Seoul's Namdaemun Market to host K-food night festival with star chefs
A promotional poster for the Seoul Moonlight Gastronomy Festival / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government
Event features Joseon Dynasty-style taverns, Netflix chef collaborations
Namdaemun Market, one of Seoul’s oldest and most bustling traditional markets, is opening its doors after dark for an eight-day night food festival starting Saturday, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Tuesday.
Running daily from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. through Nov. 21, the Seoul Moonlight Gastronomy Festival will transform the market’s covered arcade near Sungnyemun — the historic city gate commonly known as Namdaemun — into a vibrant nocturnal dining hub. The daytime landmark, which draws around 300,000 visitors daily, usually quiets down after dusk.
The festival’s centerpiece is a pop-up tavern reimagined in the style of a "jumak" — a traditional Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910) roadside inn where travelers once gathered for food, drink and conversation. Adding culinary star power, two high-profile chefs will team up to craft exclusive dish pairings using Namdaemun's signature ingredients: one a popular restaurateur from Seoul’s trendy Sinyongsan district, and the other a standout competitor from Netflix’s global hit cooking show Culinary Class Wars.
Festival-goers can sample limited-edition creations available without reservations, including tender "suyuk" (boiled pork slices) paired with freshly made "geotjeori" kimchi, and rich chicken "kalguksu" (knife-cut noodle soup) garnished with crispy young hairtail fish.
Beyond the food, visitors can explore a 20-vendor flea market, a dedicated showcase of local goods, and three guided night tours connecting Namdaemun with nearby Myeong-dong and Mount Nam. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon is also slated to join Saturday's opening event as a guest chef.
The initiative comes as the city actively builds a "24-hour economy," aiming to extend visitor spending into the evening hours.
"Namdaemun Market is an iconic Seoul landmark rich in heritage and culinary tradition," said Kim Sung-ho, director general of the city’s Tourism and Sports Bureau. "We hope the Seoul Moonlight Gastronomy Festival offers visitors a fresh journey — shopping by day and dining by night — while pumping new energy into this historic marketplace."
The event arrives amid an unprecedented boom in international tourism. Foreign credit card spending at Namdaemun Market surged 65.6 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of this year, surpassing the 48.8 percent average gain recorded across all Seoul traditional markets. City officials attribute the surge partly to social media trends spotlighting market staples like colorful scarves and Korean exfoliating scrub towels.
Overall, Seoul welcomed 13.14 million international visitors between January and September—a 21.5 percent increase from a year earlier. Their total card spending jumped 57.7 percent to 8.84 trillion won ($6.6 billion), already surpassing the total tally for all of last year.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.