Sokcho Korean restaurant with a cheese fried rice finish: Deungdae

I was looking for somewhere to eat a hearty meal with an ocean view in Sokcho, and I found it right in front of Deungdae Beach — Deungdae Gotgan. The ocean view here is legit, and the octopus was genuinely fresh, so this ended up being one of the meals I was most satisfied with on this Sokcho trip.

Especially with jjaglak-ji, you really need to finish it off by frying rice in the leftover sauce at the end, so — not easy, I know — but I'd recommend leaving a little room in your stomach from the start haha.

What kind of restaurant is Deungdae Gotgan at Deungdae Beach in Sokcho?

Deungdae Gotgan is a jjaglak-ji (spicy braised octopus) Korean restaurant right in front of Deungdae Beach in Yeongnang-dong, Sokcho. When you think of a trip to Sokcho, raw fish or mulhoe (cold raw fish soup) usually come to mind first, but a few days into a trip there's always a moment when you crave a hot, spicy meal instead. That's why I went to Deungdae Gotgan this time.

When I visited, the first thing that caught my eye wasn't actually the food but the view outside the window. Once you go up to the 2nd floor, the sea stretches out beautifully through a huge floor-to-ceiling window, and if you sit by the window, it almost feels like you're at an ocean-view café while eating. The day I visited, the sea was calm and such a pretty color that I kept staring at it for a while. If you're looking for a place in Sokcho where taste and atmosphere both matter, this place definitely has an edge.

How much of the sea can you see from the window seats at Deungdae Gotgan?

Deungdae Gotgan sits right in front of Deungdae Beach with the restaurant on the 2nd floor. So if you sit by the window, the sea spreads out in front of you with almost nothing blocking it, just like in the photo.

Even at other so-called ocean-view restaurants in Sokcho, sometimes you can only catch a peek of the sea between buildings, but here you really can see the ocean the entire time you're eating — a genuine view spot. It also had a good flow to it, stopping by for lunch after walking around Deungdae Beach.

Deungdae Gotgan menu and prices, and how to eat jjageul nakji

When I went, the menu at Deungdae Gotgan consisted of jjaglak-ji at ₩14,000, pork cutlet at ₩14,000, jeyuk bokkeum (stir-fried pork) at ₩13,000, and octopus hangover soup at ₩13,000. You can also add udon or somyeon noodles.

We ordered jjaglak-ji, which you could call the signature dish here. Looking at the notice on the table, there were even instructions on how to enjoy jjaglak-ji properly. Once it starts bubbling, add udon or somyeon noodles and eat those first, and once you've mostly finished, fry rice in the leftover broth. From that point on, I already knew I had to have the fried rice too haha.

Self-serve side dishes: why the gim (dried seaweed) suits jjageul nakji

Before the jjaglak-ji arrived, the basic side dishes were set first. Familiar sides like seasoned bean sprouts, gim (dried seaweed sheets), pickled radish, and stir-fried sausage came out, along with a clear soup.

The gim in particular was great to pair with the jjaglak-ji later. Eating the spicy octopus with rice and then wrapping a bite in gim changed the flavor completely, and I kept reaching for more. The sides are self-serve, so you can grab more if you run out.

How does the octopus taste? Springy and full of juice

And finally, the jjaglak-ji arrived! Right from the first look, the presentation was pretty generous.

On top of the cabbage, vegetables, and glass noodles sat a vivid red sauce, with large chunks of raw octopus scattered around it, and the octopus clearly looked fresh at a glance. Once you turn on the heat and let it bubble, moisture from the vegetables naturally loosens the sauce, and it turns into a more moist jjagle (thick stew-like) texture than at the start.

What I liked most here was the texture of the octopus. It wasn't chewy or something you had to work hard to bite through — it was springy yet tender, and when you bit into it, the juice and moisture inside burst out!

It definitely felt like some of the freshest octopus I've had recently. The sauce was spicy and sweet without overpowering the octopus's flavor, so I kept eating without getting tired of it. If you're looking for restaurants in Yeongnang-dong and you like octopus, I'd say start with this dish.

Why you should add the udon noodles to your jjageul nakji

We also ordered the udon noodles. They come already cooked, so you just mix them into the sauce and eat right away. The noodles soaked up the sauce really well, and this was a delicacy on its own too.

Grab a piece of octopus, then a bite of udon, then wrap one in gim... since the way of eating kept changing, even though it was one dish, I never got tired of it.

The highlight: fried rice in the leftover sauce with 3,000 won of cheese

You can't stop here. This is the thing I want to emphasize most after eating at Deungdae Gotgan. You absolutely have to fry the rice at the end.

Once you've mostly finished the octopus and udon, you add rice into the leftover sauce, pile in pickled radish and gim flakes, drizzle sesame oil, and fry it all together. I don't like pickled radish, so I left that out when I fried mine!

And you really have to add the cheese. It's only ₩3,000, but they give you a genuinely huge amount of cheese — the rice couldn't even hold it all. It looked like the amount you'd use for two bowls of fried rice. We fried one bowl's worth of rice, and it ended up basically half rice, half cheese — so nutty and delicious.

The savory flavor from the octopus and vegetables during the jjaglak-ji is already fully soaked into the sauce. Frying rice in that couldn't possibly taste bad. At first I thought, "I'm already full, can I really eat fried rice too?" but somehow it went in haha.

A satisfying Sokcho meal: sea views and spicy octopus

Sokcho has so many famous foods that it's not easy to pick just one meal. Deungdae Gotgan isn't only appealing for its location as a restaurant in front of Deungdae Beach — the jjaglak-ji itself was quite satisfying too.

Above all, the octopus was plump and fresh, so the moment I bit in, I got that springy texture and burst of juice, and the whole progression of spicy sauce, then udon noodles, then finally fried rice was great. On top of that, the view of Deungdae Beach spreading out beyond the floor-to-ceiling window really made it feel like I was on a trip.

If you're looking for octopus dishes in Sokcho, a restaurant in Yeongnang-dong, or a place by Deungdae Beach in Sokcho where you can eat with an ocean view, this is worth a stop. If I go back, I think I'd order the jjaglak-ji first again. And the cheese add-on for the fried rice is a must 💛

Deungdae Gotgan visitor information: address, hours and closing day

• Address: 109 Yeongnanghaean-gil, 2nd floor, Sokcho-si, Gangwon-do, South Korea
• Hours: 08:00 – 17:00
• Closed on Wednesdays
• Right in front of Deungdae Beach / ocean view
• Signature menu: jjaglak-ji, octopus hangover soup, pork cutlet, jeyuk bokkeum
• Dog-friendly