Gecko's

Erin and I obsess over food. Specifically breakfast. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but we live in Chungju. There are no breakfast restaurants in Chungju. There are plenty of places to get rice, soup, and kimchi at 6am. But as much as I love immersion in a foreign culture, I draw the line at pickled vegetables before noon.

So we occasionally go into Seoul for brunch. That’s almost never the stated reason, of course. We just mutually decide that its time to head to Korea’s capital and do a little shopping, and if we happen to do more eating than shopping, so be it.

One of our favorite restaurants is Gecko’s. There are two reasons for this.

1) It is literally one block south of the Itaewon subway stop. So within five minutes of getting off the subway, you're sitting in a cushy chair, contemplating a menu.

2) It has intensely awesome food.

On the weekends, they serve breakfast until about 2:30 pm, and they have a decent variety of dishes: omelets, french toast, or the traditional “plate o’ grease.” They’ll run about W12,000 to W15,000 for a meal with a cup of incredible drip coffee.

Erin and I usually get the greasy stuff.

The waitstaff is excellent, and they all speak English, so if your Korean is a little sketchy, they'll be happy to help you out. The breakfast clientele is almost exclusively expat, usually nursing a hangover. The restaurant even has outdoor balcony seating, so you can spend some time digesting while watching the hawkers and salespeople of Itaewon get set up for their day.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think Erin and I may have to take a shopping trip to Seoul.

-Sam

Gecko's is ridiculously easy to find. Go to Itaewon exit 4 and head south. Don't forget to look up. It'll be on the second floor.