Best Places to eat Near Kintex or Sonocalm Hotel 2026version

Visiting KINTEX for an exhibition or conference?

Kintex is famous for massive conferences or Concerts these days

The Goyang Stadium is also used as a concert hall that welcomes 

50,000 people. 

 

KINTEX has quietly become one of Korea's great gathering places. Once the domain of trade exhibitions and industry conferences, Goyang's landmark venue now draws tens of thousands to world-class concerts at the neighboring stadium — including the highly anticipated BTS shows opening April 2026. With that kind of foot traffic comes an inevitable flood of restaurants chasing reviews rather than repeat customers.

 

This guide is different. Born from eleven years of running what I'll immodestly call Korea's finest craft brewery — right here in Ilsan — every recommendation below is a personal pledge. These are the places I take my own friends. Spots where flavor, soul, and the people behind the stoves still matter more than star ratings and algorithm-optimized signage

 

When visiting this area many tourists,

visitors want the best experience in this area.

And then comes up the main question

“Where should we eat nearby?”

 

Because there are many franchises or

restaurants that are just good at getting 

reviews.  I dedicate this post only on 

restaurants that I pledge quality and flavor service 

and ambience. 

 

Since I have founded the best craft brewery in Korea

and we have been known for our savoring beers and

Super tasty food. All of the recommedations are more 

focused on flavor rather than the best reviews or systems 

that allure many reviews. 

 

AKA Local recommedations .

 

This 2026 guide covers the best restaurants near KINTEX and Sono Calm Hotel —

perfect for team dinners, client meetings, and casual meals.

 

KINTEX (Korea International Exhibition Center) is the largest exhibition venue in Korea, located in Goyang, just outside Seoul.

Most visitors stay near:
- Sono Calm Goyang Hotel
- One Mount complex
- KINTEX station area

 

1. Playground Brewery Taphouse 

I'll begin with us — because not to would be false modesty. Playground Brewery has spent over a decade quietly racking up firsts: Korea's first canned craft beer, its first New England IPA, the first brewery to formalize food pairing as a concept worth taking seriously. Our beers have been poured at 35,000 feet on Korean Air. But what keeps people coming back is simpler than accolades — it's the Lemon Mayo Shrimp Taco, the Cuban Quesadilla, the house-made salsa. Southeast Asian-inflected dishes engineered to make a cold, fresh-poured IPA taste like a revelation.

For post-exhibition group dinners or impromptu networking over pints, there is nowhere better in the KINTEX corridor.

✔ Why go:
- In-house craft beer (fresh and unique flavors)
- Perfect for group dinners after exhibitions
- Lively atmosphere, great for networking

✔ What to try:
- Lemon Mayo Shrimp Taco (crispy & flavorful)
- House-made salsa tacos
- Signature burgers

- Cuban Quesadilla 

- Best South asian style foods that pair excellent with our fresh brewed beers. 

✔ Best for:
Teams, business dinners, casual networking after KINTEX

📍 Location: One Mount complex (near KINTEX)

 

2. The Soju Experience with Korean Pork

Hwasumok at Daewha station 

Some cuts of meat require a knowledgeable guide. Pork neck — tender, fatty, deeply savory — is one of them, and Hwasumok handles it with the quiet confidence of a place that knows exactly what it does well. The white kimchi and green onion  salad arrive cool and crisp, a perfect foil to the char. This is where I bring friends who want to understand Korean drinking culture from the inside out: soju poured between friends, smoke in the air, and food that earns its keep.

 

3. Korean style Lunch at Ilsan Deulbab

A subtler pleasure, but an essential one. Deulbab is where you go when you want to eat Korean food the way Koreans actually eat at home — freshly steamed rice, an evolving rotation of banchan, and a dining room that can comfortably seat parties of ten to twenty. (A note for the discerning: this kitchen reinvented itself from its tofu-house origins; early reviews don't reflect what it's become.) Ideal for business lunches where the conversation matters as much as the meal.

 

4. Korean Beef soup #1 in Ilsan Seodonggwan 

There are soups, and then there is Seodonggwan. The kitchen works exclusively with Hanwoo — Korea's answer to Wagyu — and the result is a broth of uncommon clarity: clean, deep, trembling with collagen, with beef so tender it barely needs to be chewed. It is, admittedly, priced to reflect its ingredients. But a bowl here is not merely lunch; it is a case study in the virtue of restraint. For guests who cannot tolerate spice, this is the unambiguous choice. 

 

5. Bossam and Jokbal!, Korea's Schweinhakse - Kotpi wooneun Kiwa Bossam

Korea has its own answer to Schweinshaxe, and you'll find one of its finest expressions here. The braised pork arrives falling-soft, accompanied by bossam kimchi that strikes exactly the right balance of fermented funk and freshness. The jengban makguksu — cold buckwheat noodles served family-style — is non-negotiable. Reservations are required for table seating; some guests will find themselves on floor cushions, a small price for food this good. Best enjoyed with the right company and nowhere to be afterward.

This place is great for 5~8 people. 

 

6. Korean Chinese Food JJaJang Noodles - Daebakgak 

Made-to-order. Hand-pulled to the moment. The noodles at Daebakgak have the kind of chew that only comes from doing one thing obsessively well. Pair them with the tangsuyuk — lacquered, sweet-sour, impossibly crisp — and you have one of the most satisfying small meals in the area. The room holds fifteen people at best, and the queue reflects its reputation. Arrive early, keep your party small, eat gratefully.

7. Korean Kalguksu and Spicy squid and Braised Pork Ilsan Bongyi Kalguksu 

Are you able to handle some spicyness?

This is the kind of place that reminds you why you travel for food. Abundant, honest, and gloriously unsubtle — braised pork, fire-bright spicy squid, and hand-cut kalguksu noodles swimming in a restorative broth, all under one roof. The flavors lean sweet and comforting rather than complex, which is exactly the point. If you time it right, you'll watch the kimchi being made in the open kitchen — a reminder that everything here is rooted in process and tradition.

 

8. Chicken ginseng soup Samgyetang! - Boyang Samgyetang 

I'll be candid: the concert crowds have changed this place somewhat. The lines are longer, the warmth more variable. But on its best days — and they still exist — a bowl of samgyetang here is medicinal in the truest sense. A whole young chicken, rice-stuffed and slow-simmered with ginseng and jujube until the broth shimmers gold. It revives you from the inside. Large parties are welcome, which is increasingly rare for a kitchen of this caliber.

 

There are so many other places to go to 

but some of the places lack cleanliness, and 

9. Late night Frozen Pork BBQ with soju - Wooya Wooya 

Looking for some late night fun? 

La Festa after dark is its own ecosystem — restaurants alive past midnight, the city still buzzing. Among its many options, Wooya Wooya stands apart for its frozen-sliced samgyeopsal: thin, marbled, cooked tableside with a simplicity that somehow becomes the perfect vehicle for soju. I genuinely cannot explain the alchemy of this

 

The KINTEX area rewards the curious diner who ventures past the obvious. These nine tables represent the best of what Ilsan has quietly been doing for years — long before the concerts and the crowds arrived.place. I go in for one round and always leave significantly later than intended. Consider yourself warned.