Nearby Taejongdae park in Busan, you’ll find an unassuming street by the beach:
The street is covered with tents, and signs pointing you towards it read “to Grilled Clam Town:”
The place looks unassuming – it is just a row of nearly identical restaurants all offering the same basic dishes. Not to mention the fact that nearly nothing is in English language, the idea of going inside for a meal can be a bit daunting:
We were recommended to come here by a friend (thanks Julia!) and will pass along the very high recommendation – this is an absolute must-do for anyone visiting Busan.
We didn’t really know what we were doing, so just went into a restaurant with a friendly looking owner and pointed to what looked like the “standard set” menu on the wall. For extra emphasis, we pointed to another table in the restaurant and gestured that we wanted the same thing as them.
The meal turned out to be incredible. First off, the owner came out with our “appetizer” which was bowls of mussel soup:
Next up, a bowl of charcoal was put into the center of our table and covered with a wire-mesh rack. Then, a huge platter of raw shellfish was set down next to the table. We also received a bucket (for shells) and some scissors.
We were admittedly at a bit of a loss for what to do next, so we got the owner’s attention and asked (as best we could) for help. She gave us a lengthy explanation entirely in Korean, but we got the gist that we were mainly supposed to grill everything ourselves. So that’s what we did!
Shrimp, scallops, abalone, and several types of clams – all of it was fresh directly from the ocean and all of it tasted incredible. We also received a big platter of tteok-bokki (a Korean staple), some corn, cheese, and butter to grill with as well.
Now – by fresh, I mean very fresh. some of our food was even alive when we put it on the grill!
Despite a slight pang of sadness for the shellfish we sacrificed, this was without a doubt one of the best shellfish (or even seafood overall) meals we’ve ever had. On top of the food quality, the nature of the experience – wandering into a tent city, understanding very little of what was happening, grilling for ourselves by the ocean, and having the Korean owner explain everything thoroughly (in Korean) while we were eating made it a one-of-a-kind experience. Again – this is an absolute must-do for anyone visiting Busan!
