Handasot: Korean rice bowl restaurant in Busan
During our trip to South Korea, we stayed a few days in Busan, South Korea’s second largest city. Our Airbnb was located in the Gwangalli Beach area, which is right by the beach and tons of restaurant and bar options along the beach strip.
Handasot (한다솥 본점) is where we ended up eating our first meal in Busan. We found it on Naver Maps as a nearby option and it has a 4.2 star rating on Google Maps. They specialize in Korean rice bowls with different toppings and side dishes. Here is everything we ordered!
The vibe
Handasot is located more on the back-streets of the main strip. This means they are not facing the beach and do not have any sort of beach view. However, we were pretty excited because the back street was lined with tons of very delicious looking eateries.
The exterior of the building is very modern with a grid-looking wall. There was a small line-up when we arrived around at 6:20pm on a Saturday night. They had a digital tablet outside where you can join the waitlist. We did not have a Korean phone number since we were traveling with only data, but we went inside the restaurant and the staff helped us register for the waitlist without a phone number. We waited outside (they have some cushions and a ledge where you can sit and wait) for maybe 10-15 minutes and was then escorted to sit inside.
The interior is spacious and a mixture of industrialism/modern and traditional Korean. The walls were concrete with pipes showing on the ceiling, but the tables and seats were wooden. Every table had booth seating and it was huge – can fit 4-6 people comfortably.
You order via the tablet at your table and there is English available!
Food review
Here is everything we ordered for 2 adults. Priced are converted 1000:1 KRW to CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar.
Rib pot rice ($17)
My partner chooses to order the rib pot rice (this is just what Google Translate says). Inside this rice bowl, there is dry-aged short rib meat, gently cooked and served with butter, green onions, a “special sauce” and wasabi.
Kelvin quite liked this bowl as it was very meaty and had that fatty butter taste in the rice. For $17, he was pretty happy with the portion size.
Eel pot rice ($25)
I choose to order the eel pot rice, which comes with fresh-water eel coated in “special seasoning” and grilled in a 500C oven.
Even though my bowl was more expensive at $25, I was very pleased with my bowl. The eel had a great smoky flavour to it from the special seasoning and there were 10 huge pieces in my bowl! Tasted delicious to mix it up with the rice and eat it together.
There was a sign that taught us how to enjoy our pot rice. It told us to put the rice from the pot into a separate bowl, mix it, and pour boiling water into the pot instead. After we finish eating the mixed rice in our separate bowl, we go back to eat the pot which now will be cooked in hot water – perhaps making it more like a congee consistency?
We actually prefer crispy rice so we didn’t follow the instructions to pour water into our pot. We still enjoyed it very much!
Side dishes (free)
In addition to the rice bowl of your choice, Handasot gives you 4 small side dishes for free. Since we ordered 2 different bowls, we received 2 different sets of side dishes (I’m not sure which set goes with which bowl) and a small plate of salad.
In the first set of 4, we have marinated quail eggs, japchae (glass noodles), kimchi and some fermented anchovies. In the second set, we have some different saucy beans, sausages, lotus roots and a spicy chili gummy/radish side dish.
It was fun to eat these different side dishes with our rice bowls – all the side dishes can be mixed with rice.
Stir fried squid ($8)
Thinking that it wasn’t enough food, we added on an al le carte menu item – the stir fried squid in a spicy sauce. This side dish was very tasty and had a very addicting spicy/chili flavour. The squid was chewy and I really liked the fried garlic chips they sprinkled on top.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
We had a lovely dinner on our first night in Busan! Coming to eat here as a foreigner, I found the staff to be very helpful and it wasn’t too difficult to order here with limited Korean.
The vibe is very cool and I like how there are still lots of options on the menu so everyone can get their own individual bowl. I think all of their rice bowls are high quality and the presentation is also very appealing from the metal pots to the trays and side dishes.
Prices are reasonable for the amount of food you get. If I am looking for an eel bowl in Vancouver, it would probably cost almost twice as much.
If you are in the Gwangalli Beach area and are looking for a hearty meal – check out Handasot! They have locations all across South Korea too.
Sincerely, Loewe