Michelin Guide Seoul announced the recipients of the Seoul Bib Gourmand awards on Wednesday, a week ahead of the official launch of the full guidebook set to be released on Nov. 8.

Bib Gourmand highlights restaurants offering “exceptionally good food at moderate prices.” The selected restaurants offer items priced below a specific price range determined by the local economic standards. The maximum price for the Bib Gourmand Seoul edition is 35,000 won ($31).

This years’ Michelin Guide Seoul selected 48 restaurants for the category, which is 12 restaurants more than last year.

Most of the restaurants from last year’s selection, such as Gaeseong Mandu Koong, Myeongdong Kyoja and Imun Seolnongtang, made it to the list again. New entries to the list include Korean contemporary restaurant Mish Mash, pork and rice soup restaurant Okdongsik and Vietnamese restaurant Emoi.

A total of 22 cuisine types were introduced in this year’s Bib Gourmand selection while noodle dishes such as kalguksu (chopped noodles) and naengmyeon (cold noodles), mandu (dumplings) and tang (soup) appeared to be the most popular dishes.

The full list of Michelin Seoul 2018 Bib Gourmand selections can also be found on Michelin Guide Seoul’s online website at guide.michelin.co.kr.

 For the upcoming 2018 Seoul edition, the gastronomical guide will unveil “The Plate” restaurants where “the inspectors have discovered quality food” and yet have not earned a star or Bib Gourmand honors.

Michelin Guide, which refers to the annually published Michelin Red Guide, selects and awards the best hotels and restaurants in 28 countries. Its Seoul edition was first published in November 2016.

Michelin Guide Seoul will release this year’s edition at the awards ceremony on Nov. 8.

(syk19372@heraldcorp.com)