［2024] The Best Place to Enjoy Korean Cuisine in Kyoto! A feature article on 15 popular restaurants in Kyoto!

At Irile Gosho Minami (Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto), a Korean restaurant in the Karasuma-Oike area, diners can casually enjoy ginseng-do (ginseng chicken soup), a representative dish of the “medical food” principle. The restaurant’s ginseng ginseng soup is based on a recipe directly handed down from the owner’s mother, the proprietress who opened Hanmi Ichi in Tsuruhashi (now Utsubo-honmachi), Osaka. The whole chicken is stuffed with glutinous rice and slowly simmered with ginseng, jujubes, and other ingredients used in medicinal cooking. The chicken meat falls apart, and the rich flavor of the soup, which is infused with the goodness of the ingredients, is sure to blow away your summer fatigue.

The standby courses including Park San Jun’s ginseng chicken soup are pine, bamboo, and plum (from 4,950 yen). The ginseng chicken soup is loosened in front of you by the staff to make it easier to eat, so first-timers don’t have to worry!

A renovated machiya (traditional Kyoto townhouse) that blends into a quiet residential area. Inside the restaurant, you can take off your shoes and relax at a table, where you can enjoy a quiet moment while looking at the tsuboniwa garden.