Sokcho Beach makguksu restaurant with a photo booth: Topgol Makguksu

Sokcho's makguksu hotspot — Topgol Makguksu Main Branch

There's a makguksu spot near Sokcho Beach I had to check out. Topgol Makguksu Main Branch also serves suyuk (boiled pork), so it's great for families with kids too. It's right in front of Sokcho Beach, so it's perfect to stop by before or after a day of playing there.

Sokcho Topgol Makguksu Main Branch: hours and parking

Open daily 9:30–21:00, and until 22:00 on weekends. Groups, reservations, and takeout are all available.

It's a 5-minute walk from Sokcho Beach — such a great spot to grab noodles and then go for a stroll!

Parking for Sokcho Topgol Makguksu Main Branch is at the public lot right next to the restaurant. After finishing your meal, they support 2 hours of parking.

What a late lunch looks like inside, plus the self-serve side dish bar

I visited during a late lunch and it was still packed — lots of families with kids. There's a separate self-serve bar, so if you want more banchan (side dishes), you can just help yourself as much as you like, no need to feel shy about it!

You can reserve through Naver, so booking ahead might help you skip the wait. It looks like there's usually a line during lunch peak hours.

Buckwheat noodles sold by the bundle and the signature deulmemak

They also sell buckwheat noodles to take home. If I knew how to make the sauce, I definitely would've bought some on the way out — they're genuinely soft and delicious. Grandparents would especially love this taste! I heard buckwheat is good for people with weaker digestion too.

There's a wide range of menu items, but the signature dish seems to be deulmemak (perilla oil buckwheat noodles)! Since I'd come to the holy land of deulmemak in Sokcho, obviously that went straight in the cart.

They're running an event too, so it might be worth joining in!

Deulmemak 13,000 won Makguksu 10,000 won Suyuk (1 portion) 17,000 won Jumbo mandu 10,000 won

Once we finished ordering, they brought out the basic side dishes — mu-saengchae (radish salad) and yeolmu kimchi, both of which pair great with makguksu. Salted shrimp and ssamjang come with the suyuk order!

Deulmemak has this nutty perilla oil smell, and the mixed makguksu has that mouth-watering, appetizing scent.

Suyuk at 17,000 won: enough pork for two

What caught my eye the most was the portion size of the suyuk. I didn't expect much since it's listed as a single portion, but it was genuinely huge. The meat was so tender I thought right away that even kids could eat it — made me think of my nieces and nephews.

Topping it with a piece of garlic and pepper each bite makes it so good, and since garlic and pepper are refillable, you can eat worry-free. Mixing it with the deulmemak is genuinely delicious. Because it's good buckwheat, the noodles are soft and I felt like it would digest easily too.

Pouring dongchimi broth into the makguksu

The makguksu looked like it had an unusually generous portion! They also loaded it up with plenty of gim (seaweed) flakes.

While mixing it, they told us adding dongchimi (radish water kimchi) broth gives it a different flavor entirely, so I thought about trying it midway — it started feeling a bit thick while mixing, so I poured in a little.

It was so refreshing and clean-tasting, and it added a real depth of flavor — I really enjoyed it. And on top of that, we also ordered the buckwheat jumbo mandu (dumplings).

Buckwheat jumbo mandu and the photo booth inside the restaurant

It was my first time trying buckwheat jumbo mandu, and it was genuinely delicious and soft. The pickled onions especially were fantastic! Highly recommend Topgol Makguksu as the go-to spot near Sokcho Beach.

It's a great makguksu spot in Sokcho, but it's also a great spot for making memories. There's a photo booth inside the restaurant. Sokcho Beach gets so crowded that it's hard to take photos there sometimes... so eating with family and then taking keepsake photos here is a nice touch. My husband and I took a shot together after finishing our meal. It'd been a while since I took photos like that — it was fun!

If you're looking for a great makguksu spot near Sokcho Beach, be sure to visit Topgol Makguksu Main Branch. For reference, there were just the two of us, and we finished every single dish we ordered, completely. That's how good it was — guaranteed.