North Korean food is Korean food with the volume turned down. Less chilli, less bold seasoning, more subtlety. If you come expecting the fiery intensity of Seoul restaurant cooking, you will be surprised — pleasantly, if you appreciate restraint.
The national dish is Pyongyang naengmyeon: cold buckwheat noodles served in a chilled beef or pheasant broth, topped with sliced cucumber, radish, a boiled egg, and thin strips of meat. The broth has a slightly sour, clean flavour. Eating it in a proper Pyongyang naengmyeon restaurant — the kind that serves nothing else and has been doing it for decades — is a genuine culinary experience. It is traditionally eaten in winter, though visitors are served it year-round.
Pyongyang onban is a rice dish topped with shredded chicken, mushrooms, leeks, and egg, served in warm broth — something between a soup and a rice bowl. Comfort food.
Most tourist meals are banquet-style: a spread of small dishes arrives at the table simultaneously. Kimchi, rice, soup, various vegetable preparations, and usually a grilled meat dish. The quality in hotels ranges from adequate to surprisingly good. Portions are generous by Korean standards.
Beer is a point of local pride. Taedonggang Beer — brewed on equipment imported from a closed British brewery in the 1980s — is well-regarded and comes in several varieties. Light, lager-style, and drinkable. Local soju is also available.
Vegetarians can manage but need to be explicit with their guides in advance. Broth is almost always meat-based, and dishes that look vegetarian often are not.
The Okryu Gwan restaurant in Pyongyang — a famous state restaurant on the Taedong River — specialises in naengmyeon and is a standard tour inclusion. Locals eat here too, which makes it one of the more naturalistic spaces tourists will encounter.