Seoul Market — Supermarket in Shin-Okubo, Tokyo

Seoul Market is a Korean supermarket on Okubo street in Shin-Okubo, the neighbourhood around Shin-Ōkubo station. The first thing you meet at the entrance is the Korean food section, shelves packed with ingredients, and menu signs for cheese balls and hot dogs that put you in mind of a trip to Korea before you have bought anything.

The kimbap is made in the store and is the thing to buy first, whether you eat it on the spot or take it home. The kimchi runs wide, with octopus kimchi and gejang kimchi among the jars, and there is an original kimchi base for when Chinese cabbage is in season. Prepared side dishes and bento cover tteokbokki and seafood pancakes, and the shelves carry roasted Korean seaweed, a deep run of Korean instant noodles, single-serving ttukbaegi earthenware pots, and walnut buns.

The shop is compact and the aisles are narrow, so you squeeze past other baskets to reach the shelves, and the checkout area gets crowded around lunchtime. Morning is the easier time: come as soon as the doors open at 9:30 AM and you move through without waiting. A food stall next door fries hotteok to order, which makes a good thing to carry out with you.

Prices run high for a tourist area. Look for the sale items, and pick up individual snacks to try rather than full packs. A basket lands somewhere between ¥1,000 and ¥3,000 depending on how much kimchi and cookware you carry out.

If you want to cook Korean food at home, this is the place to gather the ingredients in one stop, from seaweed and noodles to the pot to serve it in. Come for the kimbap and the kimchi, and come early to avoid the crush.