When the CEO of the world’s most valuable company spends a Friday night doing soju bombs in a 1997-vintage Hongdae samgyeopsal joint, Korean social media notices. Over the past eight months, Jensen Huang — NVIDIA’s chairman and CEO, and by some measures the world’s eighth-richest person — has made two separate restaurant tours through Seoul with Korea’s most powerful business leaders, and both have turned the restaurants involved into the most searched-for dining spots in the country.
This isn’t a celebrity-restaurant story in the usual sense. None of these places are owned by anyone famous, and none of them were trying to go viral. They’re ordinary, decades-old Seoul institutions that happened to host an extraordinary table — and have been dealing with the consequences ever since.
Round One: Kkanbu Chicken, Samseong-dong (October 2025)
Huang’s first stop, back in October 2025, was Kkanbu Chicken’s Samseong branch (깐부치킨 삼성점) in Gangnam — a short walk from Samsung Station. He sat down for fried chicken and beer (the classic Korean chimaek pairing) with Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, and Chung Eui-sun, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group. The meeting was casual enough that it earned the nickname “kkanbu hoedong” (깐부 회동) — kkanbu being Korean slang for a close, trusted partner, borrowed from Squid Game.
The visit alone would have been enough to make headlines. What actually happened afterward turned the restaurant into a pilgrimage site: the exact table the three men sat at became known as a “lucky seat” (기운을 받는 명당) among visitors hoping some of that success would rub off, and the photo-taking crowds got so heavy that the restaurant began limiting time at that specific table to one hour per group.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Name | Kkanbu Chicken Samseong Branch (깐부치킨 삼성점) |
| Address | Samseong-ro 96-gil 3, Gangnam-gu, Seoul |
| What to order | Classic Korean fried chicken (양념/후라이드) and draft beer — the chimaek combo |
| Good to know | The table where Huang, Lee, and Chung sat is limited to one hour per group due to demand |
| Nearest subway | Samseong Station (Line 2) |
| Naver Map | Naver Map → |
Round Two: The “Samso Hoedong” — Samgyeopsal, Soju, and a Hongdae Bar Crawl (June 2026)
Huang returned to Seoul in June 2026, and on Friday, June 5th, did it again — this time with an even bigger table. Choi Tae-won (SK Group chairman), Chung Eui-sun (Hyundai Motor Group), and Lee Hae-jin (Naver founder) joined him for what Korean media immediately dubbed the “samso hoedong” (삼쏘 회동) — a portmanteau of samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly) and soju, Korea’s most universal combination for an informal night out.
First Stop: Hyungnim Jeoyo (형님 저요), Hongdae
The group’s first stop was Hyungnim Jeoyo, a samgyeopsal restaurant that has been grilling pork belly in Hongdae since 1997. It’s a genuine neighbourhood institution — Gordon Ramsay is also reported to have eaten there on a past Seoul visit — known for no-frills grilling and prices that stayed firmly in “local favourite” territory even before this happened: samgyeopsal runs around ₩14,000 a portion.
Inside, the group worked through grilled pork belly and soju-beer bombs (소맥), with Choi Tae-won — the most senior chairman at the table — pouring drinks for the group in a deliberately humble gesture. Lee Hae-jin reportedly settled the bill using Naver Pay’s facial-recognition payment system. Outside, Huang spent time greeting the crowd that had gathered, handing out specially made “HBM Chips” snacks (a pun on NVIDIA’s high-bandwidth memory chips), along with banana milk, sikhye, and bungeoppang to fans and local residents waiting in the street.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Name | Hyungnim Jeoyo (형님 저요) |
| Address | Eowoolmadang-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul — 2-minute walk from Hongik University Station Exit 8 |
| What to order | Samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly), around ₩14,000 |
| Good to know | A genuine 1997-era Hongdae institution, not a tourist trap — expect a wait since the visit |
| Nearest subway | Hongik University Station (Line 2 / AREX), Exit 8 |
| Naver Map | Naver Map → |
Second Stop: BBQ Chicken, Hongdae
About a three-minute walk from Hyungnim Jeoyo, the group moved on to a branch of BBQ, Korea’s nationwide fried chicken chain, for round two: chicken and whiskey, capped off with what local reports described as Choi Tae-won ordering a round on the house for the whole restaurant — Korea’s equivalent of “ringing the golden bell” (골든벨을 울리다). The night reportedly stretched into karaoke-adjacent singing and continued well past midnight.
For travellers, the appeal here isn’t really the menu — it’s a BBQ branch like any other in the country — but the fact that one of the most powerful informal dinners in recent Korean business history happened at a completely ordinary fried chicken franchise, three minutes from a samgyeopsal joint that’s been open since the 90s. That’s very on-brand for how Seoul actually socialises, at every income level.
Why This Story Keeps Trending
A few things are compounding to keep this story alive on Korean Instagram, Threads, and news sites weeks after it happened:
It’s the second visit, not the first. A one-off CEO dinner is a news cycle. A CEO coming back eight months later and doing it again, with an even bigger guest list, reads as a pattern — and patterns get tracked.
The restaurants are real, accessible, and cheap. This isn’t Huang at a Michelin-starred dining room. It’s ₩14,000 pork belly and a chicken franchise — places any visitor to Seoul can walk into themselves, which is a huge part of why Korean social media users keep posting “I sat where Jensen Huang sat” content.
The “lucky seat” angle. Korean dining culture already has a long-running fascination with sitting where the successful have sat. Kkanbu Chicken’s one-hour table limit is the clearest evidence of how seriously that’s being taken here.
The street-level moments. Huang personally greeting crowds and handing out snacks outside Hyungnim Jeoyo gave the story a warmth that pure business coverage doesn’t usually have, and that’s the kind of clip that travels well on Instagram Reels and Threads regardless of whether viewers care about semiconductors.
Practical Tips If You Want to Visit
- Expect a wait at all three spots. None of these restaurants were built for crowds, and all three have seen a real spike in visitors since their respective moments went viral.
- Hyungnim Jeoyo and the Hongdae BBQ branch are an easy pair. They’re a three-minute walk apart, so you can realistically do the same one-two visit Huang did, especially if you’re already spending an evening around Hongik University Station.
- Kkanbu Chicken Samseong is worth combining with a Gangnam day. It’s an easy add-on if you’re already near Samseong Station — just don’t expect to sit at “the table” without a wait, and don’t be surprised if there’s a time limit once you do.
- None of this is fine dining — that’s the point. If you want a taste of how Seoul’s biggest business figures actually unwind, these are unscripted, regular-price neighbourhood spots, not curated luxury experiences.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where did Jensen Huang eat in Seoul? Across two visits, Huang ate at Kkanbu Chicken’s Samseong branch in Gangnam (October 2025), and during a June 2026 visit, at Hyungnim Jeoyo, a samgyeopsal restaurant in Hongdae open since 1997, followed by a nearby branch of BBQ fried chicken.
Who did Jensen Huang dine with in Seoul? Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong, Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Eui-sun, SK Group chairman Choi Tae-won, and Naver founder Lee Hae-jin have all joined him across the two visits.
Can I actually visit these restaurants? Yes — all three are ordinary, open-to-the-public restaurants, not private venues. Hyungnim Jeoyo and the nearby BBQ branch are both within a few minutes’ walk of Hongik University Station Exit 8; Kkanbu Chicken’s Samseong branch is near Samseong Station. Expect longer waits than before the visits, and at Kkanbu Chicken, a one-hour limit on the specific table Huang sat at.
What is the “samso hoedong”? It’s the nickname Korean media gave to Huang’s June 2026 dinner — a portmanteau of samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly) and soju, the classic combination for an informal Korean night out, in contrast to the more low-key “chimaek” (chicken and beer) of his first visit.
Craving more of what Seoul actually eats when it’s not performing for the cameras? See our guide to Korean BBQ and Korean fried chicken, or check out more of Korea’s celebrity-adjacent dining spots.
