Snow Crab Restaurants in Busan: Look at the Map First and the Answer Gets Simple

Busan is big. Seomyeon and Nampo-dong, Haeundae and Gwangalli are all Busan, and Gijang is Busan too. So the question “what should I eat in Busan?” is hard to answer without first knowing where you are staying.

Crab is especially like that. It is not a food you find everywhere, like raw fish or a bowl of gukbap. Because you are dealing with something alive, it only gathers in places where the conditions are right. Once you know what those conditions are, picking a snow crab restaurant in Busan becomes a lot simpler.

I have run this trade inside Gijang Market for 25 years. I meet customers coming from every corner of Busan every day, so I know where they come from, how they get here, and what they want to know. Let me lay it out.

Contents

• Where crab gathers within Busan
• Why it all gathers in one place
• If you eat downtown
• How to get here from each area
• Travel options by starting point
• What to check in front of the shop
• How to decide on the weight
• How the meal unfolds after you order
• When to go
• Depending on who you come with
• Common mistakes
• Plans that pair well with the meal
• Frequently asked questions

Where crab gathers within Busan

Busan is a city on the sea, so seafood is everywhere. But depending on the item, it gathers in different places.

Raw fish is all over the city. Plenty of fish are caught along our own coast, so every neighborhood has a place that handles it. The same goes for clams and shrimp.

Snow crab is different. It is not something caught off our coast here. It is a species that lives in deep, cold water, so it comes from far away. That means you need a setup that can receive stock from far away and look after it properly.

The place where that setup exists is the Gijang side. There is an old seafood market, there are tanks and people to run them, and stock goes out every single day. That is why the shops that handle crab within Busan are clustered in this area.

Of course there are places downtown that sell it as well. Their character is just different. I will write about that separately further down.

Why it all gathers in one place

There are reasons a trade ends up clustered in one spot. Three of them.

First, tanks take up a lot of room. If you pile crabs on top of each other, they press down on one another and their legs get damaged, so they have to be spread out with space to spare. In a location where the rent is high, it is hard to afford that much floor area.

Second, you cannot skip the care for even a single day. The water has to circulate without a break and the temperature has to be held steady, and if you leave them for just half a day, the crabs start to droop. Machines alone are not enough. You need someone looking in on them all day long.

Third, the stock has to turn over quickly. A crab held in a tank survives by burning its own body as fuel, so it gets thinner as time goes on. A shop where the foot traffic dries up cannot keep pace with that loss.

The place that has all three at once is the alley of a seafood market. That is why crab shops gather there. On top of that, when many shops stand shoulder to shoulder, customers can compare them with their own eyes, so no shop can afford to be careless. For the customer, that works as a kind of insurance.

If you eat downtown

There may be reasons you cannot make it all the way to Gijang. In that case, eating downtown is one option. I would just like you to choose knowing a few things.

Downtown shops usually take in stock that is delivered to them. Rather than someone going out every dawn to choose, it comes in through a set route. That does not make it bad. It just means the range to choose from is narrower.

Then there is the extra travel distance. The longer a crab is out of the water, the more strength it loses, and when it loses strength, its meat shrinks. Even the same crab will be in a different condition depending on when it arrives.

On the other hand, access is easy. You do not have to carve a big chunk of time out of your schedule, and it is easy to reach by public transport. If that convenience is what you are paying for, it is a reasonable choice.

In the end, it comes down to what you put first. If you put condition first, it makes sense to travel. If you put time first, somewhere close is the right answer.

How to get here from each area

Here is how to get to Gijang from different parts of Busan.

From Haeundae and Songjeong, the Donghae Line commuter train is the easiest. Get off at Gijang Station and walk over. No parking worries, and the travel time is predictable.

From Seomyeon or the city center, you can take the subway and then transfer to the Donghae Line. It takes a while, so leave yourself some slack.

If you drive, the road up along the coast has the nicer scenery. On weekend afternoons, though, the Haeundae stretch gets jammed. Avoid that time and it goes smoothly.

Some people also come from Yangsan or Ulsan. Gijang is not a bad location to reach from those directions either.

Travel options by starting point

Which way to come depends on where you set out from, so I have put it in a table.

From each part of Busan to Gijang Market

Starting point	Recommended way	Notes
Haeundae	Donghae Line train	Roads jam on weekend afternoons
Songjeong	Donghae Line train	Just a few stops away
Ilgwang	Donghae Line train	Two stops
City center	Subway, then transfer	Allow extra time
By car	Coastal road	Market parking is busy around midday

Come by train and your bags are the burden. Come by car and parking is the burden. If you also plan to buy dried goods, a car is the better choice.

What to check in front of the shop

These are the things to look at when deciding which shop to sit down in. It takes thirty seconds.

Look at the tanks first. A tank that is being looked after has a live current, so the surface of the water ripples finely. If the water is standing still and there is a film built up on the walls, it is a shop where care has grown sparse.

Check that the crabs are not piled up in layers. When they are piled up, they press on each other and their legs get damaged. A shop where they are spread out with room to spare is a shop that takes care of its stock.

You should also watch how the crabs move. You can tell at a glance the ones bracing on their legs with claws raised from the ones sprawled flat on the bottom. If about seven out of ten have strength in them, that tank passes.

The way the menu is put together is a signal too. A shop with a short menu built around the crab varieties is a shop that handles that stock all the time. If a long run of unrelated dishes goes on and on, it is hard for them to put real effort into a single item.

How to decide on the weight

Once you have settled on a snow crab restaurant in Busan, the next thing is the weight. This is where satisfaction splits the most.

With crab, the shell accounts for a large share of the weight. The weight on the scale and the meat that actually goes into your mouth differ quite a lot, and as a rough rule, about one third is the right estimate. Of course it goes up or down depending on how full each crab is.

For two people, a little over 1kg is the basic line, and for three or four, a little over 2kg. If you are more than five, increase it by headcount, but it is better to call us ahead.

That said, this guideline includes the closing dishes. If you plan to fill up on crab alone, you should order more.

At a shop you are visiting for the first time, be sparing with the weight. If it falls short, you just order more, and leftover crab never gets its flavor back, even if you steam it again.

How the meal unfolds after you order

It puts your mind at ease to know in what order things come out once you order.

First come the side dishes. At our shop that means gracilaria seaweed, shrimp, scallops, octopus, turban shell and abalone. Enjoy these while the crab cooks.

The crab takes time. That is because after we take the order, we pull it from the tank, clean it and steam it. It is not a matter of reheating something made in advance. We start right then.

Go for the legs first. As the temperature drops, the texture of the leg meat is the first to firm up. We split the body before serving it, so a spoon is all you need.

The end of the meal belongs to fried rice in the crab shell and doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew). Plenty of people add red snow crab ramyeon too. The broth drawn from the shells goes well with the rice, and that is why.

When to go

Even at the same shop, what you get depends on when you go.

Looking at a single day, midday is the sweet spot. It is right after the dawn stock has settled into the tanks and before the customers pile up, so there is the most room to choose. The owner’s hands are free too, so it is a good time to ask all sorts of questions.

If you plan to come in the evening, arrive around six. The closer it gets to closing, the more of that day’s prime crabs have already left.

By season, the answer is the stretch between the tail end of winter and the start of spring. That is when the crabs that molted and then had time to firm up their shells and fill with roe come in.

In summer, the closed fishing season along the coast changes what is going around the market. At those times, rather than insisting on one thing, asking what is good that day gets you closer to the right answer.

Depending on who you come with

What you should take care of depends on who you come with.

If you are bringing your parents, a restaurant inside the market is comfortable. These places have always served older customers, so the seating is comfortable, and since the meat is picked out for you, there is less work for their hands.

If you have children with you, let them look at the tanks. They will not take their eyes off the live crabs moving in front of them. Just be sure to hold their hands firmly so they do not go into the water.

For a meal for two, do not get greedy. A little over 1kg with a closing dish is usually plenty.

When your party is large, calling ahead helps in many ways. Not only can we prepare seating, we can also set aside enough for your headcount from that day’s stock.

Common mistakes

When you watch for long enough, the same regrettable scenes always happen in the same places. I am writing them down in advance so you can steer around them.

The first is arriving late. As I wrote above, just moving your arrival up by an hour changes the range you get to choose from.

Next is chasing size alone. The bigger the crab, the bigger the share of shell, so there are big ones that are empty and small ones that are full. The heft you feel when it sits in your hand is a far more honest measure.

The third is eating only the crab and stopping there. A meal is complete only with the side dishes and the closing dishes added in, and nothing is a bigger waste than getting up and leaving the innards in the shell and the broth from the shells behind.

Finally, not asking anything at all. An owner who chooses the stock with their own hands knows all the strengths and weak points of that day’s catch, so a single word from you can change what ends up on your table.

Our spot inside Gijang Market

For reference, let me add a few words about us. We are inside the passageway of Gijang Market.

I go out to the market before first light, look at the stock with my own eyes, and bring back only the ones that feel right in my hand. That is why there are days when the tanks are full and days when they are sparse. If I do not see good ones, I do not force myself to fill the tanks.

Our items are snow crab, king crab and red snow crab, and that is it. At the end of the meal come red snow crab ramyeon, fried rice in the crab shell and doenjang jjigae. I do not add more items because the wider the range you handle, the more your eye for the stock gets divided.

We weigh the crab where you can watch. The price is market price. Since the stock changes every day, I do not have a fixed number; I just tell you that day’s rate straight.

Plans that pair well with the meal

Many people who come all the way to Gijang looking for a snow crab restaurant in Busan also see the area while they are here. Let me list just a few.

The course people pair with the meal most often is Haedong Yonggungsa. It is a temple where the sea comes right up to your feet, so you get a picture you rarely see elsewhere. The stretch of stairs is long, though, so if you are with someone whose knees are weak, give yourselves a generous schedule.

Daebyeon Port is at its finest in spring. In anchovy season, you can watch fishermen shaking the nets out on the wharf. It is about ten minutes from the market by car.

Ilgwang Beach is just right for a quiet walk. It is two stops away on the Donghae Line, so it is easy to get to and from if you are traveling by train.

For your route, sightseeing outdoors while the sun is up and the market at dusk is the safe order. Leave the shopping until the very end so your hands stay free.

Frequently asked questions

Where are the snow crab restaurants in Busan concentrated?

On the Gijang side. There is an old seafood market, so the tanks and the people are in place, and stock goes out every day. Snow crab is not caught off our coast but comes from far away, so that kind of setup is needed.

Is it a bad idea to eat it downtown?

Not at all. It is just a different kind of place. Downtown shops usually take in stock through a set route, so the range to choose from is narrower and travel distance is added. On the other hand, access is easy. It is a question of what you put first.

How do I get there from Haeundae?

The Donghae Line commuter train is the easiest. Get off at Gijang Station and walk over. If you drive, the coastal road has nicer scenery, but it gets jammed on weekend afternoons.

What should I look at when choosing a shop?

The basics are whether the water in the tanks is circulating, whether the crabs are pressed against each other, and whether many of them are standing up with strength. You can also check whether the menu is short and centered on crab.

How much weight should I order?

A little over 1kg for two and a little over 2kg for three or four is the starting line. Since the weight includes the shell, the actual meat is about one third of it, and on a first visit, order slightly less and add more when you need it.

What time is good to go?

Midday is ideal. The range to choose from is wide and the shop is quiet at that hour. In the evening, arriving around six is safe, and near closing time it is hard to find the prime ones still left.

Can I come by car?

There is room to park next to the market. As long as you avoid the two or so hours around midday when shoppers’ cars crowd in, it is not difficult.

How long do I wait after ordering?

It takes time, because after taking the order we pull the crab from the tank, clean it and steam it. You can eat the side dishes first while you wait. Including the time spent picking out the meat, plan on about an hour.

How do I ask about prices?

We sell at market price. Stock comes in fresh every day, so there is no set price. If you ask by phone or KakaoTalk before you head out, we will let you know based on that day.

Can I bring my children?

Of course. The front of the tanks is the first thing kids want to see. But a pinch from a claw can really hurt, so be sure to hold their hands.

Do you have seating for groups?

We have both hall seating and private rooms. When a lot of you are coming, it is better to call ahead. Along with the seats, we can set aside enough for your headcount from that day’s stock.

Are there places nearby worth seeing too?

Haedong Yonggungsa, Daebyeon Port and Ilgwang Beach are all close by. Going around outdoors during the day and coming into the market at dusk is a natural flow, and if you do your shopping on the way home, you will not have to worry about carrying bags.

Which is better, winter or summer?

The stretch where winter turns into spring is the finest. In summer, the coastal closed fishing season changes what stock is available, so at that time it is better to ask what is good that day.

To sum up

When choosing a snow crab restaurant in Busan, look at the geography first. The spot where live stock gathers and keeps moving is the Gijang side. After that, look at the tanks and the menu, and order a smaller weight the first time.

We are inside Gijang Market. The name is Gijang Cheonghaewang Daege (기장 청해왕대게), the address is 12, Eupnae-ro 104beon-gil, Gijang-eup, Gijang-gun, Busan, and the phone number is 0507-1490-5702. We are open every day from nine in the morning to nine at night.

How to get around inside the market is written up in how to use Gijang Market, and the setup that brings the stock here is explained in where the name Gijang snow crab comes from.