Sokcho tofu restaurant with no 10am wait: modubu at Daecheongmaru

📍 Location 430 Gwangwang-ro, Sokcho-si, Gangwon-do, South Korea ⏰ Hours Daily 07:20-21:30 Break time 15:30-17:00 Last order 15:25, 20:55 🚗 Parking Parking available in front of the restaurant

Sokcho trip, start! 🩵 Our family's first meal of the Sokcho trip was sundubu (soft tofu stew)! We stopped by Daecheongmaru, famous as a sundubu spot in Sokcho, and had a hearty brunch of delicious sundubu.

Parking at Daecheongmaru and how long the wait was at 10am

Daecheongmaru has a wide parking lot right in front, so no worries about parking! 🚗💨 There's even a parking staff member who guides you in, so parking was a breeze.

You can also register for the waitlist via the Tabling app! We visited around 10am for brunch, and there were zero parties waiting! Thanks to that, we got seated right away without any wait 😊

Shoe bags and the menu board at the Daecheongmaru entrance

Daecheongmaru is a floor-seating restaurant where you take off your shoes. Haha, it's been a while since I've been to a place like this. I was wearing Crocs that day, and since someone else might have the same shoes, they gave us a black bag to store them in to prevent mix-ups, haha. Of course, there's also a shoe cabinet, so if you're not worried about losing your shoes, you can just put them there.

As soon as you walk in, a huge menu board catches your eye. It seems to be set up for people waiting in line! If there's a wait, it would be good to pick your menu in advance.

Room seating and baby chairs for eating with kids

Seeing that our second child was still little, they guided us to a room. Thanks to that, our family got to use the room all to ourselves, which was really comfortable! The door was left open, but since it was still a separated space, it was much easier to eat with a child, haha.

The restaurant itself is spacious and pleasant, which I liked. In particular, the tables are spaced far apart, so you're not packed in next to the next table, making for a relaxed meal. And there are plenty of baby chairs available too.

The Daecheongmaru menu and what our family ordered

Besides Chodang sundubu and spicy sundubu, there's a wide variety on the menu. Main dishes include hwangtae haejangguk (dried pollack soup), wild greens bibimbap, grilled hwangtae, steamed hwangtae, and tofu hot pot. Side dishes include potato pancake, modubu (whole tofu), acorn jelly, pan-fried tofu, and tofu kimchi — the range of choices is quite wide!

• Chodang sundubu
• Spicy sundubu
• Modubu (whole tofu)

A full banchan spread, soy-marinated shrimp included

Right after ordering, the banchan setup began! This place is a banchan powerhouse. The soy-marinated shrimp and seasoned dried pollack shreds especially caught my eye. Serving soy-marinated shrimp as a basic side dish — what angels, lol. Savory and salty, it was the ultimate rice thief.

Healthy namul (seasoned vegetable) side dishes and braised kodari (semi-dried pollack) also came out. The braised kodari had a soy sauce base with a slight spicy kick, perfect for stirring up your appetite.

Seasoned cucumber and seaweed stem salad also came out. The cucumber salad had a slightly crunchy texture, crisp and really delicious.

Fresh cabbage kimchi and pan-fried tofu also came out. Can't have sundubu without kimchi, right?

Bean curd stew (biji jjigae) also comes as standard. So savory that it's delicious even mixed straight into rice, haha.

Spicy sundubu, 15,000 won: as fiery as jjamppong

Spicy sundubu, ₩15,000. It doesn't look that spicy at first glance, right? But once you actually taste it, I was surprised — it hits like a spicy jjamppong (seafood noodle soup)! With the rich broth plus the savory soft tofu, it really goes down easy.

Chodang sundubu, 14,000 won: the mild one to share with kids

Chodang sundubu, ₩14,000. This is what my husband and our first child ate. It's soft and cloudy, really easy to eat. The sundubu alone was already savory and delicious, and adding a bit of the seasoning sauce made it even better.

Soft, cloudy Chodang sundubu really is a great menu to eat with a child, don't you think?

Modubu, 12,000 won, made with Korean-grown soybeans

Modubu, ₩12,000. The last dish was modubu (whole tofu)! It comes out in three hefty pieces. It has a different kind of savoriness from the Chodang sundubu 🤎 Even eaten plain, it's so savory and clean-tasting that it's delicious.

Daecheongmaru's Chodang sundubu apparently uses 100% pure domestic soybeans!!

Next to the door, there's also a fridge stocked with biji (soybean pulp) for sale. I love biji too, but since it was the first day of the trip, it was awkward to carry around, so I just left it. If you love biji, grab some and cook up a delicious biji jjigae — an instant meal!

Is Daecheongmaru worth it for breakfast in Sokcho?

The Chodang sundubu was soft and savory, great to eat with kids, and the spicy sundubu had a rich broth with real spicy kick — truly delicious. Best of all, the wide variety of basic banchan, including the soy-marinated shrimp, meant we enjoyed even the side dishes.

Parking was easy and the restaurant was spacious, so it worked well for a family visit too. If you're looking for a great sundubu spot in Sokcho, I recommend Daecheongmaru for breakfast 💕