Haksapyeong-gil bakery café in Sokcho: potato bread 4-pack to go

When you're traveling in Sokcho, it feels like a waste to skip the local food souvenirs! This time I visited a place whose name alone grabs your attention: Sokcho Bultan Gamja Bread (불탄감자빵), literally "burnt potato bread." It's made to look like the charred potatoes people used to roast in old-fashioned wood-fired stoves, haha.

The black color isn't actually burnt, though — it's made using ink from squid, which is a signature ingredient of Sokcho 😆

Where is Sokcho Bultan Gamja Bread Main Store, and what are the hours?

• 📍Location: 34-20 Haksapyeong-gil, 1F, Sokcho, Gangwon, South Korea
• ⏰Hours: 09:00–18:00

What the Sokcho Bultan Gamja Bread storefront looks like

There's a large parking area right in front of the store, which made it easy to visit by car. The building's exterior is decorated with colorful characters and graffiti, so it's easy to spot from a distance ❣️ A convenient stop if you're driving around Sokcho and want to pick up a souvenir.

Inside Sokcho Bultan Gamja Bread Main Store: interior and seating

I was surprised at how spacious it felt once I stepped inside 👍 With a warm atmosphere and plenty of table and sofa seating, it looked like a great spot not just to grab bread to go, but also to sit down with a coffee and relax!

What Bultan potato bread tastes like, sampled in the store

They happened to have a tasting station in the store, so I tried a piece — and it was so much better than I expected that I decided on the spot to buy some to take home!

The outside was really chewy, and the inside was packed with fluffy potato 🫶🏻🫶🏻 The contrast between the chewy outside and soft, fluffy inside was especially good.

Moostoy ceramic figurine painting at the Sokcho store

The store also offers a moostoy painting experience. Moostoy is an art toy where you paint a design or write something on a ceramic figurine yourself. It seemed like a fun, different activity to try with kids on a family trip, or as a couple.

They also sell a range of drinks, from coffee to ade to tea, so it could work as a quick café break during a Sokcho trip too.

How is Bultan potato bread made?

I liked that it didn't taste like a dessert made purely to be sweet — you could actually taste the potato itself! They add cream cheese and butter for richness, and use Gangwon-do potatoes roasted fresh every morning. Because the potatoes are roasted rather than boiled or steamed, the natural sweetness of the potato really comes through, apparently.

The outside is coated in a powder made from ground domestic grains like black sesame, black beans, and black rice, adding a nutty flavor too. And the water used to make it comes from deep-sea water off the East Sea coast — so it really felt like a bread that fully captures the character of Sokcho!

They also make it in small batches without synthetic additives, following a same-day-made, same-day-sold principle — which felt very reassuring!

The 4-piece potato bread set packed as a Sokcho souvenir

After tasting it and loving it, I packed a Sokcho Bultan Gamja Bread 4-piece set. The packaging itself has a cute, colorful character design, so it looked great as a Sokcho travel souvenir or a gift for people back home.

It photographs nicely and definitely reads as "a gift bought in Sokcho," so I'd recommend it to anyone looking for something more unique than the usual snacks ❣️

Sokcho squid-flavored jjondeugi bought alongside the bread

Alongside the potato bread, I also picked up some Sokcho squid-flavored jjondeugi (쫀드기, a chewy taffy-like snack). Sokcho's version takes the familiar national snack jjondeugi and gives it a local twist, coming in snow crab, squid, and dakgangjeong (sweet fried chicken) flavors. I thought it was such a fun idea to turn Sokcho's signature foods into jjondeugi flavors, haha.

If you're looking for a dessert that feels distinctly Sokcho, this is worth a visit! The Bultan potato bread in particular isn't just visually unique — the chewy outside and fluffy potato inside really came through once I tried it myself, which made me like it even more.

They're also running a review event, so keep that in mind!

If you're looking for an unusual food souvenir on a Sokcho trip, I'd recommend the combo of Sokcho Bultan Gamja Bread + Sokcho jjondeugi :)