march 2023

as usual, my last post for busan is about the food! and coffee. we spent a lot less time in busan than we did in seoul, but we still ate very well.

coffee

blue shaak

62 bongnaenaru-ro, yeongdo-gu

we stayed at a hotel on yeong-do island, across a short bridge from the mainland. we had to cross it every day to get into the city, and there was a cute little coffee shop called blue shaak on our way. it’s not fancy or specialty coffee but a nice spot for a quick and easy pick-me-up.

coffee bubu

35-1 gwangbokjungang-ro, jung-gu

coffee bubu had the loveliest cozy vibes and served a great flat white.

cafe dennis

36 jeonpo-daero 306 beon-gil, busanjin

this cute industrial cafe was a bit out of the way, but i’m glad we made the trek. it was one of the best flat whites we had the entire time we were in south korea! loved all the architectural and eclectic details in the space as well.

tenpercent coffee

several locations

we saw several of these tenpercent coffee shops around the city. they’re very cute and aesthetic, and the coffee is decent.

lunch

halmae gaya milmyeon

56-14, gwangbok-ro, jung-gu

this place has a very small menu, but it was great! the noodles are served in an icy cold soup, but you get piping hot broth (served like tea) to go with it.

haerim restaurant

159 cheongsapo-ro, haeundae-gu

on the day we headed to the north coastal part of busan to check out haedong younggungsa temple and the cheongsapo daritdol observatory, i also knew we had to stop by this stretch of cheongsapo road that is famous for it’s fresh and bbq seafood restaurants. we just picked one that had good reviews and was still busy for the time of day, and ordered cold beers and a lot of seafood!

we sat right by the window, which i sadly don’t have a photo of, and it was a genuinely lovely time.

dinner & late night

a korean bbq restaruant

somewhere in the neighborhoods east of busan tower

google maps is notoriously incomplete and out-of-date in korea, so i unfortunately can’t find this spot that we went to. we were walking in the neighborhood looking for something to eat after visiting busan tower and the busan museum of movies, and this place was one of several korean bbq restaurants we walked past that looked good and busy.

it was just the two of us so we kept it simple and ordered some very good pork belly and to go with the excellent banchan.

subyeon choego dwaeji gukbap

9-32 gwanganhaebyeon-ro 370 beon-gil, suyeong-gu

one of the dishes busan is famous for is dwaeji gukbap, a pork rice soup. we had this on a chilly night after a lot of walking and it was perfect and comforting. it comes mostly plain but then you add all the fermented or spicy things you want. james got the classic pork neck, while i went for the one with offal and soondae (korean blood sausage) as well.

galmeji brewing nampo

21-3 gwangbok-ro, jung-gu

we definitely wanted to try some local beers, so we headed over to galmegi brewing in the busy nampo area. we had a flight of beers, and a pizza to soak it all up.

kokoaji charcoal chicken bupyeong

10-1 bupyeong 1-gil, jung-gu

after getting beers at galmeji, we walked around the busy neighborhoods looking for some more food and beer and found this place. the chicken was overly saucy, but worked well with the pickled daikon and cold beers.