10 Foods You Must Eat in Busan — A Local's Guide to Korea's Food Capital

Busan is South Korea's second-largest city, but when it comes to food, many Koreans will tell you it's number one. Sitting where the mountains meet the sea, the city has always had access to some of the freshest seafood in the country. Add to that the waves of refugees who arrived from across Korea during the Korean War — each bringing their own regional food traditions — and you have a city with a remarkably deep and distinctive food culture.

1 Bokguk — The Ultimate Hangover Soup

Korea has a well-developed culture around late-night drinking, and with it comes an equally serious culture of hangover cures. Every city has its own signature recovery soup, shaped by whatever local ingredients are most abundant. In Busan — a port city with exceptional access to fresh seafood — the answer comes from the sea.

That answer is bokguk: a clean, restorative broth made from pufferfish, brightened with the herbal fragrance of minari (Korean water parsley). One spoonful and you understand immediately why this soup has cult status among Busan locals.

2 Gomjangeo-gui — Grilled Hagfish, Busan Style

Ask a Busan local what food best represents this city, and gomjangeo will come up within seconds. Also known as meokjangeo — "blind eel" — this jawless, eyeless sea creature belongs to one of the most ancient animal lineages on earth. That description doesn't exactly make it sound appetizing, but don't let it put you off. Grilled right, it's one of the most satisfying things you'll eat in Korea.

For generations, gomjangeo was working-class food — affordable, protein-rich, and packed with calcium, iron, amino acids, and vitamins. Today it's beloved across all walks of life.

3 Busan Eomuk — Fish Cake, Elevated

In most of Korea, eomuk (fish cake) is a humble street snack — skewered on a stick, simmered in broth, dipped in soy sauce. In Busan, it's something more. The city takes its fish cakes seriously, and the variety and quality here is unlike anywhere else in the country.

Made from minced white fish blended with starch and flour, eomuk is eaten year-round — but there's something particularly satisfying about biting into a hot skewer on a cold day, chasing it with a cup of the savory broth it was cooked in. Beyond the street food classic, Busan's eomuk culture has expanded to include eomuk coroquette (fish cake coated in panko and deep-fried), eomuk-bokkeum as a side dish, and seasonal specials you won't find anywhere else.

4 Jeonbok-juk — Abalone Porridge & Haenyeo Seafood

Around 500 haenyeo — Korea's legendary female free-divers — are still actively working off the coast of Gijang, east of Busan. Diving without oxygen tanks, they harvest abalone, sea cucumber, and shellfish by hand from the ocean floor. The seafood they bring up is as fresh as it gets anywhere in Korea.

The village of Yeonhwa-ri in Gijang has become synonymous with jeonbok-juk, abalone porridge. People drive in from Ulsan — the next city over — during their lunch break just to eat here. That's a 40-minute round trip on the highway, in case you needed a measure of how good it is.

5 Dwaeji-gukbap — Pork Rice Soup, Busan's Soul Food

International visitors have been discovering dwaeji-gukbap in increasing numbers, and the reaction is almost always the same: why didn't anyone tell me about this sooner?

The soup's roots go back to the Korean War, when Busan became a refuge for people displaced from across the peninsula. Pork bone broth — cheap, filling, and deeply nourishing — became a staple of survival. What began as wartime food has become one of the most beloved bowls in Korean cuisine: rich broth, tender slices of pork, rice, and a spread of condiments and vegetables on the side. Simple, honest, and deeply satisfying.

🍖 Obsessed with dwaeji-gukbap? We don't blame you. Dive into the Best 7 →

6 Milmyeon — Busan's Cold Noodles

Koreans have eaten cold buckwheat noodles — naengmyeon — to beat the summer heat for centuries. But travel through Busan in July and you'll notice something odd: naengmyeon shops are almost nowhere to be found. They've been quietly replaced by milmyeon, Busan's own cold noodle, and locals couldn't be happier about it.

The noodles are made from wheat flour rather than buckwheat, giving them a slightly different texture. But the real soul of milmyeon is in the broth — and the dedication that goes into it. One restaurant posted this notice on their wall:

🍜 A full milmyeon guide is coming soon — stay tuned!

7 Dwaeji-bulbaek — Charcoal Pork BBQ, the Worker's Meal

Survey Busan taxi drivers on their favorite meal after a long shift, and dwaeji-bulbaek comes out on top. This is the dinner people reach for on the commute home, the meal that fuels the city's working neighborhoods. Marinated pork — typically shoulder cut — grilled over charcoal or briquette fire, served with rice, wrapping leaves, fermented side dishes, and a stew or soup alongside.

The meal closes with bokkeumbap: leftover ingredients stir-fried with rice, dried seaweed, and sesame oil directly on the grill. Non-negotiable.

8 Busan Ganjjajang — Black Bean Noodles, Busan Style

Ask Koreans to name one quintessential comfort food and jjajangmyeon — noodles in black bean sauce — comes up immediately. It's what soldiers craved on their first leave from military service. What expats miss most when they're abroad. Jjajangmyeon is woven into the fabric of Korean life.

In Busan, the version to try is ganjjajang. The "gan" (乾) means dry — the sauce is cooked with little to no added water, resulting in something thicker, more intense, with a deeper wok fragrance. And in Busan, it comes with a fried egg on top. That's just the local custom.

9 Saengseon-hoe Kosu — Seafood Omakase, Busan Style

Busan is a port city, and raw fish is everywhere — from neighborhood pojangmacha to high-end restaurants that have been quietly earning their reputations for decades. This entry is about the latter.

Travel has a way of making you want to do things properly. In Busan, that means sitting down to a full seafood omakase course at least once. The format follows the chef's choice of seasonal ingredients, typically moving through: a light appetizer of small seafood dishes and vegetables, sashimi as the centerpiece, grilled dishes, sushi, a spicy seafood stew (maeuntang), and dessert. Lobster and premium shellfish have become increasingly common in recent years.

10 Gilgeori Eumsik — Busan Street Food

No list of Busan food is complete without street food. The city's traditional markets — Gukje, Bupyeong Kkangtong, Bujeon — have been feeding people on the move for generations, and what started as neighborhood convenience has become a draw for food travelers from around the world.

Part of the appeal is the experience itself: cheap, immediate, eaten while wandering through a crowded market. Here are the ones worth going out of your way for.

🐟 Curious about Korean raw fish culture before visiting Busan?
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