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Songpa-gu doesn’t usually make the shortlist of K-pop travel neighborhoods, even though it’s home to Lotte World and one of Seoul’s most recognizable skyline landmarks in Lotte World Tower. Otsu Seiromushi, a Japanese steamed-food restaurant reportedly run by BTS Jin’s older brother, is a reasonable excuse to change that — it’s a specific, low-key stop that turns a Lotte World day into something with a little more texture than just the theme park.

What Seiromushi actually is

For anyone unfamiliar with the format, seiromushi is a Japanese steaming style — ingredients cooked gently in a bamboo steamer rather than fried or grilled, which tends to produce a lighter, cleaner-tasting meal than the heavier KBBQ and fried-chicken spots that dominate most “Korea food guide” lists. It’s a nice contrast if you’re a few days into a trip built around richer meals and want something that doesn’t sit as heavy.

That format choice also makes Otsu Seiromushi a slightly different kind of stop than most idol-connected restaurants on typical fan itineraries, which skew heavily toward Korean BBQ and late-night bar food. A steamed-food restaurant is a genuinely different dining experience, not just a variation on the same theme.

Building a Songpa-gu day around it

Lotte World itself is the obvious centerpiece if you’re bringing kids or just want a full day of rides and an indoor theme park experience regardless of weather. Lotte World Tower, right next door, has an observation deck (Seoul Sky) that’s one of the taller vantage points in the city if you want a skyline view that includes the Han River stretching out in both directions.

If you’d rather keep the day lower-key, Seokchon Lake Park — split into east and west sections around a lake right by Lotte World — is a genuinely pleasant walking loop, especially during cherry blossom season, and it’s an easy, unhurried way to close out a day that started with lunch.

What to bring

Nothing unusual here — comfortable shoes for the Seokchon Lake loop if you’re doing it, and normal planning for a day that mixes a sit-down meal with either theme-park lines or a lakeside walk. If you want a starting point for the Songpa-gu side of your itinerary specifically, we’ve linked a restaurant-guide search below.

One caveat

Like the other family-run spots in this series, the “run by Jin’s brother” detail comes from fan travel and roundup content rather than an official BTS or HYBE statement, and restaurant ownership can change over time. Treat it as a reported, widely-circulated detail — and treat Songpa-gu itself as worth a day regardless, since Lotte World and the tower don’t need any idol connection to justify the trip.

Why Songpa-gu gets overlooked

Most first-time K-pop-motivated visitors default to Gangnam and Hongdae because that’s where the agency buildings and flagship fan cafes cluster, and it’s easy to build an entire trip without ever crossing into the Songpa/Jamsil side of the river. That’s a reasonable default, but it does mean a lot of visitors miss one of Seoul’s more genuinely photogenic skylines — Lotte World Tower lit up at night, reflected across Seokchon Lake, is a different kind of Seoul image than the neon-and-alleyway version most K-pop content leans on. A day here isn’t a detour from the “real” itinerary. It’s just a different, equally legitimate version of it — and one that leaves you with a lighter, less crowded afternoon than most Gangnam-centric plans manage.