After a day of watching a family of friends gather together for a reunion, it was time to decide again what we would eat for dinner. We had decided on the idea of having the special gin seng chicken soup. So which restaurant do we go to? The one at the Hamilton hotel that we've gone to before or ask the front desk of this hotel if they know of a restaurant closer to us that serves this special soup. We got the name of the restaurant close to our hotel, but had decided on going to the Hamilton hotel, that way we could do a little shopping afterwards.
We took the subway to Itaewon and walked into the Hamilton hotel, felt like home to me walking in the lobby area. After we made our way upstairs, we look to where the restaurant door was and it was all boarded up! What?? There was a new restaurant across the hall so Julie asked if they served the soup, no they didn't.
Back downstairs to ask if that restaurant served the soup, no they didn't. Julie asked the front desk if they knew of any restaurant in the area that served this soup. The lady found a place down the street and around the bend and gave Julie the google map to it. Off we went down the street of Itaewon and we kept walking and walking and walking. Finally Julie stopped in a 7-11 store to ask about the directions. She was told that we would have to go further down, go under the subway, then probably ask someone else for further directions.
We continued our walk in the street then we came to an area where we would have to climb the stairs and a lady was walking down so Julie asked her regarding where this place was according to the map. The lady googled it on her phone and told us we had to go back the way we came and look for the museum, then take a right.
We retraced our steps, found the museum, looked for the alley to the right, after a few streets, we found the right street. There it was finally! We walk into the restaurant, no one is at the front, then a lady came out and started waving her hands in a fanning motion. She told Julie that she was not open and did not make a lot of the meals because of the Holiday coming up, she didn't want the extra food.
Now where do we go to eat? It had been 50 minutes of walking to find this place and she had no soup! We decided on trying a restaurant across the street, walked in and the lady told us she was only serving the tour bus group. Now what!! I told Julie let's just take a taxi to the restaurant our hotel recommended from where we were and see if they have the soup. We grabbed two taxis and got to the restaurant. We had to laughed as Julie said what if this restaurant doesn't have the soup!
We walked to the area of the restaurant, sat down and sure enough, this was the right place and they had the chicken soup! Think we were all giddy by then! As we sat down, we were served small shots of alcohol, five little shots. Zoe and Drew are not of drinking age, but it was there and should they drink it? They both downed it and both hated it, especially Drew, and soon Drew was turning a bright shade of red due to the alcohol. Darn Asians not having the enzyme to break down alcohol! Zoe wasn't as bad, but all of a sudden she says she doesn't feel well, as in her stomach...must have been the alcohol so I told her to keep drinking her 7up and stop eating the red bean paste!
The three of us ladies needed to use the rest room so we ended up having to go outside the restaurant, up the street and there was a trailer that said 'toilet' and a man walked out of the women's bathroom. We went inside anyway and the toilets were like those in rv's...um yeah, I HAD to go so I didn't have a choice...ugh!!
We all enjoyed the soup, we all felt it was totally worth all the walking we did and all the mis-steps in-between. It was delicious! So glad we found it and we now have the business card for the next time we have to have this soup! Hopefully, they won't close down!!
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