 36층
Subway: Seolleung Stn (Line 2 · Suin–Bundang) — the hotel sits on top of it
Price: ₩50,000–100,000+ by menu; the view is included
Booking: CatchTable Global — tables open on the 1st of each month · Naver listing
Hotel fine dining with English-speaking reservations — the lowest-friction of the season's serious tables for a visitor.
The full top 7, by show name
Season 2 cut to a semifinal seven. The aliases, the people, and what each table honestly is in October 2026:
| Show name | 화명 | Chef | Restaurant | 2026 status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | 최강록 | Choi Kang-rok | — | Winner, no restaurant — Neo closed 2024; GS25 shelves instead |
| Cooking Monster | 요리괴물 | Lee Ha-sung | Oyatte | Runner-up — opening in New York, not Korea |
| Monk Seonjae | 선재스님 | Ven. Seonjae | — (temple kitchens) | Korea's temple-food master — her cuisine is the vegetarian guide's subject, not a restaurant |
| — | 후덕죽 | Hu Deok-juk | Haobin 하오빈 | Bookable — details below |
| Brewing Mother Yun | 술 빚는 윤주모 | Yun Na-ra | Yunjudang 윤주당 | By name — Naver: 윤주당 |
| — | 정호영 | Jung Ho-young | Kaden 카덴 (udon) | By name — Naver: 카덴 |
| — | 임성근 | Lim Sung-keun | — | Master craftsman; by name — Naver |
The pattern worth noticing: of seven semifinalists, only two have a straightforwardly bookable Seoul table. The season's deepest cut — Monk Seonjae — has no restaurant at all, because temple food is practice rather than product; the closest a visitor gets to her cooking is the cuisine itself:
Haobin 하오빈 — the master's Chinese table
Chef: Hu Deok-juk 후덕죽 — the season's Chinese fine-dining heavyweight
Style: Fine Chinese — Peking duck, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall
Address: Ambassador Seoul Pullman Hotel, 287 Dongho-ro, Jung-gu · 서울 중구 동호로 287
Subway: Dongguk Univ. Stn (Line 3) — the hotel hill above it
Price: ₩50,000–100,000+ by menu
Booking: Hotel concierge takes the booking — the lowest-friction fine table of the season · Naver listing
Hotel restaurants book like hotels rather than like Netflix phenomena, which makes this the quiet way to eat at a semifinalist's table without a release-day alarm.
How booking actually works
Same machinery as season 1, sharper demand: CatchTable Global in English, release days over queueing — Soigné on the 11th, Eatanic Garden on the 1st — and the cancellation waitlist as the honest plan B. Walk-ins exist only at Sam Sam Sam, and only on weekdays.
Verified October 2026. This season's facts moved fast even before airing finished — confirm on CatchTable or Naver before building a night around any of it.
