Three Jeju Restaurants You'll
Actually Want to Find
Actor Lee Seong-jae joins food legend Heo Young-man on a Jeju island food crawl — and the three spots they land on are seriously worth the detour.
Finding a genuinely good local restaurant in Jeju isn't hard — finding one that actually feels local is a different story. Tourist-facing spots tend to cluster around the big draws like Seongsan Ilchulbong, and the real neighborhood joints rarely show up in English-language searches.
That's exactly what makes Baekban Giyeong Episode 325 worth paying attention to. The show's premise is simple: food comic artist Heo Young-man invites a celebrity to spend a day eating with him in a specific region. This time around, actor Lee Seong-jae led the charge in Jeju — and he found three places that hold up well beyond their 15 minutes of television fame.
🦪 Stop 1 — Where the Ocean Ends Up in Your Bowl
Drive along the coastal road through Onpyeong-ri in Seongsan and you'll pass this place before you realise it — a low-slung building with ocean views and a menu that changes with whatever came up from the sea that morning. The owner has been diving for over four decades, and the restaurant has been in the family across three generations. That kind of continuity shows up in the food.
Lee Seong-jae ordered the seafood platter and the obunjagi ttukbaegi — a hot-pot made with obunjagi (the small, wild abalone unique to Jeju). He's not usually someone who makes a fuss over food, which made his reaction on-screen genuinely funny to watch. The broth is cleaner than you'd expect, and the abalone adds a chewiness that lingers.
| 📍 Address | 583-5 Hwanhaejangseong-ro, Seongsan-eup, Seogwipo-si, Jeju |
| 📞 Phone | 064-784-4886 |
| 🕐 Hours | 09:00 – 21:00 (last order 20:00) |
| 📅 Closed | Open year-round |
| 💰 Price | Seafood platter (large) ₩50,000 / (small) ₩30,000 Abalone / conch / sea cucumber ₩20,000 each |
🍲 Stop 2 — The Jeju Soup That Locals Have Been Eating Forever
This place sits in Jeju City's older downtown district — the kind of neighbourhood that still looks like it did before the island went fully tourist-mode. The menu is built around Jeju's native fish soups: galchi-guk (beltfish), gakjaegi-guk (horse mackerel, called "gakjaegi" in Jeju dialect), and mel-guk (anchovies). These aren't trendy riffs on tradition; they're the actual thing, unchanged.
On the show, Lee Seong-jae tried the jangdae-guk — a clear, surprisingly clean-tasting broth made with rosythroat emperor fish (jangdae). Alongside it came mel-twigim: whole anchovies, lightly battered and fried until crisp. It's the kind of side dish that disappears fast. Proximity to the airport makes this a smart first-or-last meal of any Jeju trip.
| 📍 Address | 16, Mugeunseong 7-gil, Jeju-si, Jeju (1F) |
| 📞 Phone | 064-755-9388 |
| 🕐 Hours | Mon–Fri 10:00–20:30 (break 15:00–17:30) Saturday 10:00–15:00 |
| 📅 Closed | Every Sunday |
| 💰 Price | Galchi-guk ₩13,000 / Other soups ₩10,000 Mel-twigim (fried anchovies) ₩20,000 |
🐴 Stop 3 — The Meat You Can Only Eat Here
Horse meat is one of those things people hear about in Jeju but rarely seek out — mostly because they aren't sure what to expect. The short answer: it tastes nothing like you imagine. There's no gaminess, no strong smell. It's clean, slightly sweet, and noticeably leaner than beef. Baengma Garden, set against the mid-mountain slopes of Jocheon-eup, has been doing this for long enough that the quality is consistent and the staff knows how to walk first-timers through the menu.
Lee Seong-jae tried the horse yukhoe (raw horse meat tartare) and horse sashimi, and his visible surprise at how good it was made for one of the more entertaining moments of the episode. The restaurant's unofficial golden combo — mixed grill platter plus half-and-half yukhoe and sashimi — is the move if you're going in unsure and want to cover your bases.
| 📍 Address | 347 Jungsangan-dongro, Jocheon-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju |
| 📞 Phone | 010-4804-1473 / 064-783-2901 |
| 🕐 Hours | 11:30 – 21:30 (last order 20:30) |
| 📅 Closed | Every Wednesday |
| 💰 Price | Mixed grill ₩25,000 / Sashimi or yukhoe ₩27,000 each Yukhoe + sashimi combo ₩35,000 |
📊 All Three Restaurants at a Glance
If you're trying to figure out which to prioritise — or how to string them into a single day — here's a quick side-by-side. East to west, the most natural route runs Samdae Haenyeo → Jeju City → Baengma Garden.
| Samdae Haenyeo Uijip | Jeongseong Ddeompuk Jejuguk | Baengma Garden | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Haenyeo Seafood | Jeju Heritage Soups | Horse Meat Specialist |
| Must-order | Obunjagi hot-pot Seafood platter |
Jangdae-guk Mel-twigim |
Horse yukhoe Special grill cuts |
| Location | Seongsan (East) | Jeju City (near airport) |
Jocheon-eup (mid-mountain) |
| Closed | Never | Sundays | Wednesdays |
| Parking | Available | Limited | Large free lot |
| Reservation | Walk-in fine | Walk-in fine | Required for groups |
🗺️ How to Fit These Into a Jeju Trip
You can visit all three in two days without feeling rushed — and if you're committed, technically in one long day. Here's a natural way to lay it out:
Morning: Seongsan Ilchulbong sunrise walk → Samdae Haenyeo Uijip for lunch (seafood platter + obunjagi hot-pot)
Afternoon: Seopjikoji coastal walk or Udo Island ferry
Evening: Head into Jeju City → Jeongseong Ddeompuk Jejuguk for dinner (jangdae-guk + fried anchovies)
📅 Day 2
Morning: Explore Dongmun Market or Hallim Park
Midday drive: up through the mid-mountain road to Baengma Garden for lunch (mixed grill + horse yukhoe combo)
Afternoon: Continue up toward Hallasan or loop back down the western coast
A few practical notes: Jeongseong Ddeompuk Jejuguk closes Sunday and closes at 3 PM on Saturdays. Baengma Garden is shut Wednesdays. If your trip spans a Tuesday–Saturday window, you can hit all three without any scheduling gymnastics.
📺 About Baekban Giyeong — A Quick Background
Episode: 325 — "Tempting Jeju: Lee Seong-jae's Jeju Feast"
Guest: Actor Lee Seong-jae
Host concept: Veteran food comic artist Heo Young-man invites a celebrity to travel through a Korean region for a day and eat at places the crew has scouted in advance
Baekban Giyeong has been running long enough to become a reliable restaurant discovery tool for Koreans planning regional trips. The format works because Heo Young-man's reputation as a food expert creates a kind of quality filter — restaurants don't just show up on the show by accident, and the crew scouts locations extensively before any cameras roll.
Lee Seong-jae, known for dramatic roles in films like Gongong-ui Jeok and Misulgwan Yeop Dongmulwon, admitted on the episode that he isn't someone who normally makes food a priority. Watching him get genuinely caught off-guard by the horse tartare was one of the better moments in a run of recent episodes.
❓ Common Questions
🍽️ Putting It Together
None of these three places are particularly hard to find on a map, but they're also not the kind of spots that show up at the top of a generic Jeju food search. That's sort of the point. Samdae Haenyeo Uijip gives you direct access to what the sea around Jeju actually tastes like. Jeongseong Ddeompuk Jejuguk is the kind of lunch that local office workers have been eating for decades, unchanged on purpose. And Baengma Garden offers something you genuinely cannot eat outside Jeju — or at least, not like this.
Post a Comment