Itinerary check? Couple days in Busan then Seoul

Your Oct 3 plan is pretty packed but workable if you start early. Gyeongbokgung opens at 9am and the changing of the guard ceremony happens at 10am which is worth catching. Bukchon is a short walk from there but the main alley gets crowded fast on holidays, so hit it before lunch. For samgyetang I'd skip Tosokchon and go to Baekje Samgyetang in Myeongdong instead, less waiting and the ginseng chicken is just as good. Namsan cable car is a nightmare on holidays so just take the Namsan Oreumi elevator near Hoehyeon station, it's free and drops you right at the base of the tower.

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just a heads up on your oct 3 plan - the blue house is kinda out of the way from gyeongbokgung even though it looks close on a map. its a solid 15-20 min walk up a hill and theres not much else around it. if you do bukchon first instead of after the palace you can avoid the worst of the holiday crowds since everyone does it the other way. for samgyetang i like Gogung near insadong, their chicken is a bit pricier but the broth is less oily than tosokchon and they have this really good kimchi jeon on the side. n tower on a holiday is rough no matter what honestly, the cable car wait can hit 90 minutes so taking the bus from chungmuro station is a better bet

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One thing nobody's flagged yet is that your Oct 3 holiday is also Chuseok weekend's tail end, so a lot of smaller restaurants near the tourist spots will be closed or running reduced hours. Tosokchon and Baekje should be open since they're geared toward visitors, but that little ginseng chicken place you saw on a blog might not be. For Namsan, the Namsan Oreumi elevator is actually the better play here because it drops you right at the base of the cable car station, not the botanical garden. The botanical garden is a separate stop on the way up the mountain, and the elevator lets you skip the worst of the line. Just be ready for a 20-minute wait even with the shortcut.

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the whispering thing is real but its not about the sauce lol. that guy runs a 2am handoff with the chicken supplier, they drop off fresh birds from a farm near Chuncheon three times a week instead of using the frozen stuff most hongdae spots rely on. thats why the texture hits different, not the sauce itself. if u go back ask for the neck & wing combo off menu, its cheaper & honestly the best cut they do

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the thing nobody mentions is that Dogdogdog's sauce gets its body from cheong, the Korean rice syrup, not sugar. thats why it coats the wing so thick and stays glossy instead of going sticky. i asked a guy who worked there and he said they also add a splash of maesil (plum) extract at the end off the heat. that fruity tang under the garlic is what you're tasting. go on a weekday before 6, weekends the wait hits 40 min easy.

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honestly the "secret sauce" thing is prob just marketing. every fried chicken place in Seoul has a version of that story. the real difference at Dogdogdog is they double fry in rice bran oil and toss the wings in the sauce twice, once right out of the fryer and again after a 30 sec rest. thats where the crunch comes from, not some mystery ingredient. if u wanna taste the actual base, order the banban half plain half spicy and dip the plain one in the spicy sauce yourself.

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