Insadong is Seoul’s most famous traditional arts street, with some of the city’s most distinctive traditional snacks, tea houses, and artisan food shops. Here is the complete food guide.
Insadong’s main street (Insadong-gil) and the ssamziegil and Insadong Maru courtyards off it are the area’s food destinations. The food culture here skews toward traditional Korean snacks, tea ceremonies, and artisan confectionery rather than restaurant meals, making Insadong a great spot for browsing and snacking while exploring the galleries and craft shops.
What to Eat in Insadong
Twisting Ssambap and Ssamziegil Courtyard Food
The Ssamziegil courtyard (off the main Insadong street to the right when walking north) has a spiral-staircase shopping and food complex. The courtyard food stalls serve traditional Korean desserts and snacks: ssalyakgwa (honey-glazed rice crackers), seasonal varieties of tteok (rice cakes), and roasted sweet potato and corn from vendors at the courtyard entrance.
Daechucha (대추차) and Korean Traditional Teas
Insadong has the highest concentration of traditional Korean tea houses (dachanum or chajeom) in Seoul. Tea houses serve jujube tea (daechucha), chrysanthemum tea, ginger tea, and sweet rice punch (sikhye). Sitting at a floor-level table in a traditional wooden tea house with a bowl of sikhye and a plate of assorted tteok is one of the most distinctly Korean food experiences available in Seoul. Budget 8,000 to 15,000 won for a tea-and-snack set.
Dakgalbi near Insadong
Dakgalbi (spicy stir-fried chicken with rice cakes and vegetables) restaurants cluster in the streets east of the main Insadong strip, particularly toward Nakwon-dong. A satisfying dakgalbi meal runs 10,000 to 13,000 won per person.
Tongin Market Food Box
Tongin Market (about a 20-minute walk northwest of Insadong, near Gyeongbokgung Palace) offers a unique food experience: purchase copper coins at the market entrance and use them to select small portions from multiple vendors for a DIY tray meal: oily tteok (oil-fried rice cakes, a Tongin specialty), japchae, and various Korean banchan. 5,000 to 8,000 won covers a full lunch selection.
The Insadong Street Food Experience
The main street in Insadong has vendors selling traditional snacks from both permanent stalls and seasonal carts. Hotteok (sweet pancakes), bungeo-ppang (fish-shaped pastries filled with red bean paste), and dalgona (Korean honeycomb candy, the flat candy made famous internationally in 2021) are common. The Insadong versions of these snacks are targeted at tourists but are genuinely made fresh and are worth trying.
The most interesting food is often slightly off the main pedestrian street in the side lanes (golmok). Smaller traditional restaurants serving doenjang jjigae, kalguksu, and Korean set meals (백반, baekban) are found on the side streets with much lower prices than the main strip.
Getting to Insadong
T-money card: Get one at any convenience store. Covers all Seoul and Busan subway and bus fares, with transfer discounts. See the T-money guide.
Naver Map: More accurate than Google Maps for Korean transit routing and walking directions.
By subway: Anguk Station on Line 3. Exit 6 leads south toward Insadong, about a 5-minute walk.
Walking from Myeongdong: About 15 minutes north along Namdaemun-ro and Samil-daero.
Insadong is strongest as a food stop within a Jongno sightseeing day rather than a standalone dining destination. Gyeongbokgung Palace, Bukchon Hanok Village, and Changdeokgung Palace are all within about a 15-minute walk of each other, making Insadong a natural place for lunch, tea, or street snacks.
Plan food around your route: visit a traditional tea house for tea and tteok after the palace, try street snacks while browsing galleries and craft shops, then have dinner at a side-street restaurant serving simple Korean meals at local prices. The quieter lanes, including Insadong 5-gil and 6-gil, are good for affordable comfort food such as doenjang jjigae, kongnamul gukbap, rice, and banchan, usually around 8,000 to 10,000 won.
For a more focused market meal, Tongin Market, about 20 minutes northwest, is a better standalone lunch stop with its DIY Korean food box experience, often under 10,000 won.
