Want to find hidden gem restaurants? Follow the business crowd to lunch.

While I receive a fair share of expert tips from friends, my secret to finding great places to eat is to turn off my phone, go rogue and observe men and women who wear suits to work. For the past 20 years, I’ve had great success following the crowd — more specifically, the business lunch crowd.

On a recent trip to Seoul, I went to the financial district so I could meander away from the tourist-ridden areas of MyeongDong and Gangum, where retail giants and commercial chains rule the streets. I wove in and out of buildings and tracked men and women in business attire as they hurried to lunch.

Having stayed in the city for a week already, I was surprised to find alleyways filled with bars and restaurants that I failed to notice on my self-guided tour of the neighborhood. With the suits’ as my guide, I had an impressive bowl of hand-pulled noodles with a mountain of fresh seafood for under $10. On another day, they led me to a tiny restaurant serving a 130-year old recipe for a delicious soup made from pork bones and served with “sundae” (blood sausages). I am itching to return, and have pinned it in anticipation.

On another lunch outing, I slurped down naengmyeon, cold noodle soup and even found a tiny bakery making a sweet red-bean bun for less than one dollar, something I would have missed if I had my head in my phone.

In Stockholm, the same experience of following men and women in suits has led me to some great discoveries at night, too. In the evening, city workers in Sweden’s capital stream out of offices and straight onto the subway, but if you are lucky, many will venture out to their favorite watering hole for after-work drinks.

The key is to follow small packs of three and observe their body language — if they are friendly toward each other, it means they are out to enjoy the night rather than on a business dinner which can lead you to expensive restaurants.

This is how I found the coziest wine bars, which are slowly replacing the Michelin-starred restaurants that epitomized the high-end New Nordic trend. On my latest visit, I discovered some seriously ambitious Swedish chefs who have grit their teeth in Scandinavia’s finest restaurants and are slowly trying to build a name for themselves with their own restaurants.

Bord, Brutalisten and Triton are just a few discoveries where I enjoyed slurping West Coast Swedish oysters on the half-shell and sipping Swedish solaris while chatting with friendly locals who shared more secrets to their city’s culinary scene like having a bargain deal Michelin-starred lunch at Petri instead of dinner for the same great experience.”

The art of following the business crowd does come with some caveats. You need to have a grasp of the city’s food scene to avoid misdirections to chains and fast-food joints (unless you want to sample that side of local flavor).

You have to remember that lunch hours are short and sweet in cities like Seoul, Tokyo and Zurich; where the work culture is rigid and grueling, many do opt for cheap and cheerful eateries over high-quality eats.

If you enjoy traveling without a guide and still take pleasure in discovering impromptu delights, you won’t be disappointed at whatever you find. Isn’t discovery what travel is all about?

Michelle Tchea is a travel and food writer based in Europe. You can follow her on LinkedIn.