(4 April 2026) – San, Seoul’s new gourmet restaurant, has been awarded the ‘One To Watch Award 2026’ by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. This award recognises restaurants that have recently enjoyed great success and have the potential to secure a place on the ‘Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants’ list in the coming years. San’s award comes just over a year after its opening in 2024, which garnered widespread acclaim in the South Korean capital. Located in the trendy Gangnam district, San is renowned for its refined, French-inspired, modern Korean tasting menu, created by Head Chef Jo Seung-Hyun.

Chef Jo brings exceptional credentials to the project. He honed his culinary skills at three renowned restaurants – first under the tutelage of Thomas Keller at The French Laundry in Napa Valley and at La Maison Troisgros in France, before heading up the kitchen at the fine-dining restaurant Benu, run by Korean-American celebrity chef Corey Lee in San Francisco. After eight years as head chef at Benu, he finally returned to his hometown of Seoul to realise his dream of opening The San. The sophisticated tasting menu presents a diverse selection of seasonal dishes and his creative interpretation of classic French cuisine with a Korean twist.

A spokesperson for Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants explains: “San has quickly become one of the hottest fine-dining restaurants in Seoul. With this well-deserved honour as winner of the One To Watch Award, the team is setting new standards for culinary excellence, complexity and respect for national tradition – very much in line with an inspiring trend of innovative restaurants that have emerged in the capital in recent years.” On receiving the ‘One To Watch Award 2026’, Chef Jo said: “I am incredibly grateful and honoured that San has received this award. San is still a young restaurant, and this recognition so soon after opening means a great deal to us. Many thanks to Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants for this encouragement.”

Jo’s cuisine showcases Korean flavours through refined techniques, focusing on familiar dishes which he reinterprets with depth and precision. His specialities include a prawn dish with a prawn gochujang sauce made from a highly concentrated stock of prawn heads, which delivers an intense umami flavour, as well as a reinterpretation of Ojingeo Sukhoe, a classic Korean poached squid dish, in which tenderly cooked spear squid is served with squid chojang. Inspired by his childhood memories of Busan, Chef Jo also presents a refined interpretation of Dwaeji-Gukbap, traditionally served with salted prawns, but here enhanced with caviar. The result is a familiar sensation that simultaneously offers an unexpected, modern take on Korean cuisine.

Alongside these innovations, the restaurant also offers specialities that pay homage to tradition, such as Chamoe Dongchimi, a variation on the Korean national dish featuring water kimchi. The wine pairing, curated by Ju Jaemin, perfectly rounds off the culinary experience at San. Guests can choose between a five- or eight-glass wine pairing. Each wine is carefully selected to perfectly complement the multi-layered dishes.

Restaurant San is the first restaurant from Seoul to receive this award since 2017. Previous winners include: Farmlore in Bengaluru (2025), a restaurant that celebrates regional Indian ingredients; Lamdre in Beijing (2024), a sustainability-focused restaurant inspired by Tibetan philosophy; and August in Jakarta (2023), which reinterprets Indonesian flavours using modern fine-dining techniques.