Gyeongju lunch-only abalone restaurant: Wando Cham Jeonbokjip

Back in Gyeongju again~~~~! This time we went to see the Gyeongju media art show! I was trying to figure out what to eat for lunch, and heard there's a famous abalone restaurant in Gyeongju, so my fiancé and I went to Wando Cham Jeonbokjip! If you want to eat abalone properly in Gyeongju — from abalone porridge to abalone seafood stew — this place was fully satisfying!

At first I just thought, oh, it's probably a decent abalone spot~ but after eating there I realized it's a place locals go to a lot too haha. No wonder there were still people around even though we visited around 1:30pm...!

Where is Wando Cham Jeonbokjip, and where do you park?

Wando Cham Jeonbokjip is at 48 Alcheonnam-ro, Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk. You can park at the nearby public parking lot! We parked there too. Free!

Open 11am to 3pm only — check before you go

Wando Cham Jeonbokjip is open from 11am to 3pm. The restaurant was cleaner than I expected. There were several tables, so it seemed good both for two of us and for a family meal with parents!

But here's the important part!!!!! Hours are 11am to 3pm! We went around 1:30pm, so it was actually a pretty late visit haha. If we'd gone even later without knowing, we might not have been able to eat, yikes.

There was also a fish tank on one side of the restaurant, and true to the name, it was full of abalone.

Wando Cham Jeonbokjip menu and prices: what we ordered

At Wando Cham Jeonbokjip we ordered a small abalone seafood stew for 31,000 won and abalone porridge for 12,000 won. The menu had a wide variety of abalone dishes — abalone seafood stew, abalone porridge, abalone raw seafood soup, raw abalone, grilled abalone — but after some deliberation, this is what we ordered!

The small abalone seafood stew was listed as coming with 4 abalones, and we also ordered a bowl of abalone porridge on the side haha.

Abalone porridge, 12,000 won: thick and nutty

The abalone porridge at Wando Cham Jeonbokjip wasn't too watery — just the right thickness. Not long after ordering, the side dishes came out in a row, and the porridge arrived right away too! And honestly, after eating this porridge I was like... oh...? +__+ haha.

The porridge wasn't too watery and had just the right thickness, and once it hit my mouth, that distinct nutty abalone flavor came through strong.

No harsh flavors, just clean and savory, so my spoon kept going back for more! My fiancé already loves abalone porridge,

and after one bite he said it was amazing and just scraped the whole bowl clean...hahahahaha.

Putting a piece of kimchi on top halfway through and eating them together — the nutty porridge and kimchi went so well together that it just kept going down haha. Ohh, so good.

Small abalone seafood stew, 31,000 won: the star of the meal

The small abalone seafood stew at Wando Cham Jeonbokjip comes loaded with abalone, octopus, shrimp and other seafood piled on top of bean sprouts. It didn't take long to arrive!!!!! And wow, the visuals were just — hahaha.

On a huge plate, abalone, octopus, shrimp and other seafood were piled generously on the bean sprouts — I knew it'd be good just looking at it.

I cut into the abalone first and tried it — chewy but not tough, perfectly springy texture! And what I liked most was the sauce!!

It wasn't harshly or overwhelmingly spicy — more like a savory sauce with a subtle kick of heat, if that makes sense?

It wasn't just spicy for the sake of it — the more I ate, the tastier the sauce got, so I kept reaching for more bean sprouts and seafood hahaha.

Grabbed a shrimp~ some abalone~ and bean sprouts coated in extra sauce — honestly, so good!!!!!

A seafood stew whose sauce never turned watery

And here's another thing I liked! While eating the stew, almost no liquid pooled up. At other places, the sauce starts off rich,

but then as you keep eating, water releases from the seafood or bean sprouts and the bottom of the plate gets watery —

but here the sauce barely thinned out even till the end, so I could enjoy the same flavor from the first bite to the last!

My fiancé said the tot (fusiforme seaweed) was really tasty too!

Why people drive from Busan for Wando Cham Jeonbokjip takeout

Wando Cham Jeonbokjip had quite a lot of takeout customers, and many of them were from Busan. Sometimes eating something delicious makes you think of your parents randomly...ㅠㅠ that's exactly what happened here. Eating with my fiancé was great, but partway through I thought — next time I should bring my parents! With both abalone porridge and abalone seafood stew on the menu,

it seemed like a good spot for a family trip or family meal in Gyeongju with parents too. Haha. And while we were eating, I noticed quite a few people picking up takeout! But here's the wild part hahaha — a lot of them had come from Busan for takeout. Wait, we're from Busan too...? 'ㅁ'!!!!

The fact that people drive all the way from Busan to Gyeongju just to pick up takeout was kind of amazing, so my fiancé and I were like woahhhhh hahahahaha. We ate so well that day that I could totally see why people go out of their way for it.

I'm always debating what to eat when traveling in Gyeongju, and this time I feel like I properly found a good one! Especially the abalone seafood stew — the sauce wasn't too spicy but had great depth of flavor,

and the abalone porridge was nutty and rich, so I'm glad we ordered both together. Next time I come to Gyeongju with my parents, I'll definitely come back here for the abalone seafood stew~~~~!

If you're looking for a good lunch spot in Gyeongju or you like abalone, I recommend Wando Cham Jeonbokjip! It also does a lot of takeout orders, so keep that in mind if you're planning to take food to go :)