How BTS's 'THE CITY' London Extended Concert Culture Into Korean Restaurants

[London, UK] At a reservation-only Korean restaurant in London, a long line stretched down the sidewalk. Fans held shopping bags from BTS pop-up stores. Others arrived in red hair, purple outfits, and personal takes on group merch. In small clusters, ARMY, the name for BTS's fandom, filed inside. This was not a concert venue. It was one of the restaurants pulled into BTS's "THE CITY" project, an initiative from HYBE that turns a tour city into a wider fan experience.

The restaurant, SOOM Korean Restaurant, is one of the venues taking part in the London edition of "THE CITY." Its exterior was wrapped in project graphics, making the partnership clear from down the street. Alongside its regular Korean menu, the restaurant was serving special items created for the project.

Even with a large dining room that extended to a basement floor, walk-in guests had to wait. A reporter who stopped by without a reservation during lunch was seated after about 40 minutes.

"ARMY have been coming in nonstop since 'THE CITY' started," a staff member said. "This past weekend, traffic jumped. Sales are up roughly 1.5 times compared to normal."

The staffer added that reservations were fully booked and the kitchen was working through a heavy backlog. "Customers keep arriving, so we ran out of some ingredients and just went out to restock. We are still taking walk-ins, but the barbecue seats, where guests grill their own meat, are reservation-only."

Inside, the room was full of fans. When BTS songs came over the speakers, some hummed along, and others moved to the beat in their seats. Fans posed for photos in front of a mother-of-pearl inlay wall, a traditional Korean decorative style, and talked over their meals about the concerts and their favorite members.

One wall of the restaurant was covered in sticky notes. Fans wrote short messages to BTS and pinned them up. Others stopped to read what strangers had left behind. The "THE CITY" partner restaurants were serving food, but they were also working as a place to share memories from the shows.

The tables carried a full spread of Korean cooking. The restaurant rolled out an "Arirang course" built around its signature dishes for the project, and added jjimdak, a braised chicken dish, to its menu for the first time. Bibimbap, naengmyeon, stews, and Korean street snacks were also on offer.

One fan tried the kimchi jjigae and kept saying it was spicy, then went back for another spoonful. She kept a glass of water close but pushed on. "It is still really good," she said. For fans who were not used to Korean food, the meal seemed to land as a new experience worth pushing through.

Another fan said her earlier Korean meals in London had disappointed her. "This place is different. It tastes close to what I had in Korea."

According to the restaurant, the partner venues were chosen after agencies reviewed proposals from local businesses. Looking at the wider list of selected restaurants, the picks seemed aimed at giving overseas fans real exposure to Korean food, not just a quick meal near the venue.

"THE CITY" also gave the London food scene a lift. Restaurants got a sales bump and international exposure from concert-week traffic. Fans got a way to experience Korean food and Korean culture as part of the tour. For HYBE, working with existing local restaurants meant it could extend the fan experience across the city without building dedicated fan spaces from scratch.

By pulling the tour beyond the arena and into everyday London businesses, "THE CITY" tied local commerce to global fandom in a way that reshaped what a concert weekend can look like.