8 Great Restaurants in Gangneung

Gyeongpodae Beach has more than 50 raw fish restaurants lining its promenade. You can enjoy fresh seafood dishes overlooking the sea and pine trees. Some restaurants specialise in grilled clams, snow crab, and cold raw fish soup (mulhoe). The street is also rather popular with local youths – you can find many trendy cafés and coffee shops with a refined atmosphere.

Sacheon Port Mulhoe Street has many restaurants specialised in raw fish soup (mulhoe), a summer delicacy made with chopped fish and vegetables in a cold sweet-and-sour broth. The taste of broth is the key, with each restaurant offering its own variation. Cold raw squid soup (ojingeo mulhoe) is very popular among locals, but you can also find mulhoe containing sole, flatfish, and sea cucumber.

A special cold raw fish soup made with a combination of various seafoods is also available at some restaurants at the Sacheon Port Mulhoe Street. It's good to eat warm abalone and seaweed soup (jeonbok miyeok guk) or mussel soup (subguk) together with mulhoe.

Yeongjin Jang Port is a relatively small port located around 10 minutes south of Jumunjin Port. Along the street leading to the port, many restaurants serve fresh and raw seafood directly sourced from the East Sea. Most of them are small rustic restaurants that have been around for years, giving you a very local feel. 

The formerly secluded Yeongjin Jang Port is known as the filming location of popular K-drama, Guardian: The Lonely and Great God. After your meal, you can walk around the area – check out a beautiful red lighthouse that was featured in the TV series.

Chodang Dubu Village is a long-standing village with dozens of soft tofu restaurants. Made with seawater, Chodang soft tofu (sundubu) has a very soft texture and light yet savoury taste. You can find different variations of sundubu at Chodang Dubu Village, including spicy seafood noodle soup with soft tofu (jjamppong sundubu). The name ‘Chodang’ came from the pen name of Heo Yeop, the father of famous writer/poet Heo Kyun. Locals also believe that he’s the creator of this local dish.

Byungsan Village is also called 'Ongsimi Village', after its famous local dish of potato dough (ongsimi). It originated during a tough period for the people of Gangwon-do – due to poor soil, they used to grow potatoes instead of rice. Potato starch – made by grinding potatoes – and various ingredients are mixed together to form ongsimi. It’s then divided into bite-sized pieces and boiled in a clear soup made with anchovy and kelp.

Seongsan Restaurant Street has a cluster of local eateries at the entrance of Daegwallyeong in Seongsan-myeon. It’s most famous for serving braised cod head (daegu meori jjim), which contains bean sprouts, tofu, potatoes, and various vegetables and spices.  

There are a variety of restaurants specialising in different Korean dishes, including blood sausage soup (sundaeguk), buckwheat noodles (mak-guksu), grilled dried pollack (hwangtae-gui), grilled beef (hanu-gui), duck dishes, and pork cutlets.