Sokcho sundubu restaurant with 9 side dishes and tofu cookies: Jinsol

Whenever I travel to Gangwon-do, I always make sure to eat sundubu (soft tofu stew) at least once. On this Sokcho trip, I had Chodang sundubu and haemul jjamppong sundubu (spicy seafood soft tofu stew) as a late breakfast/lunch, and it was way better than I expected, so let me introduce it. The place is called Jinsol Halmeoni Sundubu, and since they make the tofu themselves with 100% domestic soybeans, it was so clean-tasting and nutty. Here's my review after eating well at Jinsol Halmeoni Sundubu — highly recommend if you're looking for a good sundubu spot in Sokcho!

Where is Jinsol Halmeoni Sundubu in Sokcho, and is there parking?

Jinsol Halmeoni Sundubu is located at 118 Wonam Haksapyeong-gil, Sokcho-si, Gangwon-do, South Korea, in the Haksapyeong tofu village (also known as the Haksapyeong Kongkkot Village sundubu street). It's open Wednesday to Sunday, 07:30–20:00, and parking is available right in front of the restaurant.

There's plenty of parking space in front, so it was easy and convenient to park :)

Inside Jinsol Halmeoni Sundubu: seating and tofu to take home

The inside of Jinsol Halmeoni Sundubu had such a cozy, homey vibe, and it was really, really spacious and clean. There were tons of seats, so it looks like it could easily handle family gatherings or bigger groups!

Jinsol Halmeoni Sundubu also lets you take any menu item to go, and they sell whole blocks of handmade tofu too. If our schedule that day had been to just eat and head straight home, I would've wanted to buy a block of tofu myself, but we still had a lot of the trip left, so that was a bit of a bummer.. 😔

The menu and the nine side dishes

There's a big menu board on one wall of the restaurant, and the menu was also stuck onto the utensil holders on each table, which made it really convenient to check. The menu had single sundubu dishes, hot pots, and set meals where you could try a bit of everything, like grilled hwangtae (dried pollack) and mo-dubu (firm tofu block). Since this was our first meal of the day, we skipped the set meals and ordered Chodang sundubu and eolkeun haemul sundubu (spicy seafood soft tofu stew).

After we ordered, they set up the side dishes for us. Stir-fried seaweed stems, kimchi, braised potatoes, stir-fried anchovies, cucumber salad, salad, salted squid, japchae (stir-fried glass noodles), and buckwheat pancake — nine side dishes in total. They all looked so appetizing.. My boyfriend, who's obsessed with japchae, was thrilled to see it on the table haha. Everything was delicious, but the stir-fried seaweed stems and stir-fried anchovies were sooo good I had two plates of each. How do they make side dishes taste this good?!

How do the Chodang sundubu and seafood jjamppong sundubu taste?

⛤ Here comes the food ⛤

• Chodang sundubu ₩12,000
• Haemul jjamppong sundubu ₩17,000

Whew, going all out with a full spread for our very first meal. This is what makes traveling great.. 🙂↔️

Chodang sundubu, 12,000 won

Chodang sundubu served in a hot stone bowl! It has soft, silky texture and is completely nutty and clean-tasting, perfect for a first meal of the day. The broth is especially savory~~~ It's amazing when you drizzle a bit of the soy sauce that comes with it on top. This kind of sundubu is hard to find in Seoul.. If you come to Sokcho, you absolutely have to eat sundubu at least once.

Seafood jjamppong sundubu, 17,000 won

A spicy sundubu loaded with abalone, shrimp, squid, and scallops. It wasn't nearly as spicy as I expected, which was great. It had just the right kick of heat for us! There was a good variety of seafood inside — the squid was plump and there was even snow crab in there. The haemul jjamppong sundubu was total rice-thief material, and since it's seafood-based, the broth was so refreshing! Even though we were getting full, we kept eating more~ This was the dish my boyfriend cleaned up completely.

Old-style cookies and tofu cookies sold at the register

Near the register, they also sell old-fashioned snacks like this. There were snacks made with tofu too, which would make a nice thing to buy as a souvenir of eating sundubu.

There's also a coffee machine set up on the way out. They're currently running an event where you get free acorn jelly or a drink if you leave a photo review on Naver, so keep that in mind if you visit! If you're looking for a hearty yet clean-tasting sundubu spot in Sokcho, I highly recommend Jinsol Halmeoni Sundubu :) It's such a light menu that it's perfect for a first meal or breakfast.