Food in Busan: Gom Jang- O 곰장어

We are going to introduce you to a series of infamous Busan dishes. First, let's start with (Gom Jang-O) 꼼장어. Gom Jang-O means hagfish in English. There're many ways to cook the seafood but Korean prefer to cook it with ,of coz Korean Chili paste.

꼼장어  Gom Jang-O
Photo credited to www.mastercoupon.co.kr

Jagalchi is well-known for its seafood market. If you're a seafood lover, then you shouldn't miss this place because you just couldn't get any better place than this.


Now back to Gom Jang-O, here are few of the restaurants in Jagalchi where you can have it.

1. 성일집 (Song-il-Jib)
Direction: Nampo Station, Exit 5. Walk straight and turn right at the end of Lotte department Store. Turn left at the first building block and the restaurant will be on your right hand-side.

Address: 부산시 중구 중앙동6가 79-4 (Busan-si Junggu Jungan-Dong 6-ka 79-4)


Tel: 051-463-5888


2.수덕산꼼장어 (Su-Dok-San-Gom-Jang-O)


Direction: Nampo Station (Line 2), Exit 2. Walk straight and turn left on the first building block. The restaurant will be on your left.


Address: 부산광역시 중구 남포동4가 28-5 (Busan-si, Junggu Nampo Dong 4-ka 28-5)

Tel: 051-241-2983

3.청산곰장어 (San-Cheong-San-Gom Jang-O)


Direction: Nampo Station (Line 2), Exit 2. Walk straight and turn left on the first building block. Walk straight and turn right. Walk straight and the restaurant will be on your right hand-side. You will find CU, a convenience store beside it.


Address: 부산시 중구 남포동4가 30 1F (부림프라자 1층) Busan-si Junggu Nampo-Dong 4-Ga- 30 1F

Tel: 051-245-3480




Question: Where can I find it Haeundae area?

4. 해운대기장곰장어 (Haeundae KiJang Kom Jang-O)
Direction: Haeundae Station, Exit 3. Walk straight and turn left until you see a big signboard of "Haeundae Market" on your left hand side. Keep Walking and the restaurant should be on your left hand side.


Address: Haeundae Market Street

Tel : 051-742-8201

Stay tuned for the upcoming intorduction to other foods.

food i

Seomyeon 서면 where youngsters, crowd and downtown blend in one place.

If we want to talk about where youngster, downtown and most crowded place in Busan, we will directly think about Seomyeon then. Seomyeon the commercial district is  located strategically in the middle of Busan and where Subway line #1 and #2 meet for interchange. Seomyeon basically counted as the most crowded place in Busan, with the floating population more than 160.000 people be there each day. Completed with clothes shops such as ZARA, Uniqlo and H&M; Underground shopping center, cinema, clubs, pubs, restaurants, coffee shop and motel, as Hongdae in Seoul is popular for youngsters, tourists and foreigners, you can feel that Seomyeon is Busan's Hongdae.

서면

Crowded people in Seomyeon

To get to Seomyeon, the easiest way will be by taking subway either line #1 or line #2 and get off at Seomyeon station, 서면역. As Seomyeon has 15 exits maybe you choose exit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 that will bring you straight into the middle of 서면.

Subway station

In Seomyeon besides the obvious shopping to well-known brand, such as ZARA, Bean pole, H&M, Nike, and so on, you can see a lot of local brand such as Denim 8 that sell a good clothes with reasonable price. Cafe and Coffee shop are another choice to hang around, from 경성 팥집 that sale awesome taste macha ice cream topped with red bean paste, to Ethiopia, Cafe giyeok 카페 ㄱ, and 1+1 Cafe -where you can get buy one free one beverage- are all available in Busan. 

Along with Hauendae in the post before, Seomyeon too offered you various choice of food to be enjoyed, western cuisine such as Mr.House and Vito, and also you can enjoy mix of western and korean style food in Dangol 단골. You must certainly try one of these fine choices.

단골 DANGOL

Nightlife is another attraction in here, lots of pubs, bar and club are available and packed with crowd every weekend. To party in Busan, Seomyeon is definitely offered the best of the best for you to enjoyed. So, what are you waiting for, come to Busan, stay with us with our helpful staffs and our special offer, as we only located 30 mins away with Subway from Seomyeon n the same line #2 and enjoy all Seomyeon can offered you in heartbeat.

See you in the next post, keed update of our blog here. Have a nice day~~

[HiKorea Hostel(Guest house) in Haeundae, Busan] Sharky's Bar & Grill

A Travel Journal of Hidden Famous Restaurants in Haeundae Sharky’s Bar & Grill

When you want to enjoy cold beer with friends at Haeundae! When you want to enjoy some fun games! When you want to eat plenty of appetizers! When you want to feel the carefree and exotic atmosphere! The place where you can enjoy all of these is located very near to the Haeundae beach. The Sharky’s Bar & Grill located at the 2^nd floor of Paledecz is just the place.

The Paledecz are the blue twin buildings besides the Paradise Hotel, and there are many restaurants along with the Sharky’s Bar & Grill here. The Sharky’s Bar & Grill are barely recognizable from the outside so many people just pass by, but once you get to know it, it is the hidden famous restaurant of Haeundae.

Well if you step in there at first it doesn’t feel like you are in Korea. The menu and the interior are all in the American way, and 90% of the customers are foreigners. It feels like you have come on a trip overseas from the heart of Haeundae. It is not that roomy, but if you go inside there is a space for performing, seats for playing games, and tables for customers to sit down.

There are seats for playing games here. You haven’t seen any at common restaurants in Korea, right? At first, the soccer game! This was my first time to try, and it was much more thrilling and fun than expected. And at the side there is a dartboard so people can get up to play dart together. It is not awkward at all playing games before or even after the meal, so you can enjoy yourselves.

This is the menu. The prices are not too much. The food served is quite a lot so when drinking alcohol not having a meal, it is enough to order just one menu for 2~4 people. Our company were 5 people, and we ordered 4 menus for meal and everyone were stuffed until full.

Finally the menu was served! Crisply fried potato chips! We ordered it as a side menu but were surprised at the great quantity. The balance of delicious cheese and bacon was really good. The potato chips were the first menu to be served, and since everyone was starving to death we finished it in no time. Since there were so much, the 5 of us could eat the potato chips as much as we liked.

The steak! It was a soft sirloin steak, and tasting it with the sauce served with it, it was a bit sour and the beef stock coming out from the sides was just so delicious. I eat a lot of vegetable along with meat, and eating the steak with the salad served with it, it was not that greasy and the balance was quite good.

This is the big burger of the Sharky’s Bar & Grill. We ordered the burger as intended otherwise, but it was served abundantly. It is a big burger not comparable with the other common burgers being sold in Korea. Well, the thing is that, we can’t eat this burger as we eat other normal burgers. We cut it into pieces and took it with a fork, and stuffing the bread, patty, vegetables and the sauce into the mouth, our mouth got filled making our lips soar. It could have been a little greasy, but plenty of vegetables, the jalapeno and the sour sauce kept the greasy feeling balanced.

There were potato chips on both plates of the steak and the burger, so this day we ate potatoes as much as we liked. Well, we couldn’t finish the chips.

And this menu!! This is Mexican food called the Burrito. There is Spanish rice, cheese and vegetables wrapped inside a large tortilla, and with the Sharky’s Bar & Grill sauce it makes a unique taste. I like eating food wrapped in tortillas, and I think it might be good to serve them wrapped in the tortilla at first. The exotic taste that we can’t find in Korea is very impressive.

The Sharky’s Bar & Grill with delicious and abundant fooo!! All menus suite quite well with beer. The taste and quantity are appropriate compared to price, and the carefree atmosphere to enjoy noisily with many friends is the attraction of the Sharky’s Bar & Grill. Since they are exotic food, so for those who don’t like greasy food may not enjoy them so much. I like exotic food so it wasn’t a problem. I guess it is suitable food as relish for everyone.

Come visit the Sharky’s Bar & Grill which is a famous restaurant nearby the Haeundae beach with your friends!

[HiKorea Hostel(Guesthouse) in Haeundae, Busan] Seomyeon Café Street, Café Mug

 Did you have a nice lunch? Now we will head for a sweet dessert. If you walk towards the Bujeon library from the main street of Seomyeon there is the café street. There are many cafes lined up with distinctive atmospheres of each. I like this street because I think the real worth of Seomyeon comes from this street which is quiet and noisy and the same time. It’s nice to read a book for hours sipping on a cup of coffee, and it’s also nice to have a chat with friends. Every single café is charming and chic so you can get nice photos even with the camera of your phone. There is a café that I always visit when I come here, but I walked on a little more to visit a new place. If you pass the ‘Goongrimaru’ besides the sign called the ‘Jeonpo Café Street’ and go straight up you can see the place, the café ‘Mug.’

 Because of the hot weather I ordered patbingsu(red bean sherbert) and lemonade, and I think I was so used to the 3 time vibration bell that we receive at the franchise cafes. I was so impressed at the natural(?) kindness of the employee who said she will bring the drinks for me if I stay at my seat. Taking a glimpse behind, I found a young female owner grinding the lemon. The people who visit the café at the café street for the first time get surprised at the cost that is almost the same as a franchise café’s, because we normally think a café owned by an individual is cheaper. But don’t be disappointed at the expensive cost. You will know when you receive the drink. The difference between the lemonade which is made from lemon syrup and the lemonade made from grinded real lemon. There are a lot of nuts in the patbingsu also (I found out for the first time this day that the ‘soboru’ of the soboru bread was a kind of a nut.). Tasty drinks at a cool café, I take breath at the relaxation that I feel after a long time.

 There are small frames filling up one side of the wall, and each table is decorated with cute little props. The photos that were taken by a film camera are pretty impressive. A friend that has visited this place often says that there are more photos than last time. Maybe I’ll get to see the whole wall covered with photos someday. Looking around slowly, I found out that there isn’t any space that the touch of a person hasn’t been through. Spending time chatting after finishing the lemonade and the patbingsu, the owner came and said that she will refill the drink with a cup of Americano. I was impressed provincially at the service I have never experienced before.

If you can’t make up your mind on which café to visit at Seomyeon, if no other place if of your favor, why don’t you visit this place, Mug? You will definitely like the full sunshine that shines through the huge window.

[HiKorea Hostel(Guesthouse) in Haeundae, Busan] Famous Restaurant at Seomyeon Busan, the Jirasisushi, Specialty Store of Japanese Bento

 Seomyeon, the main street of Busan. It is a place where the young people who want to enjoy themselves, students who want to study, and office workers who head home all gather day or night. There is an unusual restaurant hiding at a remote place from the fancy spots. I finally got inside this place where it sells only limited amount of food every day, so I have always seen it closed before. The specialty store of Japanese bento, ‘Jirasisushi.’

 Maybe there are some of you who find the word ‘bento’ familiar. If you put it into Korean it means packed lunch, but if you think of the three-stage lunch that your mother has packed you when you went on a picnic when you were young, you might be not a little surprised. There is rice at the very bottom of the round wooden box, and various kinds of side dish and the main menu is put on top of the rice, showing off a quite colorful appearance. The food is served neatly with Japanese miso soup. It might take some time for the food to be served after you have ordered, so be easy when you enter.

 If you look at the menu, there is the dorioyako bento with chicken on top, chashu bento with pork on top and galbisal bento with beef on top. The price is from 7,500won to 9,500won. I ate the dorioyako bento, and frankly speaking, the side dishes were more delicious than the main menu, the drumstick of the chicken. It wasn’t bad, but it is an easy and common taste that you can experience anywhere. The serving is quite big, so it is not short for even men to eat. Friends that accompanied me ordered the chashu bento and the gatsudon bento so I could have a taste each, and personally I recommend the gatsudon bento.

 Even though it is located in the corner that doesn’t show well, this place, quite famous, is visited by people continuously. There seem to be many regular customers. You might want to hurry up a little to have a taste because there aren’t many seats. Sitting there looking around, I could see the unique atmosphere of this place. Shabby, but the form that seems to be not so decorated makes an atmosphere such as the house of a Japanese master craftsman. (Hmm… Is it an exaggerated thought?) But if you would like to feel the relaxation, the uniqueness and the heart of Seomyeon, I think it might be good to visit here once. However, keep the excessive expectations behind.