Start this Haebangchon walk by looking up at the signs. Red awnings, Arabic lettering and illuminated shop names lead through a neighborhood where Coca-Cola’s local project has given storefronts a new look. Along the way, there are both streets to photograph and places to stop for a meal.

Make Shinheung Market your starting point. Explore the small lanes, then choose a restaurant. Knowing a little about the owners changes the way you see a sign you might otherwise simply have photographed.

A different sign for every shop

A mural on a corner building and a pedestrian in Haebangchon한국 코카-콜라

The project began in Shinheung Market and expanded into the surrounding streets. PizzAo’s red-and-white awning, Casablanca’s Arabic logo and Hanshin Onggi’s Korean sign retain each business’s own language and character. Artist Léon Moca also added a mural to a building corner.

After taking a photo, read the name above the door again. Some signs suggest a dish; others become a reminder of the person behind the business. Inside the market, four restaurants give those stories a place at the table.

A former shoe shop becomes H5NG

Diners outside H5NG beneath red signs한국 코카-콜라

Red lanterns and a green sign mark this American Chinese restaurant. Mongolian beef costs ₩20,000, Sichuan eggplant ₩18,000 and fried rice ₩13,000. For two people, a shared main and rice offer a straightforward way to put together a meal.

H5NG owner Hong Seok-woo smiling in his kitchen한국 코카-콜라

Owner Hong Seok-woo’s family has worked in this market for generations. His grandfather was its first merchants’ association president; Hong opened the restaurant on the site where his grandmother and father ran a shoe shop. The tables beneath the sign make it easy to imagine how both the goods and the people gathering here have changed.

H5NG is at 95-17 Sinheung-ro and opens at noon daily. It takes an afternoon break; on Saturdays that is 15:30–17:30. Saturday lunch orders close at 14:00, so arrive before then for a late lunch. Check the restaurant listing for other days’ breaks and last orders.

A chicken to share at Haebangchon Dak

Haebangchon Dak owner Ryu Ho holding a roast chicken한국 코카-콜라

Choose Haebangchon Dak if you like the idea of putting a whole roast chicken in the middle of the table. Former television producer Ryu Ho runs this electric-rotisserie chicken restaurant. Herbal roast chicken is ₩23,000, garlic herbal roast chicken ₩26,000 and perilla-oil buckwheat noodles ₩10,000. A chicken and noodles make another possible shared order.

Ryu Ho serving diners at an outdoor table한국 코카-콜라

The address is 97-5 Sinheung-ro, on the market’s first floor. The entrance faces the inside of the market, so keep going beyond the building’s street frontage. Finding the sign within the lanes is a useful tip for a first visit. See the main branch listing for opening days and reservations.

Thai family recipes at Pad Ka Paw

Pad Ka Paw owner Paw standing outside his restaurant한국 코카-콜라

A small sign with a fish illustration marks the entrance. Climb the stairs at 97-6 Sinheung-ro to the second-floor restaurant run by Thai chef Paw. He settled in Korea after meeting his Korean wife, and opened his own business in the market they discovered together.

His family ran a restaurant, a farm and vegetable plots. Paw began helping with onions and shopping for ingredients around the age of eleven. He continues family recipes passed from his great-grandmother through his mother to him. While H5NG inherited a family workplace, this small kitchen brought family cooking from farther away into the market.

Paw holding a finished dish in the Pad Ka Paw kitchen한국 코카-콜라

Start with the dish that shares the restaurant’s name: pad kra pao moo sap, ₩15,000. Pad Thai is ₩17,900 and tom yum goong ₩24,000. Decide whether you want one rice dish or noodles and soup to share. With a group, choosing different types of dishes gives the table more variety than ordering rice alone.

The portrait outside and the photograph of Paw holding a dish connect a small doorway to a long working life. Make the climb upstairs part of your walk, rather than stopping at a photo of the sign.

Pad Ka Paw opens 12:00–21:00, with a 15:00–17:00 break. It closes on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. Lunch orders end at 14:30. For inquiries, call 0507-1312-2521.

Doenjang in a taco at Tipsy Taco

Two tacos with meat and guacamole on a white plate팁시타코

At this first-floor restaurant, Korean fermented soybean paste meets Mexican cooking. The signature Tipsy Taco adds doenjang to pork carnitas and serves it with guacamole in a tortilla. It is a chance to recognize a familiar Korean ingredient in a different dish.

Tipsy Taco, beef bulgogi taco and cheese buldak taco each cost ₩8,900. Try the signature doenjang version, or begin with bulgogi or spicy chicken. Ordering different varieties with a companion lets you discover which combination each of you prefers.

A hand lifting a slice of a round quesadilla팁시타코

A quesadilla, ₩10,900, offers another dish to share. The round grilled tortilla is cut into slices for the middle of the table. The restaurant’s quesadilla comes with a garlic-based sour-cream sauce; meat toppings cost extra. If you order several dishes, choose toppings that differ from the meat already in your tacos.

Here, the pleasure of reading the neighborhood’s signs carries over to the menu. After seeing different languages and colors in the lanes, you can choose food that brings together doenjang, bulgogi and Mexican cooking. The market’s mix of individual approaches continues on the plate.

Tipsy Taco is inside the market’s first floor at 99-1 Sinheung-ro. Hours are 11:00–22:00, with a 15:00–17:00 break. It closes on Wednesdays; last orders are at 21:00. Call 0507-1337-5187 for inquiries.

Plan the walk around one meal

Choose one of the four restaurants to keep the walk relaxed. Start with what you feel like eating: Chinese dishes and rice, a whole chicken, Thai food or a selection of tacos. For signs and murals, explore the outside streets before heading into the market.

Many restaurants pause between late lunch and early dinner. Pad Ka Paw and Tipsy Taco break for two hours from 15:00; H5NG’s Saturday break starts at 15:30. Match your walk to the last-order time as well as opening hours. Comfortable shoes help on the neighborhood’s slopes.

Naver map showing Shinheung Market in HaebangchonNAVER

  • Starting point: Shinheung Market, around 95-9 Sinheung-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Use Naver Map for directions.
  • H5NG: 95-17 Sinheung-ro. Mongolian beef ₩20,000; Sichuan eggplant ₩18,000; fried rice ₩13,000. Tel. 02-3789-4165.
  • Haebangchon Dak: Market first floor, 97-5 Sinheung-ro. Herbal chicken ₩23,000; garlic herbal chicken ₩26,000; perilla-oil noodles ₩10,000. Tel. 0507-1399-2037.
  • Two more options: Pad Ka Paw is on the second floor at 97-6 Sinheung-ro (0507-1312-2521); Tipsy Taco is inside the first floor at 99-1 Sinheung-ro (0507-1337-5187).
  • Before visiting: Each shop sets its own hours. Check your chosen restaurant’s closing days, breaks and reservation availability.

Come to Haebangchon for the new signs and you may leave thinking about the people who have kept these places going. Choose one sign that stays with you and one place to eat, and there is less reason to hurry to the next street.