Where to Eat in Busan
Pork soup, wheat noodles, fishcake and fish from the tanks, in Korea’s great port
Busan’s own meal is dwaeji gukbap, pork and rice soup, and its own noodle is milmyeon; both came out of the Korean War, when the city filled with refugees. Its great sight is Jagalchi, the fish market on the harbour. Start in the old port, where most of the food is, and plan around one thing: the markets are in the south-west and the beaches in the south-east, forty minutes apart.
Our guide to Busan covers what to see, and our guide to where to stay in Busan compares the areas you might sleep in.
How this page was madeWe have not yet been to South Korea, and this guide is researched rather than eaten. It draws on the city’s own sites, including its list of certified restaurants; on seven food guides and Korean press, read on the date below; and on the one business’s own website. Prices come from recent guides, and we say which. When we go, we will say so here.
Last updated 12 October 2026
First, how Busan eats
Busan is a port, and it eats like one: fish, fishcake and shellfish, cheap, quick and in quantity. But the dishes the city is proudest of come from the war. In 1950 Busan was the one large city in the south that held, and it filled with refugees. Gukje Market, the city says, was their home. With little beef and no buckwheat, they cooked with what there was: pork bones and offal for soup, a Korean news site reported this year, and wheat flour for noodles, so dwaeji gukbap and milmyeon were born. One noodle house claims to have invented milmyeon; others dispute it, and we credit no one.
The Bupyeong market’s nickname, kkangtong, the tin can, comes from the American canned goods sold there, and the fishcake makers of Yeongdo turned the harbour’s catch into a snack the whole country now eats. Asked what to eat in Busan, Taiwanese visitors surveyed by the city’s tourism organisation in 2025 put pork soup first and fishcake second.
Go to Jagalchi before six, while the outdoor stalls are still being laid out. Listen before you look: what is being set up, and who is calling to whom. Many of the traders are women, and Busan calls them the Jagalchi ajumma. Watch how the fish are set out on the ice, and how quickly. Notice what the air carries from the harbour behind the stalls. Stand still long enough to see who the market is for at this hour, and whether it is you. What does a city look like before it begins to sell itself?
What to eat in Busan
Eight things to look for. Most belong to the city; the cards say where to find them.
Pork and rice soup: a milky broth of pork bones with sliced meat, seasoned at the table with salted shrimp, chives and chilli paste. The city’s everyday meal, sold all over Busan and around the clock in places.
Busan’s cold noodle: chewy wheat noodles in an iced beef broth or a spicy sauce, made by refugees from the north when buckwheat was scarce. Look for it around Gukje Market.
Busan fishcake, pressed from ground fish and fried, sold on skewers in hot broth at every market and in a hundred shapes at the old makers. Samjin, on Yeongdo, says it has made it since 1953.
Raw fish, chosen live from the tanks, sliced at the stall and eaten upstairs with lettuce, garlic and chilli sauce; the rest of the fish comes back as a spicy stew. Jagalchi or Millak.
A sweet griddle pancake split open and stuffed with sunflower and pumpkin seeds: Busan’s version of a winter snack eaten all year. The stalls on BIFF Square are the famous ones.
Pufferfish soup, clear or spicy, with bean sprouts: a favourite breakfast after a long night. The city’s own restaurant list has several old pufferfish houses, one of them in Haeundae.
Eel grilled over charcoal with chilli sauce or salt, often eaten with a drink. Jagalchi’s waterfront is the traditional place to eat it.
A thick spring-onion pancake with seafood and egg, the dish of Dongnae, the old walled town north of Seomyeon. A short metro ride on Line 1 for one meal.
Where to eat: the most useful neighbourhoods
Four places. The old port and Seomyeon are on metro Line 1; the beaches are on Line 2; Yeongdo is across the bridge from Jagalchi.
| Area | Best for | Best time | Main catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nampo & the Old Port | Markets, raw fish, street food | Early morning; evening | Crowds; hours vary by stall |
| Seomyeon | Pork soup, late dinners | Late evening | Noisy; no single address |
| Haeundae & Gwangalli | Raw fish by the sea | Dinner | Seafront prices |
| Yeongdo | Fishcake | Lunch | Across the bridge |
The old port is on the harbour in the south-west; Yeongdo is the island across the bridge from it. Seomyeon is inland, six stops north of Busan Station on Line 1. Gwangalli and Haeundae are on the south-east coast, on Line 2.
Nampo & the Old Port — the markets
₩2,000–35,000The old port is where Busan’s food began and where most of it still is: Jagalchi fish market on the waterfront, BIFF Square’s street stalls, the lanes of Gukje Market behind, and the Bupyeong market a few streets on, which becomes a night market after dark. You can eat here all day on foot, from a fishcake on a skewer to a whole fish chosen from a tank. Gukje Market is also where the film Ode to My Father (2014) set its refugee family’s shop, and its food lanes are the place for milmyeon.
Eat here for: raw fish at Jagalchi, ssiat hotteok on BIFF Square, milmyeon in Gukje Market, and the night market at Bupyeong.
Seomyeon — pork soup, late
₩9,000–13,000Seomyeon, where the two main metro lines cross, is where Busan eats late. The streets around the station are packed with restaurants and bars, and the pork-soup houses keep long hours; one city guide lists a market street of them open through the night. It is not a place for one famous address so much as for a hot bowl at any hour, and for the noisy, cheap dinners of a city centre. If you are staying here after the train from the east coast, this is your first Busan meal.
Eat here for: dwaeji gukbap at any hour, steamed pork, and late dinners on foot.
Haeundae & Gwangalli — raw fish by the sea
₩10,000–35,000On the south-east coast the food follows the beaches. At the east end of Gwangalli, Millak’s raw-fish market works the way Jagalchi does, fish chosen downstairs and eaten upstairs, with the bridge in view. In Haeundae, the market a block back from the sand is a single street of stalls for pork soup, grilled mackerel and snacks, and one of the city’s old pufferfish-soup houses is nearby. Prices on the front are higher than in the old port, and you are paying partly for the sea.
Eat here for: raw fish at Millak with the bridge lit up, a snack in Haeundae’s market, and a bowl of bokguk in the morning.
Yeongdo — the fishcake makers
no dated priceAcross the bridge from Jagalchi, the island of Yeongdo is where Busan’s fishcake industry grew up, in the market of Bongnae-dong. The best known, Samjin, says on its own site that it began in 1953, and its shop is now as much a visit as a place to eat, with fishcakes in many shapes and fillings and tables to eat them at. Combine it with Taejongdae, at the island’s tip.
Eat here for: fishcakes in every shape, straight from the maker.
How the fish markets work
At Jagalchi and at Millak you eat in two stages. On the ground floor you choose a fish, or a mix of shellfish, from the tanks; it is priced by weight, and the seller cuts it for you. You carry it upstairs to one of the restaurants, often the one the seller sends you to, which lays out the side dishes and sauces for a table charge, and cooks what is left of the fish into a spicy stew, maeuntang, to finish. One guide put the table charge at about ₩5,000–10,000 a group in 2026. Ask both prices before anything is cut, and do not feel bound to the first stall: there are dozens.
How much does it cost to eat in Busan?
Busan is cheap if you eat what it is known for. A bowl of noodles costs less than a coffee in some cities; only the fish from the tanks climbs much higher.
| Meal | Typical spend | What that buys |
|---|---|---|
| Ssiat hotteok | ₩2,000–3,000 | One seed-filled pancake from a stall |
| Milmyeon | ₩6,000–8,000 | A bowl of cold wheat noodles |
| Dwaeji gukbap | ₩9,000–13,000 | Pork soup with rice and side dishes |
| Bokguk | ₩15,000–21,000 | A bowl of pufferfish soup at an established house |
| Raw fish at the market | ₩20,000–35,000 | A share of a platter for two, bought at the stalls |
| The table upstairs | ₩5,000–10,000 a group | Side dishes, sauces and the stew, on top of the fish |
Prices are in South Korean won, read on 12 October 2026. Hotteok, milmyeon and the upper pork-soup figure come from one food guide of August 2026 (TableJourney); the lower pork-soup and the pufferfish figures from the city’s Taste of Busan listings, which carry no date; the raw fish and table charge from one guide of June 2026 (MileAsia). Treat them as a guide to the order of things. There is no tipping. Our guide to the cost of visiting South Korea covers a whole trip.
Does Busan have street food?
Yes, and a great deal of it, mostly in the old port. BIFF Square, named for the film festival that began there, has the stalls for ssiat hotteok, fishcake and tteokbokki, busiest from mid-afternoon into the evening. The Bupyeong market becomes a night market of stalls from about 7.30 pm. Every market sells fishcake on skewers in hot broth.
The Jagalchi Festival, the fish market’s own, is listed for 23 to 26 October 2026, with fireworks on the waterfront; we read the dates in a food guide, not from the organisers, so check them.
Building food into one day
This day stays in the old port and Yeongdo, all on foot or a short bus ride, and ends at the night market. We found no official hours or closing days for the markets, so check them before you plan the day.
Early — Jagalchi
Walk the outdoor stalls before six as they set up, then find a stall cooking breakfast for the traders: a bowl of soup, or grilled fish.
Mid-morning — across to Yeongdo
Cross the Yeongdo Bridge to Samjin Eomuk and try a few fishcakes, if it is open; check its hours first.
Lunch — milmyeon in Gukje Market
Back across the bridge, eat cold noodles in the market’s food lanes, then walk the covered streets.
Afternoon — BIFF Square
A ssiat hotteok from a stall, eaten standing. Walk it off up to Yongdusan Park for the view over the harbour.
Evening — raw fish at Jagalchi
Choose a fish in the main building by about 6 pm, agree the price, and eat it upstairs with the stew to follow; one guide has the building closing at 8 pm.
Late — the Bupyeong night market
From about 7.30 pm, walk the stalls a few streets north for one more snack.
If you are staying at the beaches, swap the evening for Millak at Gwangalli, with the bridge lit up.
Practical advice for eating in Busan
The markets publish no official opening hours, and the guides disagree: Jagalchi’s main building closes at 8 pm by one account and 10 pm by another. Go to the fish markets in daylight or early evening, and the night market after 7.30 pm.
Raw fish: ask first
Fish is sold by weight and by the day’s catch. Agree the price, the charge for cutting, and the table charge upstairs before anything is prepared.
If you do not eat meat or fish
Busan is harder than most of Korea: its signature dishes are pork, beef broth and fish. Ssiat hotteok and Dongnae pajeon without seafood are the easiest, and the markets sell vegetable pancakes; but broths and side dishes often contain fish, so ask. Our guide to what to eat in Korea gives the phrases.
Paying
Cards are widely taken in Korea, but carry cash for market stalls and the night market. There is no tipping.
A final word on eating in Busan
Eat pork soup and wheat noodles, the city’s war-time dishes, and a fishcake on Yeongdo where the industry began. Go to Jagalchi early to watch, and come back in the evening to eat. It is a cheap city to eat well in, if you eat what it makes.
Andrew + Margaret
- Busan Overview
- Where to stay in Busan Decide
- What to eat in Korea Culture
- Korean etiquette Culture
- South Korea itineraries Journeys
- Taste of Busan, the city’s list of restaurants Official
- Visit Busan, the city’s tourism site Official
- Samjin Eomuk Official