Feb–May 2025 · with Yutaka Matsushige15 places
This is the season that got me hooked. Matsushige takes Si-kyung around the places he’s been eating at for decades, including the Chinese diner he worked at 40 years ago, and then Si-kyung flips it and shows him his Seoul.
May–Aug 2025 · with Yutaka Matsushige12 places
They settle into a rhythm here and it gets properly competitive. Lots of southern Japan, an unagi house that’s been going since 1873, and the episode where they just sit by the Han river eating convenience store ramyeon, which is somehow one of the best ones.
Aug–Nov 2025 · with Yutaka Matsushige16 places
The road trip season. Kyoto for the old sweets shops, Busan for the soups and the markets, and all the way up to Hokkaido in the cold. Also the one where Jenna Ortega and Emma Myers randomly turn up for tofu.
Nov 2025–Feb 2026 · with Yutaka Matsushige15 places
Matsushige’s last season, and you can feel it. Deep winter food and Asahikawa in the snow. The finale has no restaurant at all, they cook for each other, tonjiru and jeyukbokkeum, and that’s the goodbye.
Mar–May 2026 · with Ayaka Miyoshi14 places
New face. Ayaka Miyoshi takes over the Japan side and her picks are personal, the gyoza spot from her school days in Kawagoe, the bistro she goes to hide in. Then Si-kyung does what he does and drags her through Seoul’s markets and old soup houses.
May–Aug 2026 · with Ayaka Miyoshi12 places
The dream trip season. Old houses in Kamakura, udon under Mt Fuji, then over to Korea where Si-kyung starts giving away his own secrets, right down to the stone-grill place his family kept to themselves.