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Busan is famed for its beautiful beaches, traditional temples and hipster Seomyeon entertainment district – but Busan’s street-food scene and traditional restaurants produce some of the best South Korean food, no more so than Haeundae Traditional Market.
Just a stone’s throw from Haeundae Beach, Haeundae Traditional Market is one of the cheapest places to try Busan’s seafood and meat dishes and is popular with both locals and tourists.
As well as sit-down restaurants, oden bars and sweet treats, you’ll find an array of non-food stalls here from sock shops and selfie booths.
From opening times to food types, here is our ultimate guide to Haeundae Traditional Market in Busan (2023).
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Table of Contents
How to get to Haeundae Traditional Market in Busan
To get to Haeundae Traditional Market by subway, take the green line (line 2) to Haeundae Beach station and take exit 3 or 5.
Walk straight along the main road (Gunam-ro) towards the beach for about 3 minutes and Haeundae Traditional Market is on your left.
To get to Haeundae Traditional Market from Busan Station, take Metro line 1 to Seomyeon Station then line 2 to Haeundae Beach. Or take buses 1001, 1003, 1010 or bus 40 from Busan Station to Haeundae Beach.
Haeundae Traditional Market is within walking distance of many of the tourist hotels in Haeundae Beach including SeaCloud Hotel where we stayed.
Parking is also available at paid parking lots around Haeundae Traditional Market if you want to drive there (although the market itself is pedestranised accept for a few errant moped drivers).
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Busan Haeundae Traditional Market opening times
Haeundae Traditional Market opens every day from around 9am every day until approximately 10 to 11pm.
However, most of the street food stalls and restaurants don’t open until lunch-time. The street itself is accessible 24 hours a day.
Based on our own experiences, it is mainly the Tteokbokki / oden bars where you stand and eat at either end of Haeundae Traditional Market that open first thing. These are also generally the last to close every evening!
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What is Haeundae Traditional Market famous for?
Given it is so close to Haeundae Beach and numerous Busan fish markets like Jalgachi, Haeundae Traditional Market is best known for its fresh seafood.
Take a walk along the market and you’ll see dozens of seafood restaurants all with aquariums outside and lots of fish and aquatic life to choose from.
Note that whilst it is more of a restaurant and cooked food market as opposed to a wet market, there are some stalls that chop up sea creatures like octopus whilst they are still alive (so not great if you’re squeamish or would rather not see this).
Haeundae Traditional Market is also famous for its honeycomb ice cream and hotteok stalls (more on both of these later).
There are approximately 20 to 30 seafood and sit-down restaurants along the Haeundae Traditional Market strip and approx the same amount of street food stalls and souvenir stalls.
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Snacks and Foods at Haeundae Traditional Market
There are a lot of traditional Korean foods to try at Haeundae Traditional Market. Whilst the majority of stalls are seafood based, you’ll find something to suit most tastes, from dumplings (mandu) and Korean hot dogs to kalguksu (hand cut noodles) and tteokbokki.
Always hustling and bustling with big lines of hungry locals and tourists, Haeundae Traditional Market is generally busiest at dusk and night, after people have finished on Haeundae Beach for the day.
Some of the food you can buy and eat at Haeundae Traditional Market includes:
Octopus
For whatever reason, the preference in many places is to eat octopus fresh and ‘live’, straight from the tank (it is quite common to see them squirting water as you walk by) – expect to pay from at least 30,000 Won per portion.
If you want octopus but would rather it was already dead (our preference), there are a couple of grilled octopus stalls at the market as well.
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Kalguksu and dumplings
There is a very popular kalguksu and dumpling restaurant in the centre of the market where you can order affordable, quick and easy meals. Just look out for the rows of stacked metal dumpling steamers.
Grilled Fish / Sushi
Many restaurants at Haeundae Traditional Market grill their freshly caught fish directly outside the restaurants to entice you in – boy does it smell amazing. Whole grilled fish start from around 7,000 to 10,000 per portion but more ‘exotic’ fish can go for a lot more.
Fish we spotted at varous stalls and restaurants along the market include cutlass fish and flatfish – if you’d rather sushi or sashimi, that is available too.
Mayak Kimbap and Bibimbap
There are several sit-down restaurants that offer bibimaps (a bowl with a whole heap of vegetables, barley, kimchi and usually a fried egg on top, sometimes with meat).
Also available are kimbaps / gimbaps which are similar to sushi rolls you’d get in Japan, Mayak Kimbaps are widely available and pretty cheap .
‘Mayak’ in Korean is slang for ‘drugs’, so highly addictive are these savoury snack rolls! Versions differ depending on the region but most mayak kimbaps contain pickled radish, carrots and greens.
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Korean Hot Dog
A very famous fast-food in South Korea (now widely exported), Korean Corn Dogs are a traditional hot dog sausage wrapped in panko bread crumbs and a cheese filling. There is a very popular stall at Haeundae Traditional Market that sells these hotdogs
They are often served with mustard and tomato sauce (ketchup) but this Haeundae Market hotdog shop also has flavours like garlic butter and pickle mustard (or try their oven baked pepperoni pizza for 5,000 Won).
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Jeonbuk Ttukbaegi
A seafood hot pot served up with abalone; bubbling hot when given to you, you may need to wait a moment for your Jeonbuk Ttukbaegi to cool down before slurping it.
Abalone
Another seafood widely available at Busan Haeundae traditional market is abalone which are huge sea snails.
The price of abalone can be quite high in Busan as it is classed as a premium seafood. Here abalone can be grilled and eaten by itself or as part of a porridge, hot pot or shabu shabu – many restaurants have tanks with live abalone in them.
Korean fish cake (Eomuk), fried snacks and tteokbokki
Late at night, these are easily the most popular stalls along Haeundae Traditional Market. These usually have a crowd of people swarmed around them tucking into small portions of warm Tteokbokki (rice cakes in a spicy anchovy sauce), deep fried snacks or oden style fish cakes.
Korean fish cakes are a very popular Korean street food snack during the winter months and are made from minced white fish and flour on a skewer, boiled in a fish broth.
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Korean Pancakes (Buchimgae)
Buchimgae is a crisp, hearty Korean savoury pancake, made by frying a thick batter into a thin flat pancake shaped fritter.
There are a few different buchimgae types such as green onion, chives or kimchi. There is one lady at Haeundae Traditional Market who puts on quite a show cooking Korean pancakes and is is one of the best attended stalls.
Chimaek / Fried Chicken and Beer
Although not particularly famous for it, there are a few sit-down restaurants along the market that sell fried chicken and huge quantities of beer – this pairing in Korean is known as ‘ chimaek’. Cheers!
Tornado Potato / Twisted Potatoes / Hweori Gamja
Street-food originally from Korea but now found worldwide, Tornado Potatoes (known locally as Hweori Gamja) are basically spuds cut into a thin spiral shape and then deep fat fried.
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Desserts and sweets at Haeundae Traditional Market
As well as seafood, many people head to Haeundae Traditional Market after dinner elsewhere (or sunbathing on the beach) to get some sweet treats.
Popular dessert stalls here include:
Honey flavoured ice-cream with honeycomb
There are now several stalls along Haeundae Traditional Market that sell soft serve honey flavoured ice-cream topped with real honeycomb (we noticed several new ice-cream stalls on our most recent visit in late 2023 compared to previous occasions).
As far as we know, the original Haeundae honey ice-cream is Honey Hombi Haeundae Market Branch (found at the northern end of the market, right next to the northern entrance) – not too sweet, we really like their honey ice-cream (although eat it quick in summer months as it melts fast).
Expect to pay around 5,000 Won for a portion of honey ice-cream or 6,000 Won to include a piece of honeycomb on top. You can also purchase honey kaymak here which is similar to clotted cream.
Haeundae Luxury Hotteoks
The biggest queue at Haeundae Traditional Market always seemed to be at the ‘Haeundae Luxury Hotteok’ stall – 해운대 명품 호떡 at the northern entrance to the market. Seriously, at night, expect this queue to be 20 or 30 deep – hotteoks here start from 2,000 Korean won a pop!
If you haven’t tried one before, hotteoks are a sweet and sticky Korean dessert pancake that come in various flavours like honey, brown sugar or chocolate. This stall also makes cheese hotteoks in the evenings.
CK Travels tip – if you love hotteoks, the best hotteok stall in Busan has to be at BIFF Square, selling seed hotteoks (with crushed sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds, almonds and peanuts).
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Fruit Hard Candy (Ddalgi Satang)
Whilst not unique to Busan, this is super popular sweet treat in Haeundae Market.
Ddalgi satang are pieces of fruit such as grapes and strawberries which have been glazed with a sugar coating and skewered on a stick like a kebab. They are sweet and crunchy on the outside and soft and fruity in the inside.
Automated Candy Floss Machines
Loved by kids, there is a self-serve candy floss machine at the market – pop your money into the perspex vending machine and see a fluffy candy floss whipped up before your very eyes.
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Other shops and stalls
One of the best things to do at night in Busan, Haeundae Traditional Market isn’t just about food – there are lots of other types of shops and stalls selling clothing, drink, souvenirs and more.
Some of the most popular souvenirs from Haeundae Traditional Market include:
Sock and hat shops
There are half a dozen dedicated sock shops along the market open all day and late into the night selling Korean made socks with funky patterns and bright fabrics.
We bought several pairs of teddy bear Chimaek chicken and beer socks for 1500 Korean Won a pair – quite the eye-catching Christmas gift for relatives!
Most of these sock shops also sell hats – but hey, it is mainly about the socks…
Selfie Booths
There are several Korean selfie booth stores dotted along Haeundae Traditional Market (and many more on the main beach strip outside).
Normally open 24 hours, selfie kiosks are brightly coloured small stores where you can borrow clothes and fun props (like vegetable hats, big sunglasses, animal paw gloves etc) and then pose for selfies or take photos in booths for a small fee – just what you need after a fill of fresh seafood!
Shoe Shops
Lost your sandals to the tide on Haeundae Beach? Well, you are in luck – there are shoes galore available at any time of day at the market.
Souvenir Shops
There are souvenir shops galore selling lots of magnets, keyrings and bottle openers, many of which are cartoon character based – everything from Kakao Friends to Squid Games.
Other things to do at Haeundae Traditional Market
Play claw arcade machines (known as UFO catchers in Korea), buy alcohol from Happy Bottle (or the Chinese supermarket) or buy toy capsules from Japanese style gachapon machines.
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Things to do near Haeundae Traditional Market
Within a ten minute walk of Haeundae Traditional Market, you’ll also find:
Busan X The Sky
A beachside skyscraper that opened in 2020, this is the second tallest building in South Korea (after the Lotte Tower in Seoul) that has incredible coastal views plus randomly, the world’s tallest Starbucks coffee shop on the 99th floor.
Haeundae Blue Line
The Haeundae Blue Line Park is one of Busan’s newest tourist attractions, opening in late 2020 and consisting of the iconic Sky Capsules and a separate Beach Train that follows the Busan Green Railway coastal walking trail.
One of the most unique attractions in Haeundae and about 10 minutes walk from the traditional market, read our full guide to the Haeundae Blue Line beach train and sky capsules here >
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We are currently digital nomading / travelling for the next few months around London and Asia (Thailand, Taiwan and Singapore). Check out our travel diaries on Instagram – @.c.k.travels, Tik Tok – @cktravels and on Facebook.
Ryan Holiday in Busan
Located just next to Haeundae Beach, Kakao Friend’s ‘roarsome’ Ryan the Lion now has his own holiday home set-up in Busan full of immersive shows and cute as selfie spots
Haeundae Pojangmacha-chon (Haeundae Food Cart Village)
In addition to Haeundae Traditional Market, the other best place to eat seafood in an unusual setting is the Haeundae Pojangmacha-chon.
Essentially, this is a small area of seafood stalls in bright orange tents that opens at night right on Haeundae Beach – soju, beer and makgeolli until the wee small hours as the kindly Korean ladies (‘Ajummas) create incredible stews and fish dishes.
Haeundae Traditional Market in Busan opening times
Haeundae Market is open daily from around 9am to 11pm. Most of the restaurants and street food stalls open from lunchtime onwards.
Haeundae Traditional Market address in Busan
Haeundae Traditional Market, ,22-1 Gunam-ro 41beon-gil, Haeundae-gu, Busan, South Korea
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