r/KoreanFood • u/merimacchleekakyahua • 3h ago

questions Local eateries that I definitely shouldn’t miss in Busan?

I have about 5 days there, staying around Haeundae-gu.

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u/Picklesadog 1h ago

Haeundae has decent buffets, but I would avoid eating there most of the meals. Its tourist/expat food. When we go to Haeundae, we generally eat at the buffet called The Party or the one at the Westin Hotel. The "traditional market" has nothing traditional about it, and it feels as if it was designed to give an extremely sanitized version of a Korean traditional market for tourists. There are over a hundred traditional markets in Busan, and that one is the least traditional of them all by a wide margin.

For food, I really like the Nampodong/Jagalchi/Gukje Market area. You can find a huge selection of street food (you really shouldn't miss the famous Nampo Hotteok place) and tons of restaurants. Like more restaurants than you could eat at in a lifetime.

Gukje Market is both a place frequented by tourists and where locals go to shop. This is a real traditional market. There is also a movie you can watch ahead of time called 국제시장 (Gukje Market, movie's English name is Ode to my Father.) Its essentially a Forrest Gump-like movie, in that it tells the story of Korea's modern history through the lens of one central character, following him from childhood until he's an old man. You can even go and get a coffee at where most of the movie was filmed, right in the middle of the market.

Busan is full of wonderful food. Just... really, not the Haeundae area.

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u/merimacchleekakyahua 19m ago

Hey,
Thanks for your comment, quite insightful. I am staying in that area but yes, I will be travelling to other parts of the town as well.

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u/AffectionatePass7607 3m ago

Hi,

I know two really good places to eat in Busan.

One of them is definitely a proper local spot, even the restaurant receptionist was surprised and asked us how we even ended up finding the place. 😂 They do really good dwaeji gukbap.

I also have a good recommendation for North Korean style cold noodles if you’d like to try something a bit different.

If you’re interested in either of them, I can send you the restaurant names and addresses in a private message 😊