Solo travel dinner in Sokcho: red snow crab lunchbox at Yes Susan

Can you eat red snow crab alone in Sokcho?

While figuring out how to eat red snow crab on a solo trip to Sokcho, I landed on Yes Susan in Sokcho Jungang Market. Yes Susan is takeout-only, so even alone you can just buy one crab lunchbox and eat it back at your room.

I'd just come back from a solo trip to Sokcho. Since I'd made it all the way there, I wanted sashimi, I wanted mulhoe (cold raw fish soup), and most of all I really wanted red snow crab. But once I actually looked into it, eating crab alone turned out to be harder than I expected. Most crab restaurants seemed set up for groups of two or more, and even ordering a single crab felt like a lot in both portion and price for one person.

As a solo traveler I was stuck thinking, 'I want crab, but walking in alone to eat it is awkward...' That's exactly when I found a place where you can eat crab without any pressure, even by yourself — Yes Susan.

Where is Yes Susan in Sokcho Jungang Market?

Yes Susan sits inside Sokcho Jungang Market, and it can be surprisingly confusing to find the first time. I wandered around a bit myself before locating it.

The easiest method: find the Pascucci café inside Sokcho Jungang Market first! Once you're near Pascucci, finding Yes Susan is much easier. If you're driving and just want a quick pickup, parking briefly nearby and dashing in and out worked fine too. Rather than wandering aimlessly through the market, I'd recommend using Pascucci as your reference point from the start.

There are two menu items.

Yes Susan menu and prices: 25,000 won crab lunchbox, 8,000 won fried rice

The Yes Susan menu is simple: a ₩25,000 red snow crab lunchbox and an ₩8,000 flying fish roe crab fried rice. Simple, right?

A trip to Sokcho isn't complete without seafood. I especially wanted to try red snow crab this time, but when I searched around, most crab-specialty restaurants felt geared toward groups sharing a full spread. Ordering crab alone in a restaurant felt like a bit much, but giving up on crab entirely after coming all the way to Sokcho felt like too much of a loss too. That was exactly my dilemma — 'I want crab, but there's nowhere that really works for eating alone...' That's when I discovered the takeout-only Yes Susan.

What I ordered was the ₩25,000 red snow crab lunchbox. Several are laid out on display, and you just pick whichever one you like! Red snow crab usually sounds like something you'd eat with several people, or something that runs up quite a bill, so being able to pack it up in a ₩25,000 lunchbox felt pretty great for a solo traveler.

What I liked most was not having to eat alone in a restaurant — I could just take it back to my room and eat comfortably there. When traveling solo, there's plenty of food you want to try, but not every dish suits solo dining. In that sense, the crab lunchbox fit perfectly.

Since Yes Susan is takeout-only, I'd recommend calling ahead to order and then picking it up.

Does the packaging leave a crab smell in the car?

The clean packaging was the best part. Even when red snow crab is fresh, it can smell if you just carry it as-is, and the odor tends to stick in a car — but they wrapped it up so it didn't smell at all, which I really appreciated!

Eating the Yes Susan crab lunchbox alone at the room

I brought it back to my room and opened it up, and that signature red color of red snow crab instantly made it feel like a real trip.

When traveling alone, taking up a whole table at a restaurant can feel oddly self-conscious, and if everyone around you is a family or a couple, it can feel a little awkward too. But eating this takeout in my room, I could watch TV, take photos, and eat at my own pace — which actually made it even better. Add a can of beer and your room basically becomes its own little crab restaurant :)

There's real fun in picking the meat out of each crab leg one by one. You crack the shell and pull the meat out, and it's salty with a subtle sweetness that kept me reaching for more. On a trip, when you've been eating a lot of heavier things, crab is nice because you can pick at it slowly. It worked well as a solo travel dinner, especially resting at the room while eating — no rush, and it genuinely felt like enjoying my own time.

Crab shell rice saved for last

And you absolutely cannot skip the crab shell when eating red snow crab. After picking through most of the leg meat, I added rice to the roe and tomalley left in the shell and mixed it all up. This is... genuinely heaven.

The salty, savory crab innards soaked into every grain of rice, and with a little extra crab meat mixed in on top, honestly I liked this moment even more than eating the leg meat. Sitting alone quietly eating in my room, I took one bite of the crab shell rice and just found myself nodding to no one 😂

Is the Yes Susan lunchbox worth it for a solo Sokcho trip?

If you've ever come all the way to Sokcho wanting crab but found nowhere comfortable to eat it alone, the Yes Susan crab lunchbox is a pretty solid choice. Browse Jungang Market, take it back to your room, pick through the crab at your own pace, and finish with the crab shell rice — it's a perfect solo travel dinner course.

If you're like me — 'I'm alone, but I'm not giving up on crab' — give it a try :) Next time I'm in Sokcho solo, I think I'll be getting takeout from here again.