10 Best Local Restaurants in Pyeongchang

Hwangtae Hoegwan is one of the must-visit restaurants during your trip to Daegwallyeong, where you can taste various kinds of dishes using dried pollack (hwangtae). The restaurant provides a surprisingly wide range of dried pollack dishes, including dried pollack soup (ttukbaegi), grilled dried pollack (gui), steamed dried pollack (jjim), dried pollack hot pot (jeongol), dried pollack bulgogi, dried pollack hangover soup (haejangguk), and seaweed soup with dried pollack (miyeokguk). As a famous restaurant, it is always crowded with people.

Dried pollack hangover soup (hwangtae haejangguk) and seaweed soup with dried pollack (miyeokguk), which are the most popular and accessible of all, are made by boiling dried pollack with other various ingredients such as bean curd, radish, mushrooms, and seaweed that add to its refreshing taste. Dried pollack cutlet (hwangtae gaseu) and deep-fried and braised dried pollack (hwangtae gangjeong), which cater to children and foreigners, are also gaining popularity. You can empty a bowl of rice in no time, eating it with numerous side dishes that cover the entire table along with delicious dried pollack dishes. If you've ever tried and enjoyed a dried pollack dish, don't forget to visit the restaurant.

Wow Daegwallyeong Hanwoo Jinbu is a Korean beef speciality restaurant that serves pure Korean beef from the cattle raised in the high mountains and fed with eco-friendly feed. The restaurant carefully selects and ages Korean beef from the clean areas of Pyeongchang, which is juicy and tender.

The restaurant also operates a butcher shop, so you can buy the cuts you want at the shop and taste them in the restaurant. Grill the beef slightly and dip it in the sea salt that blends well with the original taste of the meat, which then melts away in your mouth, giving off the savoury flavour that spreads on your palate. The strong charcoal fire deepens the flavour of the meat. If you want to try a variety of cuts, a Korean beef assortment can make a good choice. The menu also includes meals that can be ordered alone such as cold noodles (naengmyeon), beef tartare (yukhoe), and bibimbap (mixed rice with various vegetables), so try one of these, which goes well with the grilled beef.

Daegwallyeong Hanu Town is a restaurant that provides Korean beef of high quality that has been introduced several times in the media. Pyeongchang has many meat speciality restaurants that also operate a butcher's shop. Daegwallyeong Hanu Town is one of the most reliable ones as it is run by the Korea Federation of Livestock Cooperatives (Chukhyeop). In the Korean beef section, which is neatly organised like in a large supermarket, you can choose the meat you want by cut, along with vegetables that can be served with the meat.

The restaurant is on the first and second floors, spacious enough for comfortable dining. You can grill the meat you buy at the butcher's shop by yourself, paying only the table setting fee. Since the restaurant provides only Korean beef raised and slaughtered by Daegwallyeong Hanu, a premium Korean beef brand, you can enjoy fresh and flavourful Korean beef at an affordable price.

Gohyang Iyagi is a restaurant where you can try neat and healthy dishes where Koreans find “nostalgic” tastes. The main menu items here include grilled Korean beef, squid and pork belly bulgogi (osam bulgogi), thistle hot stone pot rice (gondeure dolsotbap), pine mushroom hot stone pot rice (songi dolsotbap), and thistle hangover soup (gondeure haejangguk).

Taste fresh and tender beef sirloin or loin by grilling the meat on the table-top brazier, or try squid and pork belly bulgogi, which is prepared by marinating squid from the East Coast and fresh pork belly in savoury seasoning. After finishing the meat, it is recommended to end your meal with thistle hot stone pot rice, which will remove the unwanted aftertaste of meat. You will enjoy its light and savoury taste, by mixing refreshingly-flavoured thistle with the steamed rice, and soy sauce (ganjang), and then making wraps with dried seaweed. The meal is served with various neat side dishes, such as pickled victory onions (myeongi namul jangajji), buckwheat crepes (memil jeonbyeong), different kinds of kimchi including freshly made kimchi (geotjeori), and vegetable salad (namul muchim). If you want to experience the warm and friendly atmosphere of a Korean rural community, this is a must-visit restaurant.

Daebo Myungga is a restaurant that serves medicinal herb dishes made with much care following recipes that avoid irritating tastes. The representative menu items include a medicinal herb set menu (yakcho bapsang) and a medicinal herb sampler (yakcho jaengban). The set menu consists of various kinds of seasoned medicinal herbs (yakcho namul), nutritious hot stone pot rice (yeongyang dolsotbap), and savoury soybean paste stew (doenjang jjigae), which are all neatly garnished. The hot stone pot rice varies in ingredients depending on the gender of the diner: it contains medicinal herbs good for blood circulation for women and those enhancing strength for men. In addition, a refreshing cup of medicinal herbal tea is served, to bring a perfect end to your meal.

The medicinal herb sampler consists of special broth made by boiling 16 kinds of medicinal herbs including milk vetch roots and Siberian ginseng, and mountain herbs, mushrooms, and nuts that can be eaten by dipping in the broth. The dish is prepared in a way to balance the yin and yang energies of the diner. It is good for boosting the immune system of the body. You can also taste boiled Korean beef slices (hanu suyuk) that are tender and clean tasting by dipping in broth in a shabu-shabu style. If you want to try traditional Korean healthy foods with a plain, clean taste, visit this restaurant.

Jintaewon is a small-sized Chinese restaurant famous for excellent sweet and sour pork. Although the restaurant is quite small, it is widely known as a must-eat place and is always crowded with diners. The menu consists of sweet and sour pork (tangsuyuk), starch sheet salad with mustard sauce (yangjangpi), stir-fried seafood and beef (yusanseul), and sweet and spicy chicken (kkanpunggi). Among them, deep-fried pork with sweet and sour sauce is the most popular.

Sweet and sour pork is characterised by its unique sauce based on soy sauce (ganjang) and contains plenty of napa cabbage and chives. Crispy and savoury fried pork and sauce that is pleasantly sweet create perfect harmony. The crunchy sliced napa cabbage on top of the sweet and sour pork decreases the greasy feeling of the meat. Plus, it is served in hearty portions. The dish tastes even better in autumn or winter, when high-altitude napa cabbage is in season. If you want to taste sweet and sour pork with a new, unique taste, rather than the typical, this restaurant is the one you should visit.

BBQ Chicken Alpensia Resort is an eatery where you can satisfy your hunger with tasty fried chicken after enjoying skiing all day long. You can dine in the restaurant, or you can just take away.

The menu consists mainly of olive oil fried chicken, seasoned fried chicken, and hot wings (fried wings with spicy glaze). Among them, olive oil fried chicken features golden-brown, crispy, and curly batter. Compared to other chicken chains, BBQ serves chicken in bigger pieces, which makes it look more appetising. If you order fried chicken, they also provide different kinds of seasoning, so you can add a variety of flavours to your chicken. Fried chicken is something that you never get tired of, no matter when you eat it. When you get peckish at night, enjoy crispy and well-seasoned fried chicken with a cold draft beer.

Memilkkot Pilmuryeop is a restaurant located in Hyoseok Culture Village, which provides healthy dishes made with buckwheat and organic vegetables grown by the owner. The restaurant, situated in the birthplace of Gasan Lee Hyo-seok, the author of “When Buckwheat Flowers Bloom” (“Memilkkot Pilmuryeop” in Korea, the same as the name of the restaurant), which has been hailed as a masterpiece short storey in Korean literature, serves dishes with plain tastes native to Gangwon-do.

Dining in the restaurant set in a traditional thatched-roof house that has preserved its original rustic atmosphere, elderly customers can feel as if they have returned to their hometown. The menu consists of buckwheat noodles (memil guksu), buckwheat jelly salad (memilmuk), rice with buckwheat jelly salad (mukbap), potato rice cakes (gamjatteok), dumplings (mandu), and buckwheat crepes (jeonbyeong). All these dishes are quite simple, but they are healthier foods that can fill you up. Since the restaurant also operates a cafe, you can stop by to take a break over a cup of tea at any time of the day.

Sansu Myeongsan is a restaurant specialising in Korean table d'hote with seasoned wild vegetables. The restaurant uses only the ingredients harvested by the owner or grown organically. The main menu items include a seasoned wild vegetable set menu (sanchae jeongsik), a grilled dried pollack set menu (hwangtaegui jeongsik), wild vegetable bibimbap (sanchae bibimbap), and dried pollack hangover soup (hwangtae haejangguk). They also serve baeksuk, which is nutritious whole chicken soup made by boiling Korean chicken thoroughly. The restaurant is so famous that it has been featured in the media several times.

Inside, there are two types of seats, which are Western-style and Korean-style seats. The restaurant is clean and spacious and is suitable for family or group gatherings. If you order a seasoned wild vegetable set meal, different kinds of seasoned wild vegetables are served with steamed rice and stew on one table. Though they look similar to each other, if you look closely and taste carefully, they are all different vegetables. To eat like locals, put the seasoned vegetables into the warm rice, add a spoonful of soybean paste stew (doenjang jjigae), and mix them all, to make bibimbap that will make your mouth water just by looking at it. Soothe your palate exhausted by irritating tastes with healthy foods.

Yongsangol is a Korean beef speciality restaurant located near Yongpyong Resort, so you can replenish your nutrition with fresh beef after skiing or enjoying sightseeing all day long. You can taste the highest-grade Korean beef sirloin and brisket from the clean area of Daegwallyeong, while pre-grilled loin, blade-end fatback, and skirt are other popular menu items. Vegetables for wraps and side dishes are also fresh as they are made with high-altitude vegetables grown in the region.

The restaurant has an open kitchen and aging room, allowing you to see how your meal is prepared and cooked and have confidence in the served foods. Korean beef, grilled slightly to the point bleeding stops on a sufficiently heated cast iron grill, is tender and retains its juices, boasting an enchanting taste. The restaurant's beef brisket soybean paste stew (chadol doenjang jjigae), which you can add to the course, is another delicacy. The Cheongyang peppers in it gives it a refreshingly spicy taste while deepening the savouriness of the brisket. Recharge your body and mind tasting excellent Korean beef in Yongsangol.