The South Korea Street Food Guide: What to Eat, Where to Look, and How to Order

You’ll find street food stalls and markets all across South Korea, but it’s useful to know a handful of spots that are worth knowing before you go.

Gwangjang Market, in Seoul, is a great place to start your street food tour. It's one of the oldest markets in the city, where they serve bindaetteok (savoury mung bean pancakes) that have been fried in enormous pans, alongside mayak gimbap which are small, addictive rolls of rice and vegetables that get their nickname "drug gimbap" as it’s hard to stop eating them.

Myeongdong's street food alleys are a bit of a different kind of experience. Louder, more modern, and aimed at visitors and locals alike, there’s a huge variety of choices packed into a relatively small area. It's a good spot if you want to try a lot of different things quickly without too much planning.

Namdaemun Market is older and a little less polished than Myeongdong, with a more wholesale, working-market atmosphere. The food here feels a little heartier and less styled for photos, so you know you’ll be served a truly authentic Korean meal.

Down to the coast in Busan, we enter seafood territory in Gukje Market and Jagalchi Market. Here you’ll find grilled fish, fried squid, and stalls selling the wonders of the sea that you won't necessarily find as often up in Seoul. It's definitely worth the visit even just to see a different kind of street food market.

It’s also good to know that night markets and daytime markets are different experiences. Daytime markets tend to be more practical and local, home to vendors who've run their same stall for years. Night markets, especially seasonal ones, are more festive. They usually have more stalls, more variety, and considerably more people, so budget your patience accordingly.

Tteokbokki is where most people start, and for very good reasons. Chewy rice cakes simmered in a red, spicy-sweet sauce, usually with fish cakes and scallions thrown in. It's cheap, filling, and a real Korean comfort food dish.

Hotteok is a sweet, filled pancake, pan-fried until the outside is crisp and the inside is molten with brown sugar, cinnamon and sometimes nuts. It's mostly a cold-weather food, and truly authentic Hotteok stalls only sell it when the temperature drops.

Gimbap, Korea's answer to a rice roll, is sold everywhere with seemingly infinite variations. The mayak version from Gwangjang Market is the one to seek out, small enough to eat in two bites and dangerously easy to order six of.

Sundae (pronounced "soon-dae," nothing to do with ice cream) is a Korean blood sausage. It’s made up of rice noodles and other fillings stuffed into intestine casing and steamed. It sounds like the dish nervous first-timers should skip, but it's mild, slightly savoury, and far less intimidating in practice than it sounds.

Odeng or eomuk, fish cake skewers simmered in a warm, savoury broth, feel like the street food equivalent of a hug in a bowl. Pretty cheap, simple, and usually served with a cup of the broth.

Gyeranppang, or egg bread, is a small savoury-sweet loaf snack with a whole egg baked into the top, usually eaten on the move.

Bungeoppang is a fish-shaped (not fish-flavoured) pastry, usually filled with sweet red bean paste. They’re individually shaped by a distinctive cast-iron mould. It's another delicious cold-weather regular.

And then there's the Korean-style corn dog that’s become a real social media sensation in recent years. It’s a hot dog or cheese-filled skewer battered, deep fried, then rolled in sugar and sometimes crushed potato cubes.

Don’t forget cash. Plenty of stalls now take card, especially in busier markets, but small vendors (particularly older ones) often prefer cash, so it's worth carrying some small notes and coins specifically for street food.

You don’t need to know any Korean to order. Most stalls have their food visible so you can simply point, hold up fingers for quantity, and pay. Lots of vendors are used to visitors’ language barriers so they’ll be friendly and understanding.

Portions are usually small and prices are low. Most individual items only cost a few thousand won, so grab a few different plates to try and share.

Eating standing up. Many stalls have a small standing counter or a shared table nearby, where you can enjoy your meals leisurely rather than taking food away. Shared tables with strangers are common too, particularly in busier markets, no need to wait for a spot of your own.

Street food in Korea shifts with the seasons. Winter is when hotteok and roasted chestnuts stalls pop up on street corners, tasting better with cold hands. Summer serves up bingsu (shaved ice desserts) and cold noodle stalls which take over as the go-to street food, offering some relief from the heat and humidity that settle over the country from June onward.

• If you're sensitive to spice, go easy on tteokbokki to start as Korean spice levels can often catch people off guard.You can always ask your vendor to go lighter on the spice (“an maepge” - not spicy).
• The fish cake broth that comes free with odeng is worth drinking on its own even if you're not that hungry
• Mayak gimbap really is worth the slight detour to Gwangjang Market as the version sold elsewhere is fine, but it's not quite the same.

If this has you thinking about where to base your trip around all this eating, our Seoul city guide is a good place to start. It covers all the local neighbourhood markets, and how to fit them around all the other must-see sights of the city.