Seoul: Chimaek at K-pub – YG Republique

The first couple of nights, we stayed at Loisir hotel which is smack in the middle of bustling Myeong-dong. The area mostly caters to tourists and teenagers, and the big pedestrian street is lined with food stalls selling all the trendy snacks you’ve seen on Instagram.

Though we weren’t in the mood for Tornado Potatoes or rainbow-colored cotton candy, so instead I did a quick Google-search to find out where we could go for chimaek, the famous Korean beer (maek-ju) and-fried chicken combo. Well, YG Republique was right around the corner.

KFC, Korean Fried Chicken, is a big thing in Korea, but recently, I’ve also seen the phenomenon pop up on menus far away from the motherland. Chicken and beer are just perfect together, and Korea is playing in the fried chicken Champions League.

I did an internship at a company in Seoul back in 2005 and after work, we often went to a hof (a typical Korean bar with German Brauhaus theme) for fried chicken and Hite beer.  It was chimaek night several times a week, and it was considered inappropriate to leave before your boss. In return, he was expected to pay for everyone. That’s a good thing if you’re a student, but not so good, I suppose, if you had a family waiting for you at home. I’ve heard from my Korean friends that the culture is changing and that you’re no longer expected to spend so much time socializing with your colleagues which is probably a good thing since the working hours excluding hof-hopping are already crazy.

Now back to 2018 and YG Republique. The complex consists of several bars and restaurants all run by YG Entertainment which is one of the big players in the K-Pop industry. We went to the K-Pub located one stair up and had our chimaek to the tunes of the latest Psy hit. It was a nice place and the chicken was good but for chimaek, I think I prefer the more casual hof settings. Later this week, I’ll try to go through my old SD cards and see if I can find some photos to show you from the good old hof days in 2005:)

YG Republique, Myeong-dong, Seoul, Korean address: 중구 명동7길 13 증권빌딩 1, 2층
04521 Seoul, Korea