Hi guys! I want to share with you 10 things you should eat when you go to Jeju Island. Here are my Jeju food recommendations & Jeju must eat restaurants.
When I looked up what to eat at Jeju Island I saw black pork, black pork, and black pork and to be honest I was kind of not exactly looking forward to it because I’m not a big pork eater. Want to know how you can tell you’re eating black pork? Look closely at your meat to see if you can find little black hair on it. If it’s really black pork, there should be black hair on the meat. That’s because the color comes from the animal’s hair not the color of the meat, and the hair is left there to prove to you that you are indeed eating black pigs. The pigs are local to Jeju-do. They were initially kept to help dispose of human waste, so they were housed in sites outside of outhouses or toilets. Nowadays, they are fed in more conventional ways.
Now, I was definitely willing to try it but I don’t want to eat it for every meal. So let’s try and go beyond black pigs and see what else there is to eat on Jeju Island.
What to eat on Jeju Island
1. Abalone Rice Porridge or Jeon-bok-juk (전복죽)
This is a Jeju Island specialty. Rice porridge is something that Koreans typically eat when they are sick, and abalone adds a luxurious touch to the porridge. It’s a really hearty and filling meal that’s good for kids because it’s not spicy. Abalone is considered a luxury item in Korean cuisine. It’s still a highly prized item by Jeju’s female divers called Haenyeo. Today, Korea’s high demand for abalone is mostly met through farmed abalone and it seems like abalone is served with just about everything on Jeju Island. I really like abalone porridge so I ate a lot when I was on Jeju Island.
2. Silver Belt Fish or Galchi (갈치)
This is also called a hair tail fish, and it’s really long and silver. It’s local to Jeju and doesn’t really get preserve well so it’s best to eat it fresh when you come to Jeju island. It’s really popular in a spicy stew but I actually prefer it grilled like this. We went to a restaurant in Jungmun that specializes in galchi. It comes with a really fancy elaborate meal, with lots of side dishes including both grilled and raw abalone, and cheese tteok, and all the fixings. This was probably the best Korean meal I had on Jeju island and I’d highly recommend this restaurant. When you’re done eating you can go next door and get a free peanut or tangerine ice cream, or coffee or tea and enjoy it outside in a light up cinderella carriage. This place was a definite win & one of my favorite meals here on the island.
Restaurant: Unjeong-i-ne (운정이네) 1239-5 Jungmun-dong, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-si
3. Jeju Style Gimbap
I bet you’ve never seen this before! My husband found this while we were in Seogwipo and I knew I’d like it when I saw the adorable mascots on the building. This abalone gimbap reminds me a lot of Hawaiian or Japanese spam musubi. It looks nothing like the traditional Korean gimbap. The rice is seasoned with abalone and in the center there’s a jello-y style egg omelette. Jeju has had influence from Japan and you can see it in this gimbap. This restaurant also serves rice topped with abalone. This is a good take out meal to eat on the beach.
Restaurant: Manbok Gimbap. 65 Bukseong-ro, Samdo 2(i)-dong, Jeju, Jeju-do
4. Seafood Hotpot or Haemul Dukbaegi (해물 뚝배기)
This is a big bowl of steamed seafood. There’s a lot of shellfish in this dish – it includes shrimp, clams, octopus, squid, cuttlefish and sometimes abalone.
5. Raw seafood
In Korea, you will find a special type of raw seafood meal that is different from Japanese sashimi. I ate a raw seafood meal in Busan as well as in Seoul and they are all different. Here in Jeju, they have their own style of raw seafood too. The standout item was the live abalone. I’ve eaten live octopus thats still moving on the plate before, but here on Jeju Island they served us a whole abalone that seemed to be trying to escape from us! They also served a different type of raw shrimp and gimap with what looked like a whole mackerel inside. This was a really interesting experience and they served a set meal so it came with a lot of side dishes and extras.
Restaurant: 옹포횟집. 1398 협재리 한림읍 Jeju Jeju KR
6. Cold Spicy Seafood Soup or Mulhoe (물회)
Mulhoe is a cold spicy seafood soup. The fish is all raw, and it sound and looks really unappetizing but it’s surprisingly good and really refreshing. We had this at a haenyeo-jip (해녀집) or a restaurant run by female divers. They sell the seafood that they catch here. I I was obsessed with the haenyeo divers while I was on Jeju so I was excited to eat at the haenyeo-jip. It has a really informal homey feel to it.
Haenyeo Jib: 백기해녀의 집 (House of Divers White Flag). 224-1 Goseong-ri, Seongsan-eup, Seogwipo, Jeju-do
7. Sea urchin seaweed soup or Sunggye Miyeokgook (성게미역국)
Seaweed soup is a really popular dish in Korea. It’s one of those staple foods that is eaten all the time. When a mom gives birth, she is served seaweed soup pretty much every day to help aid in recovery from birth. In Jeju they put a twist on it by adding sea urchin. I’ve never had cooked sea urchin before. I usually have it raw served as sushi but when it’s cooked it turns brown and takes on a really iron-y flavor. I actually prefer regular seaweed soup but if you like trying new things check this out. I haven’t had it anywhere other than on Jeju island and we also ate this at the haenyeo-jip.
8. Meat noodles or Gogi Guksu (고기국수)
are one of the traditional foods served on Jeju Island. Because of the poor soil quality of Jeju Island, people traditionally lived off of wheat and barley, so a noodle culture developed on the island. Also, there’s a tradition of giving gifts of pork on special occasions, so this soup was a result of these two cultural elements on Jeju. This restaurant is famous because they make their own noodles, and they are chewy and good. We ordered a set of food that came with a lot of side dishes including this small buckwheat crepe which was so good. I got to try Jeju’s famous black pork – it was served as a side dish to this meal.
Restaurant: 춘심이네3호점. 산14-33 Hamdok-ri, Jochon-eup, Cheju, Jeju-do
9. Tangerines
You’ll find dozens of tangerine groves as you drive through Jeju island. it seems like they are everywhere. So definitely try the jeju tangerines while you’re here, and if you come during the winter and have the opportunity to try the hallabong tangerines which look like oranges with a protruding navel, give those a try as well. In the meantime you can enjoy hallabong juice at any of the typical tourist stops. In my opinion the tangerines just tasted like regular tangerines but they were more expensive, but Jeju is known for its tangerines. All the souvenirs include some form of tangerine – whether its tangerine flavored chocolate, or a rice crisp, or dried tangerines covered in chocolate. I spent a long time picking out what to get here but when I went back to Seoul, I noticed you could buy just about all these things at e-mart!
We picked tangerines at Hueree Natural Park (휴애리 자연생활공원)
256, Sinryedong-ro, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do
제주특별자치도 서귀포시 남원읍 신례동로 256
10. Jeju Exclusive Starbucks Food & Drinks
I know what you’re saying. You’re in a foreign country and you’re going to Starbucks?! Well for some reason the Sarbucks on Jeju has its own special line of foods. I had to try every single one. Hallabong/peanut biscotti, black basalt rusk, a black croissant, a chorizo sandwich, a peanut latte, green tea tiramisu, black basalt carrot cake. I tried just about everything and each time, I was UNDERWHELMED! I didn’t really like any of those things to be honest. But you know what. it was so worth trying. If I didn’t try these things, I would have left Jeju with an empty place in my heart. I am such a sucker for exclusive food & merchandise!
So there you have it! I know I missed some foods, but we only had a week and so much space in our stomachs. Isn’t that always the issue when you travel? So much to eat, so little time.
When I traveled before I had kids, I always had a to do list. i would try to hit up al the major landmarks and check off everything on my to do list. Now that I have kids we take things at a slower pace and I think I enjoy it more. For us, it’s about experiencing something new together and making memories, and part of that is the experience of trying new foods together and eating together. The next time my kids eat abalone, I hope that they will remember the live abalone that tried to escape off of our plate.
Google Map
Restaurants are in RED