Traditional Korean Street Food Tour at Gwangjang Market in Seoul!

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Explore Gwangjang Market, Seoul's first permanent market, for a huge variety of traditional Korean street foods, from addicting kimbap to crispy mung bean pancakes and unique blood sausage.

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Gwangjang Market
Traditional market
4.2 (2,093)Closed · opens Tuesday 9 AM
Creator's voice
Seoul's first permanent market, established over 100 years ago, still bustling with tourists and locals. It's famous for its huge variety of traditional Korean street foods you can grab on the go or sit down to enjoy. The entire market is enclosed with a rooftop, making it a great spot for tasty treats regardless of winter weather or rain.
Gwangjang Market, 88 Changgyeonggung-ro, Jongno District, Seoul, South Korea
- Odeng & Mayak Kimbap — A perfect warming start to the day. Odeng is fish cake boiling in a savory hot broth, perfect for cold days. It's a little spicy, and even if you don't eat the fish cake, the juice alone warms you up in winter. Mayak kimbap, a Gwangjang Market specialty, is usually filled with carrots, spinach, and yellow pickled radish. The sauce is spicy for your nose, and 'mayak' means drug because this stuff is addicting. It has horseradish that will 'singe your nose and burn the back of your skull,' similar to the burn from wasabi with sushi. Unlike typical kimbap, this one comes with an intense horseradish sauce.
- Omu (Spicy Fish Cake) — A dense, bouncy, chewy, and fishy fish cake in a spicy sauce, similar to the odeng broth but with an added kick. The spice hits you at the end, making it a great start to the day.
- Bindaetteok (Mung Bean Pancake) — A hearty pancake made from washed, soaked, and husked mung beans ground with water and seasoned with salt to make a batter. Vegetables or meat can be added before frying. It's big, greasy, and oily, with an excellent eggy, super crunchy taste and a salty umami flavor. It's Korean comfort food on a cold day, steamy, crispy, full of beans, and soft on the inside. Delicious with a little sauce and onion.
- Kimchi Jeon (Kimchi Pancake) — A super common and yummy street food. It has a light breading, not a ton of kimchi flavor, but a hint of sourness from the kimchi. It delivers a 'loving spiciness' that hits your throat.
- Fried Beef Heart — Sliced, fried beef heart with some breading. It's a little chewy in a 'fun organ-y way' and very yummy. Part of the fried delicious, over-the-top yumminess found at the market.
- Makgeolli (Korean Rice Wine) — Korean rice wine, often enjoyed recreationally at the market's packed food stalls. The vendor offered a shot.
- Pig Face (Dwaeji Meori) — A dish that used to be intimidating but is surprisingly good. It's super fatty, with a bit of meat, and when combined with a shrimp sauce, kimchi, and salt, the flavor is undeniable. The texture is fatty and meaty, and it's recommended to layer it with kimchi and a tiny bit of sauce.
- Sundae (Blood Sausage) — A common street food in Seoul, stuffed with rice, blood, minced meat, and sometimes veggies. It smells like ground-up organ meat and can be intimidating. It has a mustiness, a gelatinous texture mixed with chewy rice, meaty flavor, and a very present blood flavor. It's wrapped with real intestine. The experience of trying it was more fun than the taste itself.
- Spicy Chewy Squid (Ojingeochae Muchim) — A small side dish (banchan) that's very good, a little spicy, a little fishy, and has a great chewiness. It's one of the creator's favorite banchan.
- Sweet Bean with Molasses — A banchan that's more like a sweet bean with almost a molasses coating. You can buy these in bulk and taste test before committing.
- Tiny Fried Crab (Ganjang Gejang) — A whole tiny crab that offers a good crunch, breaking apart very easily and being very brittle. It's one of the many banchan available.
- Doraji Muchim (Bellflower Root) — A root vegetable that tastes like an old carrot smothered with salty gochujang sauce (red pepper paste). It has a powerful, well-preserved, salty, and intense flavor.
- Deboned Chicken Feet (Dakbal) — Korea makes the best chicken feet, deboned for easy eating. They are coated in a layer of spicy red chili paste. They hardly look like a foot anymore, making them a good way to start if you're trying chicken feet.
- Pork Skin (Goptegi) — Squares of pork skin coated in a layer of spicy red chili paste. It's chewy, gelatinous, and spicy, and even better with alcohol.
- Japchae (Glass Noodles) — Slicked-up glass noodles coated in sesame oil, usually with wood ear mushroom and other veggies tossed in. This version is very peppery, the most peppery the creator has ever had, and also oily with a smoky flavor from the sesame oil.
- Kimchi Mandu (Kimchi Dumpling) — A Korean dumpling with a pinkish kimchi variety. It's tangy, sour, and has a grilled kimchi flavor. A classic dumpling.
- Gogi Mandu (Meat Dumpling) — A Korean meat dumpling. It's yummy, meaty, chewy, and savory, a classic dumpling.
- Sikhye (Korean Horchata) — A Korean horchata-like drink, often given as a bonus by owners. It's cool and refreshing, perfect for washing down spicy food.
- Tteokbokki (Spicy Rice Cakes) — Fat rice cakes with a great robust chewy texture and a bunch of spice on the outside. Part of a spicy platter.
- Seaweed (Gim) — Various types of seaweed, like the kind used on the outside of kimbap. It's yummy, salty, crunchy, and has a little bit of seafood flavor. The creator found a particular brand to be very good.
- Hotteok (Sweet Korean Pancake) · ~$1.50 — A sweet, doughy, fried Korean donut in a cup, made by pressing a huge chunk of dough with sesame seeds and sugar into hot oil. It's gooey, crustified, crispy, and crunchy on the outside, and super doughy on the inside. A nice dessert for about a dollar and a half, perfect for ending a day of eating many different foods at the market.