Sokcho sea-view restaurant for a family breakfast: Deungdae Gotgan

While planning our Sokcho trip, I was looking for a place to have breakfast, and I ended up at Deungdae Gotgan, a restaurant right across from Deungdae Beach where you can eat while looking out at the sea. There aren't actually that many restaurants in Sokcho that open early in the morning, but Deungdae Gotgan starts service at 8am, so it worked well for a travel breakfast. What I liked most was being able to look straight out at the Sokcho sea while eating.

If you're looking for a restaurant in Yeongnang-dong, Sokcho where you can eat with a sea view, this might be worth checking out.

Where is Deungdae Gotgan, and what are its hours?

• Address: 109 Yeongnang-haeanro, 2nd floor, Sokcho-si, Gangwon-do, South Korea
• Name: Deungdae Gotgan
• Hours: 08:00–17:00
• Last order: 16:30
• Closed: Every Wednesday

Deungdae Gotgan is located on Yeongnang-haeanro in Sokcho, with the restaurant itself on the second floor.

Deungdae Gotgan's signature menu items are jjaglak-ji (braised octopus stew), nakji haejangguk (octopus hangover soup), jeyuk bokkeum (spicy stir-fried pork), and pork cutlet.

Deungdae Beach through the floor-to-ceiling windows

Going up to the second floor, the restaurant wasn't huge, but the floor-to-ceiling windows gave it a surprisingly open feel. It felt like the small space was used efficiently, and the gaps between tables weren't uncomfortable at all. But the biggest strength of this place, I thought, was the Sokcho sea visible right outside the window.

The Sokcho sea came into full view through the windows, and with clear weather that day, the colors of the sea and sky looked really beautiful. Eating breakfast while looking out at the sea in the morning gave us a real sense of the relaxed atmosphere you look for on a trip.

This place seemed especially well suited to people looking for a restaurant near Deungdae Beach where you can enjoy the sea as well as the food, not just somewhere to simply eat.

Deungdae Gotgan's menu: four dishes

Deungdae Gotgan's menu is broadly made up of four dishes.

• Jjaglak-ji (braised octopus stew)
• Nakji haejangguk (octopus hangover soup)
• Jeyuk bokkeum (spicy stir-fried pork)
• Pork cutlet

I ordered nakji haejangguk and pork cutlet for breakfast. The menu isn't huge, but having crowd-pleasing options like pork cutlet and jeyuk bokkeum alongside the octopus dishes made it seem like a good choice for a family visit.

The self-serve bar and how to eat jjaggeul-nakji

There was a self-serve bar set up on one side of the restaurant. It had cool bean sprout soup, kimchi, pickled radish, salad, dried seaweed flakes, and more, along with spoons and small plates for kids. For families dining with children, this kind of setup was really convenient.

While looking around the self-serve bar, I noticed instructions posted on how to eat jjaglak-ji. Having a separate guide for how to eat it, on top of the menu board, made it clear that jjaglak-ji is Deungdae Gotgan's signature dish. I ordered the octopus hangover soup this time, but if I get the chance to visit again, I'd like to try the jjaglak-ji too.

The side dishes were also served neatly. A variety of banchan came out, and it was convenient that you could grab extra portions from the self-serve bar whenever you needed more.

How was the nakji haejangguk (octopus hangover soup)?

The nakji haejangguk I'd ordered came out first. Looking inside the stone pot, there were generous chunks of radish, bean sprouts, octopus, and more.

There was more octopus in it than I expected. The octopus was plump and had good texture, and eating it with the warm broth in the morning seemed to ease some of the fatigue built up from traveling. Octopus contains protein and taurine, and it's long been known as a food people turn to when they're feeling run down. So choosing nakji haejangguk for a travel breakfast seemed like a genuinely good idea.

The broth had not just radish and bean sprouts but also mushrooms, green onion, minari (water celery), and other vegetables. That gave it a clean, refreshing taste — good as a hangover soup, as the name suggests, but also good as a warm bowl for breakfast. If you're feeling weighed down from the previous day's food on a Sokcho trip, or just craving something hot in the morning, nakji haejangguk is worth choosing.

Pork cutlet, the pick for kids

Next up, the pork cutlet. It came out fried crisp with a thick cut of meat. The outside was crunchy and the meat inside was thick, so the cutlet alone would be pretty filling. It seemed like a good order especially if you're traveling with kids who aren't into octopus hangover soup.

The cutlet itself was fairly large, and the meat was thick enough to make a full meal on its own. On a Sokcho trip you end up eating a lot of seafood and raw fish, so being able to order something familiar like pork cutlet when you don't feel like seafood every meal felt like a real plus for families.

Is Deungdae Gotgan worth a Sokcho breakfast stop?

Overall, Deungdae Gotgan keeps its menu simple, centered on hearty dishes like nakji haejangguk, jjaglak-ji, jeyuk bokkeum, and pork cutlet, making it a solid spot for breakfast or lunch. What stuck with me most was being able to eat while looking out at the sea, right near Deungdae Beach in Sokcho. If you're looking for a restaurant in Yeongnang-dong that's open from early morning, or a place that works well with kids, Deungdae Gotgan is worth considering.