Pyongyang Entertainment Guide

Pyongyang has a number of restaurants where you can get fairly decent food, both Korean as well as Western. Very popular through are the ubiquitous grilled meat restaurants or food stalls that dot the city where basically you get excellent grilled meat. Its best consumed, as the locals do, with huge quantities of beer. As a foreign visitor, your meals will almost certainly be ordered by your tour guide, so if you have any particular preferences- including wanting to eat local food instead of Western- you should tell the guide well in advance. Remember that the country is still in the grip of severe food shortages; so don’t expect your tour to be a culinary delight.

A visitor is unlikely to find much by way of recreation but Pyongyang as the capital city has its share of bars and karaoke lounges, and some of the larger hotels, which cater to foreign travellers have regular cultural shows. Other than these, your best chance of seeing anything really interesting is at the time of important national holidays- particularly Liberation Day, when the parades and pageantry in Pyongyang are quite spectacular.