Gwangjang Market in Seoul | Korean Street Food

By Ellen – (Updated Apr 2023)

⏱ 5 min

Gwangjang Market 광장시장

Gwangjang Market in Seoul is one of South Korea‘s oldest and largest traditional markets. It opened in 1905 and it was the first market that was open every day of the week. The market has over 5,000 shops selling anything from food and clothes, to home goods. Many of these shops have stayed with the same families throughout generations.

If you’re looking for authentic Korean food, look no further than Gwangjang Market. The main attraction of the market are the street stalls making and serving food, making Gwangjang Market one of the best places to try different Korean foods! It’s a bit like a street food experience, within a market and both locals and tourists alike eat here.

Even though the market is becoming one of the biggest tourist stops in Seoul, it still feels uniquely traditional in the middle of the metropolitan city. You’ll walk away from the market feeling like you had an authentic cultural and dining experience.

Quick info on visiting Gwangjang Market

• Location: Jongno neighborhood of Seoul
• Nearest Subway Station: Jongno 5-ga station (종로5가역). Take exit 7 or 8
• Open Hours: 9am – 6pm (closed Sunday) for shops. Food Street is open every day until 11pm
• Busiest Time: probably the lunch rush hour around 12-2pm

Typical Korean Foods to try at Gwangjang Market

When you enter the food alley, you might become overwhelmed by the abundance of food. If you aren’t familiar with Korean food, you probably won’t even know what you’re looking at. Additionally, most of the stalls probably won’t have an English menu and most of the owners don’t speak much English. They will be able to understand enough to take your order, but likely won’t be able to explain much else in case you want to ask a lot of questions about the food. That’s why we are writing this section, to give you an idea of popular and common food dishes you’ll see at Gwangjang Market, with a description of what they are.

All of the dishes below are popular traditional foods so you will see them throughout Korea, but for a fresh and authentic experience try them at Gwangjang Market.

Bindaetteok 빈대떡

Bindaetteok is best described as a fried mung bean pancake. Dried mung beans are ground up to make flour and meat and vegetables are usually added to the mixture. The bindaetteok is then fried, making a delicious and savory treat.

Eomuk-guk 어묵국 (aka Odeng-guk 오뎅국)

Eomuk-guk is a simple fish cake soup. Fish cake is in many Korean dishes. Here, fish cake is simmered in a light savory broth and this is very popular at street food stalls throughout Korea. It is the perfect comfort food on a cold day.

Mayak Kimbap 김밥

The word “kimbap” literally means seaweed (kim) rice (bap). They’re rice, vegetables, and usually some meat, rolled in seaweed. It looks similar to a sushi roll on the outside, but there’s no raw fish here. The traditional kimbap usually contains rice, carrot, pickled radish, spinach, fried egg, fish cake, and marinated beef. Mayak kimbap is a mini, bite-sized version of kimbap and a specialty at Gwangjang Market. They are a must-try with the dipping sauce, which is just a mixture soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, water, and a Korean spicy mustard.

Kalguksu 칼국수

Kalguksu is Korean knife-cut noodle soup. This is one of Roberto’s newest favorite foods! Netflix came out with a series called Street Food: Asia, and a stall owner from Gwangjang Market was featured in it for her kalguksu noodle stand.

We saw her on our visit to the market, with a huge smile on her face serving her customers her handmade knife-cut noodle soup. Her food had to be spectacular to get her on Netflix in the first place, but now she’s even more famous! There was a line of people waiting to sit down and dine at her stall, so we visited another one instead which ended up being delicious too.

Mandu 만두

Mandu are Korea’s version of dumplings. You can usually find vegetable and pork mandu, kimchi and pork mandu, or kimchi-only mandu. Most stalls selling kalguksu also sell mandu.

Tteokbokki 떡볶이

The modern-day tteokbokki is a dish of chewy rice cakes in a spicy sauce. It’s one of my favorite snack dishes. Tteokboki dates back to the Joseon Dynasty and was eaten by nobles and members of the royal court. The modern-day spicy version was created sold as an affordable snack after the Korean Wars. Fish cakes and hardboiled eggs can also be found alongside or mixed in a lot of tteokbokki.

Food for Adventurous Eaters

Do you consider yourself an adventurous eater? Here are some other things to try at Gwangjang Market:

• Yukhoe 육회: think of it like Korean “steak tartare”. It is super fresh and cold raw beef marinated in soy sauce, garlic, and sesame oil and usually served with a raw egg on top. I don’t eat red meat anymore, but I have eaten and enjoyed this many times in the past.
• Soondae 순대: comparable to blood sausage/black pudding, soondae is pig intestines stuffed with noodles and pork blood. Koreans love this stuff.

• Sannakji 산낙지: nakji is a small species of octopus with long arms. Sannakji is raw octopus. The octopus is dead when you eat it, but the tentacles continue to move around because of all the nerve endings in the tentacles. That’s why many people call this “live octopus”. The flavor is mild, but don’t forget to chew the moving tentacles well or they may suction onto your mouth/throat.

Check below for more plans to do in Seoul!