What to eat in Busan, South Korea

Tong-ojingeo-gui (whole grilled squid) © Aleney de Winter

From market stalls to Michelin-stars, here’s where, how and what to eat in Busan, South Korea‘s lively and lovely second city.

Busan is a city where eating isn’t an activity you plan around your day. It is the day. It isn’t precious or performative. It’s generous, fast, comforting and deeply woven into daily life. You eat because you’re hungry, because it looks good and because it’s there.

Here’s our guide on where and what to eat in Busan,

Busan street food

Hotteok © Aleney de Winter

Street food is where Busan flexes. Start with the crowd-pleasers. Korean fried chicken arrives shatteringly crisp and glossy with sauce. And tteokbokki (spicy, chewy rice cakes) becomes an obsession. In my teen’s case, entire days are loosely planned around tracking down the best bowl.

Then come street sweets. Hotteok (street food pancakes) are pressed flat on a griddle until the outside crisps and the inside becomes molten sugar… dangerously hot, stuffed with brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts and absolutely worth the burnt tongue. Bungeoppang (fish-shaped treats filled with sweet red bean paste) are impossible to walk past. And bingsu (shaved ice topped with fruit or condensed milk) is so addictive it probably needs a warning label. Consider this yours.

Busan’s signature dishes

Dwaeji-gukbap (pork and rice soup), © Aleney de Winter

It’s a good idea to get acquainted with Busan’s other local delights. This isn’t Seoul food; instead, there’s a port city sensibility that shows up in the bowls, the broths and the banchan (small side dishes).

Dwaeji Gukbap

Probably the most Busan dish there is, Dwaeji Gukbap is a milky pork bone broth, simmered for hours until it turns white and unctuous, served with slices of boiled pork, rice and a tangle of kimchi. YLocals queue for it before 9am, and you eat it fast, standing or hunched over a low table, adjusting the heat with kimchi and a spoonful of fermented shrimp paste from the pot on the table. It’s the city’s unofficial hangover cure, a working breakfast and comfort food all at once. Do not leave without trying it.

Milmyeon

Busan’s answer to cold noodles, Milmyeon are thin wheat noodles served in an icy beef broth that’s clean, slightly sweet and deeply refreshing. There’s a spicy version too, bibim milmyeon, tossed in a crimson chilli sauce rather than swimming in broth. Both are served year-round, though locals eat the cold version even in the depths of winter, which tells you everything you need to know about how much they love it.

Ssiat Hotteok

This is the street food pancake evolved. A Nampo-dong original, the classic version of Hotteok is filled with brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts but adds sunflower seeds and other grains into the mix. The result is chewier and more textured.

Ganjang Gejang

Ganjang Gejang sounds like a challenge but rewards the brave. Raw blue crab marinated in soy sauce, left to cure until the flesh turns translucent and the roe becomes something between custard and umami paste.

Eomuk

A kind of fish cake, Eomuk is everywhere in Busan, and is considered the best in the country. At market stalls and pojangmacha (street food tents), skewers of flat, bouncy fish cake float in a clear, lightly salted broth. Take a skewer, dip it and devour it standing up

Tong-ojingeo-gui

Whole squid, grilled over open flame until the skin blisters and chars at the edges tong-ojingeo-gui is one of Busan’s most elemental street foods. Near the waterfront, vendors cook them to order and hand them over on a stick, still smoking.

Dongnae Pajeon 

While Pajeon (seafood pancakeo) os widespread, Dongnae Pajeon is a specific and iconic variation local and famous in Busan. 

The best food markets in Busan

Jagalchi Fish Market © Aleney de Winter

The city is liberally scattered with food markets rammed with tasty treats. Busan has always been a port city, which means the markets here have a particular energy… fishermen unloading directly into stalls and ajummas (aunties) grilling things on the spot. Some have been running for decades and look it; others have been cleaned up for tourists without losing too much of their character. Either way, arriving hungry is the only real requirement.

Jagalchi Fish Market

The largest seafood market in Korea, the scent of dried fish and briny sea, intense and unavoidable, will find you before the market does dried fish and briny sea. It operates on two levels: the covered indoor market downstairs where haenyeo (female free divers) sell sea cucumber from buckets and vendors spruik pungent rows of dried fish hanging in shrivelled clusters, tanks of live crabs and flip-flopping fish, and spiky sea urchins.

The seafood restaurants on the upper floors of the main building allow you to buy something fresh downstairs, bring it up and have it prepared right there. The hoe (raw fish platter) is a choice move, as is grilled fish, skin crackling and caramelised, and piles of garlicky grilled prawns. Just don’t be too surprised if you spy a stray tentacle or, seemingly alive on someone else’s plate, make a futile wriggle towards freedom. The market certainly challenges Western sensibilities but provides an honest, unfiltered slice of Korean life.

Nampo-dong

This pedestrian-friendly maze near Jagalchi Fish Market and BIFF Square hums with energy. You’ll see English signs and photo menus alongside stalls that clearly cater to locals. But the trick is to look for Korean cues and follow them. Whether it’s fish cakes, mandu (dumplings), hotteok or tteokbokki, eat standing up, wipe your hands on napkins that appear from nowhere and keep moving.

Gukje Market

At Busan’s largest traditional market, the food section sits towards the southern end and packs more variety into a smaller space than feels possible. Fried mandu (dumplings), whole fish turning on open grills, tteokbokki in pots big enough to swim in, grilled sundae (blood sausage stuffed with glass noodles and vegetables that’s genuinely delicious), and vendors selling homemade kimchi by the kilogram to locals who wheel shopping trolleys through the aisles. The rule here, as always, is to follow the queue. A long line of Korean grandmothers beats a Michelin star any day.

Haeundae Traditional Market

Haeundae Market is a neighbourhood market rather than a tourist one, and it is better for it. Located a short walk from the beach, it runs daily, and the food section buzzes from late morning. Ajummas (aunties) grill mackerel, steam sticky rice cakes, ladle soups and hand out samples without making eye contact. There’s limited English, just quick transactions and food locals love. Come hungry, bring cash. The dwaeji gukbap stalls here are worth seeking out.

Bupyeong Kkangtong Market 

Bupyeong is Busan’s best night market, drawing a younger, more local crowd than the daytime tourist spots. Food stalls line the walkways selling everything from tornado potatoes and grilled corn to fusion-y things like cream cheese hotdogs and mango bingsu. Come after 7pm when it properly wakes up.

Choryang Milmyeon Street (Milmyeon Alley)

Not a market exactly, but it deserves mention. A short cluster of restaurants near Busan Station dedicated almost entirely to milmyeon. Locals have been eating here for decades. The restaurants open early and close when the noodles run out, which is generally before noon.

Millak Raw Fish Town

Jagalchi Fish Market is not the only spot where seafood takes centre stage. Millak Raw Fish Town is a waterfront strip devoted almost entirely to sashimi. Dozens of restaurants serve similar menus at similar prices, and staff will enthusiastically try to steer you inside. The trick is not to agonise over which one. Watch where local families settle in, look for restaurants with fish tanks that are well maintained, and sit down. Order a mixed platter and eat while the boats go past.

Convenience Stores

Photo by Polina Kneis on Unsplash

Convenience stores deserve their own moment. Korean convenience stores – GS25, CU, 7-Eleven and Emart24 are the main chains – aren’t emergency stops; they’re part of the food culture with hot food, cold food, self-serve coffee, microwaves, hot water dispensers and little plastic tables out front where locals eat full meals without any self-consciousness whatsoever.

Pop in and try some local faves. Samgak kimbap (triangular rice parcels wrapped in seaweed) is the gateway item. The outer packaging is engineered so you peel it in three steps without the seaweed touching the rice until the last second, keeping everything crisp. Fillings range from tuna mayo and spicy pork to kimchi and bulgogi, and they will become breakfast, snack and even dinner when you’re fading after a long day of touristing.

Next to the register you’ll find a rotating heated stand of hot and fried things on sticks. Fish cake skewers (essentially a cheaper version of what you’d pay three times as much for at a market stall), corn dogs stuffed with cheese or sausage, and tteok (rice cake) in various formats. And all good when you’re in need of a sneaky snack.

The selection of instant noodles will be enormous and overwhelming. Whatever you select, the store will provide hot water, a fork and somewhere to sit. Popular choices include Shin Ramyun (classic spicy and deeply savoury) and Jjajang cup noodles (a black bean paste version of instant noodles that offers a different eating experience entirely), but look for Buldak Bokkeum Myeon. Eye-wateringly spicy, they’ve quietly crossed over into a full Western moment, with supermarket shelves in the US, UK and Australia now stocking them. In fact, they’ve become one of those rare exports that travels not because it’s been softened for foreign palates, but precisely because it hasn’t. It’s worth noting that most GS25s have a self-serve soft-serve ice cream machine near the entrance. You may need it.

The other option to soothe your fiery face after eating Buldak is Sikhye, a lightly sweet, slightly fizzy traditional rice drink served cold in a can that is cleansing and refreshing.

Other popular convenience store treats are egg sandwiches made from thick white bread and stuffed with a generous egg mayo filling, sometimes with sweetcorn or cucumber. They are cheap and oddly satisfying at any hour.

Sweet, salty and slightly addictive honey butter chips, a snack that caused genuine supply shortages when it launched and people were reselling bags online for multiples of the retail price. The hype has settled, but the chips remain popular.

And grab a banana milk (a squat yellow carton of improbably sweet banana-flavoured milk) because it is worth trying at least once, if only to understand why Koreans are nostalgic about it.

K-BBQ: How to Do It Right

© Aleney de Winter

Korean BBQ is joyfully unavoidable in Busan, and unlike a lot of cities, it doesn’t cluster in one neighbourhood and call it a night. You’ll find it everywhere, from the packed side streets of Seomyeon and the beachfront restaurant strips of Haeundae to the lively bar district of Gwangalli and the younger, louder eating scene around Kyungsung University and Nampo-dong. Wherever you are in the city, a grill is probably within a five-minute walk.

This is partly a blessing and partly a problem. Because K-BBQ is so abundant and so uniform in presentation, every restaurant looks broadly the same from the outside, and it’s tempting to either overthink it or wander in somewhere mediocre out of sheer decision fatigue. The better move is to wander, watch and follow the locals. If there’s a queue of Korean families or office workers, get in it.

Seomyeon is the late-night BBQ heartland. It is dense with restaurants that stay open into the small hours, fuelled by office workers, university students and the kind of sustained group eating that only soju makes possible. It’s loud, it’s fun and the energy is hard to replicate elsewhere.

Haeundae draws a slightly more mixed crowd of locals and tourists, and the restaurants here tend to be a little more polished… and a little more expensive. It’s worth it for the setting because eating grilled pork belly a street back from a beach is never a bad idea.

Gwangalli has the coolest atmosphere, especially at night when the bridge lights up across the water. The BBQ crowd here tends to skew younger, and the strips around the beach are good for a long, unhurried evening.

Kyungsung-Bugyeong (the university area) is the place you go when you want quantity, low prices and the kind of cheerful chaos that only comes with a student-dense neighbourhood.

Wherever you land, the experience follows a reliable rhythm. A tabletop grill and banchan (side dishes) cover every available surface. Kimchi comes in multiple forms, and there will be pickled vegetables, small salads and things you won’t be able to identify but should eat anyway. Then comes the meat. Thin slices of pork belly and/or marinated beef cook in minutes on the tabletop grill and are wrapped in perilla leaves with a smear of doenjang (fermented soybean paste), ready to be eaten in quick, happy bursts. Order the samgyeopsal (pork belly) and the galbi (short rib). And don’t be afraid to ask for assistance if it’s your first time. Servers commonly cook the meat for you in Busan, more so than in Seoul,

Must-try Busan restaurants

Dondwaeji, Busan. Photo by Rina Kemppainen on Unsplash

Most food in Busan is better when you find it by instinct… wandering, following smells and trusting queues. But there are some restaurants that have earned their reputation and should absolutely be on your list.

Dondwaeji (Myeongdong)

A Jung-gu favourite that has earned a following among both locals and foreign tourists, Dondwaeji keeps its focus on one thing: grilled strip loin. Simple, satisfying, and popular for good reason.

Chamsuri Gopchang (Seomyeon)
Grilled gopchang (small intestine) cooked over charcoal, basted repeatedly until caramelised and slightly crisp at the edges. Confronting for the uninitiated and completely addictive for everyone else, this is the kind of place that has regulars who have eaten the same meal here every week for twenty years.

Chef Gon (Jung-gu)

Tucked down an alley near Jagalchi Market, this is a Michelin-listed counter restaurant run by a former hotel chef. Every morning he goes to the market and buys what looks good; that becomes the day’s menu. The result is a seafood-led tasting course that changes constantly, cooked in front of you. Book well ahead. Closed Mondays.

Samojeong (Seomyeon)

An institution famous for its samgyetang (whole chicken stuffed with glutinous rice, garlic and ginseng, simmered until the broth turns silky and restorative). What sets Samojeong apart is that theirs often comes with abalone, which sounds extravagant until you taste how it deepens the broth.

Palette (Yongho-dong)

One of the few Michelin-starred restaurants in Busan, Chef Jaehoon Kim’s French-influenced tasting menu uses local and seasonal Korean ingredients in ways that feel inevitable rather than clever. Not cheap or casual, but if you want one high-end meal in the city, this is the one to book.

Halmae Gaya Milmyeon (Seomyeon)

Often cited as serving Busan’s finest milmyeon, it’s been dishing it up so since the 1980s. The broth is clear, cold and precise, but the queues are long. We recommend arriving slightly before opening.

Cooking classes in Busan

Bapsan cooking class in Busan. © Aleney de Winter

If you want to really understand Korean food, from how it’s made and why it tastes the way it does to what it means in the context of Korean culture, book a cooking class. Not as a box-ticking activity, but as the thing that ties the whole trip together.

Busan has plenty of options, but we genuinely loved Bapsang with Min. In our session we made bibimbap with bulgogi (a rice bowl topped with marinated beef and a rainbow of vegetables), haemul pajeon (addictive crispy seafood and spring onion pancakes) and miyeok guk (a mild, nourishing seaweed soup).

You’ll leave with a folder of recipes you’ll actually use, a much clearer sense of what’s been in your bowl all week, and, if our experience is anything to go by, already planning which dish to cook first when you get home.

Take a culinary tour of Korea

An InsideAsia Tours local guide takes the guesswork out of eating in markets and beyond. © Aleney de Winter

InsideAsia Tours’ Culinary Korea itinerary is one of the best ways to navigate the country’s food scene, particularly for first-timers who don’t want to miss things through lack of local knowledge. The 13-day fully customisable tour covers Seoul, Busan, Jeonju, Yeosu and Jeju Island, with local guides who know where to eat in each city, and more importantly, what to order.

The difference between a good meal and a great one in Korea is often just knowing which stall on which street to go to, and that kind of knowledge is hard to come by without help.

An award-winning travel writer and photographer, Aleney de Winter was fresh from school when she first set off to explore the far reaches of Australia with a two-man tent and a beaten-up Kingswood for company. Three decades, and two kids later, and she's still on the go, with her itchy-footed offspring in tow.