Gwangjang Market: Traditional Korean street food in Seoul

Previously known as Dongdaemun Market, Gwangjang Market is a traditional Korean marketplace with more than 5,000 shops. It is one of the oldest and largest traditional markets in South Korea 😮 where you can buy souvenirs, textiles and produce. Nowadays, it is hugely popular as a foodie spot due to one of its food stalls appearing in the Netflix documentary Street Food.

We came to Gwangjang Market during our recent trip to Seoul and decided to have lunch here. We were excited to try a bunch of different foods! Here is everything we ate and our experience at Gwangjang Market.

Recommended: Read about my travel recap to Seoul here – featuring the Gwangjang Market, Lotte World and more.

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The vibe

Gwangjang Market is huge! It took us awhile to find the area where all the food stalls are but we just followed the crowd and the noise.

Once you’re in the food area, you will see a bunch of stalls sitting in the middle of a giant outdoor hallway (it is undercover). On the sides, you will also find individual storefronts where you can order food – some are more like a grab & go, and others may have a small dining area where you can sit. The stalls in the middle of the hall also have some bench seating, and you will be facing the workers who are cooking and serving the food in front of you.

We came here during lunch time (around 12 pm) so it was certainly busy and crowded. There aren’t any places for you to sit and eat unless you buy specifically from a stall that has seats available.

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Food review

Here are all the different types of foods we tried at the Gwangjang Market. Prices are converted 1000:1 KRW to CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar.

Mungbean pancake ($5)

The first we saw and purchased was a mung bean pancake for $5. What you see in the photo is actually only 1/4 of the pancake so it is actually much larger and nice to share between 2-4 people. The pancake was nice and crispy and had a similar texture to a seafood or kimchi pancake. I didn’t find the mung bean flavour very overpowering or anything.

Kimbap

Next, our friend buys some kimbap, which are like seaweed rice rolls with veggies inside. I don’t remember how much this is but less than $5 for sure and you can get a pretty big box and share with others.

I’ve seen comments calling them “addictive”, but I didn’t find they were that amazing, especially when I compare them to the beef kimbaps that actually have meat inside of them.

Fish cake ($2)

We actually had a slightly annoying experience buying this fish cake. We wanted to sit at one of the stalls and order some fish cake, but the lady there essentially told us to gtfo if we are only buying $2 worth of fish cake 😒. I was kind of surprised by this because it wasn’t like we weren’t buying anything and just sitting down to eat food from other stalls. Also, we would be in and out quite quickly after eating a small portion of fish cake, so the fact that they denied us service/food surprised me and also made me go wtf 🙄.

We ended up saying we will buy it to-go, and the lady acted like it was such a hassle. She didn’t even want to give us utensils to eat it with like chopsticks. We ended up eating the fish cake at another spot (the owner was nice and let us eat food from another stall) and it was ok but we’ve had more flavourful broth from fish cake sold at little street stalls.

Yukhoe ($19)

We ordered a plate of yukhoe (raw beef – like beef tartare) from a place on the side that has a small dining area inside. This serving was a good size to share with 3 people and it comes with egg yolk and some Korean pears and sesame seeds. This yukhoe was pretty good and I really liked the seasoning. It also came with a small bowl of soup for each of us.

For the price, I think it is a good deal and I heard the yukhoe at Gwangjang Market is pretty good.

Kalguksu ($6) + dumplings ($6)

We struggled a bit at first to find the most popular spot in Gwangjang Market – the famous kalguksu stall that was featured in Netflix’s documentary Street Food. But once we saw it, it was unmistakable because it had a significantly longer line than the other stalls. Also, the lady was wearing her iconic pink T-shirt.

The line for this stall moved pretty quickly, actually so it wasn’t too long of a wait (maybe 10-15 mins). Everyone who eats here gets a spot to sit down.

The menu is more extensive than I thought – I thought they would only offer 1 item (the knife-cut noodles), but they actually have a few variations of this with different toppings. We shared 1 of the original kalguksu for $6 and ordered a plate of dumplings for another $6. The dumplings come with 6 so it was perfect to share with 3 people.

I really liked the kalguksu. It looks very plain, but I found it to be full of umami 😍. The broth was light but had deep flavours, and the noodles were made fresh in front of us. The texture of the noodles were really good – chewy and some of them are not cut evenly which added to the texture. The bowl is also quite big – it was a good size for me to share with another person, but if I had ordered this alone I’d be pretty full.

The dumplings had 2 different fillings – pork and kimchi. I preferred the kimchi one actually, even though it was a tad spicy. Overall, a really nice side dish to compliment the noodles since it doesn’t have anything except some seaweed.

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Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We enjoyed our experience at the Gwangjang Market because there were a lot of yummy foods to try and they were all pretty cheap (under $5 for most items). A lot of the stalls sell the same foods so for some of them, I feel like it doesn’t really matter which stall you actually go to. But if you want a spot at a stall and not be told to gtfo from a lady, you may want to consider ordering multiple things from the same booth.

The kalguksu/knife-cut noodle stall is a must-try and I think it is worth the hype, given the wait time and price. It was my favourite item we tried at Gwangjang Market.

Other items I think you should also try, but doesn’t really matter where you get them from include the mung bean pancake and the raw beef/yukhoe.

We wanted to try some sweets but we were too full. They have many options there as well for those with a sweet tooth.

Although there are many traditional markets in South Korea, I think Gwangjang Market is worth a visit but if you don’t do well in crowds, come earlier or on weekdays to minimize your chances of being around too many people.

Sincerely, Loewe