10 Best Local Restaurants in Jeonju

Hangukjip is a restaurant that has been selling Jeonju bibimbap since 1952 and is continuing the tradition of the dish for the 3rd generation today. This is also the No. 1 attraction officially designated by the city of Jeonju. The remodelled hanok building exudes stylish flavours and the front yard featuring flowers and trees produces a cosy atmosphere.

The pride of Hangukjip is its pastes that it has been carefully storing for over 60 years and gochujang made with brine-less bay salt. Countless celebrities including past presidents have visited the restaurant and it was also introduced in the Michelin Guide in 2011. Its bibimbap, which is topped with wild vegetables and served in a weighty brass bowl, whets your appetite with its colorfulness and, also, enables you to taste your mother’s touches from its clean, modest flavours. Also, try moju (unrefined rice wine), which is known as the “Korean vin chaud.”

Veteran is a kalguksu restaurant that you can easily stop by during your tour of various attractions in Jeonju Hanok Village. The menu is very simple and the prices are inexpensive. Since customers enter, sit, eat and leave quickly, the seat turnover rate is high, and the space is huge so you will be able to enjoy a speedy meal whenever you’re hungry.

The appetising appearance of kalguksu here boasts a generous amount insomuch that the bowl may overflow. Perilla powder, red pepper powder and seasoned laver powder served on top will make your mouth water. Try the chewy kalguksu noodles coated with the soup teeming with the scent of perilla and finish it off with pickled radish or kkadugi that is served as side dishes. You won’t be able to put down your chopsticks until you devour the entire bowl. When you visit Jeonju, make sure to taste kalguksu at Veteran where you can satiate your hunger with a delicious soup.

Gajok Hoegwan is a Jeonju bibimbap restaurant located near Jeonju Hanok Village that is famous for the touches of a Jeonju cuisine master chef. It is run by Mrs. Kim Nyeon-im, an intangible cultural heritage and No. 1 master chef of Jeonju cuisine. Award plaques and writings that fill up the interior are a testament to her status, and the restaurant itself exudes a rich vibe of an old establishment.

There are only two dishes on the menu - Jeonju bibimbap and yukhoe bibimbap. Once you order, you will be able to first enjoy a variety of clean and neatly prepared side dishes. Their simple flavours make it easy for you to eat and enjoy. Jeonju bibimbap, which is served in a hot brass bowl, features many different types of colourful vegetables including cucumber, bracken, pumpkin, shredded radish, spinach, carrot and ginkgo nuts. Eating a bowl of this bibimbap alongside the delicious kongnamul guk (bean sprout soup) will fill up your body and soul.

Daurang is a homemade mandu restaurant that is introduced as a must-visit place in Jeonju Hanok Village. The restaurant is easy to access since it is located almost in the middle of Hanok Village and, because of its location, the restaurant is set up in the hanok style, which makes it so cool.

Daurang serves a great variety of mandu. There are also unique mandu that are rare in other regions, such as vegetable oven mandu and cream skewered mandu. Our recommendation for the best menu items you must try above all the others are shrimp mandu, spicy mandu and vegetable oven mandu. Shrimp mandu are filled with plump shrimp resulting in an excellent texture. Meat and vegetable mandu with plenty of filling are also succulent. Sitting by the window and looking out onto the scenery of Hanok Village will please your eyes, which is why it is one street food that we definitely recommend you to try when visiting Jeonju.

Gamroheon is a Korean food restaurant that specialises in medicinal foods and is where you can enjoy great tastes and also take care of your health. There is an inscription you will find at the entrance of Gamroheon that tells you how much effort and sincerity go into its dishes. It says that the restaurant even prepares water by boiling medicinal herbs. The ingredients obtained straight from nature exude their own inherent flavours so the foods served here are great for those who are sick and tired of different seasonings.

The inside of Gamroheon is set up in quite modest fashion to make you feel as if you are in a countryside house. Clean, neatly prepared and visually excellent dishes are served slowly like a course, which allows you to enjoy your meal while fully savouring each bite. Basic side dishes include fresh kimchi sweetened by adding ripe persimmon, crispy burdock japchae, siraegi muchim (seasoned dried radish greens) and yeongeun jorim (braised lotus root). Taste the healthy and stomach-filling medicinal foods to make great memories of the trip with special dishes.

Deokcheon Sikdang, a restaurant famous for sundae gukbap in Jeonju, has remained in front of Jeonbuk National University since 1976. The menu is relatively simple, consisting of a few variations of gukbap and alcohol, and the prices are so cheap, which is why it is widely loved by many.

This place is well-known for sundae gukbap but it doesn’t actually contain any sundae. A variety of intestines in sundae gukbap, which continue to boil in a heavy earthen pot for a long time even after being served up to the table, whet your appetite. The clean and delicious taste of sundae gukbap comforts even the deepest part of your body on a cold winter day. One peculiarity is that Jeonju has a culture of eating the solid ingredients inside gukbap with red chilli-pepper paste with vinegar. Experience special local food culture with a pot of warm gukbap.

Everyone from Jeonbuk National University knows and loves Tongjip especially for its delicious foods that go along well with drinks. This is where Jeonbuk National University students gather and make lasting memories from the moment they enter to graduation.

Every single dish from the wide variety of menu items at Tongjip whets your appetite but there is a delicacy that you should not miss. “Half-and-half Jeon,” which features haemul soljeon (seafood pancake) and kimchijeon (kimchi pancake), boasts a crispy texture and excellent flavours from generously added ingredients. Brown rice baked chicken is coated with fried brown rice, which makes the outside crispy and the inside moist and tender. Last but not least, mulguksu (noodle soup) is properly spicy and fills you up well so it is a perfect finish to your meal. Customers take out liquor on their own from the refrigerator and set up basic side dishes and silverware themselves but, here, you will be able to feel the vibe of a pub from your university days that was owned by a friendly motherlike woman who offered food, drinks and generosity.

Palbok Gamjatang is a generous and delicious restaurant in Jeonju where you can taste a bowl-full of spicy gamjatang. The restaurant uses quality back ribs so the meat has no strange odour and the broth is rich and savoury. The tender meat that melts in your mouth and the radish greens that have been overly dried for great texture form incredible harmony.

Place a piece of meat over some rice, dip the spoon into the soup and eat it with dried radish greens. It will fill up your stomach. Crunchy, properly ripened kkakdugi adds more flavour to gamjatang. You can also wrap the meat and rice with perilla leaves served as a side dish. Not only that, help yourself with the unlimited free refills of the tender dried radish greens. Enjoy the original taste of gamjatang at a delicious restaurant in Jeonju, Jeolla-do.

Jinmijip is an indoor cart bar near Jeonju Jungang Market and is famous for briquette pork bulgogi and gimbap. It is a place with a long history that started its operation in 1976. Pork bulgogi and gimbap are standard items, and you can also order garak guksu if you so desire. There are many tables and the prices are affordable so it is a good place to enjoy light drinking.

The briquette bulgogi is served grilled for one person at a time, and the soft texture and the sweet taste of the sauce blackened over briquette fire are what make your mouth water. A piece of bulgogi placed on top of gimbap, which is the Jeonju style, simply calls for endless drinks. Jinmijip is a restaurant with a modest vibe where you can enjoy great meals at affordable prices and even feel a sense of an open-air cart bar, so it is a place that can be enjoyed by people of all ages, young and old.