Han Greu's Buan Food Trail —
Three Local Tables Worth the Drive
Originally aired June 1, 2025 | Buan County, North Jeolla Province, South Korea
Rice Table
Pi-Sundae
Clam Feast
Why These Three Places Matter
Here's the honest problem with watching Korean food travel shows: by the time you've noted the restaurant name, grabbed your keys, and Googled the address, half the information you find is either out of date or scattered across a dozen blogs. This guide exists to fix exactly that.
Episode 298 of Heo Yeong-man's Baekban Giyaeng (literally "Rice Table Journey") featured actress Han Greu as the guest foodie, and she explored three restaurants in Buan County — a coastal area along the Byeonsan Peninsula known for tidal flats, salted seafood, and some of the most overlooked local cooking in the country. What followed on screen was a genuine peek into food culture that most tourists never find: fermented fish paste served alongside young cutlass fish, pork blood sausage that tastes nothing like what you've had before, and fresh hard-shell clams pulled from the nearby sea that same morning.
Buan is about two and a half hours from Seoul. You want to make that trip count. Below is everything you need — locations, phone numbers, hours, reservation rules — organized so nothing falls through the cracks.
Three restaurants, all in Buan County. Gomso Lighthouse Rice Table requires a phone reservation at least one day in advance. Halmeoni Pi-Sundae is walk-in friendly but closes on the fourth Tuesday of every month. Gyeokpo Harbor Clam Feast has irregular closures — always call before you drive. Weekend visits to all three are significantly harder.
Side-by-Side: All Three Stops
| Restaurant | Signature Dish | Hours | Reservation | Closed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gomso Lighthouse Rice Table | Pul-chi Baekban · Fermented Fish Paste Set | 08:00 – 18:00 | 1 day ahead, required | — |
| Halmeoni Pi-Sundae | Blood Sausage · Pork Intestine Soup | 07:00 – 20:00 | Walk-in OK | 4th Tuesday monthly |
| Gyeokpo Harbor Clam Feast | Hard-Shell Clam Set · Clam Porridge | 08:30 – 20:30 | Weekdays preferred | Irregular |
Stop 1 — Gomso Lighthouse Rice Table
Gomso Lighthouse Rice Table
(Gomso Deungdaegil Bapssang)
Parked right next to Gomso Harbor's famous jeotgal (fermented seafood) market district, this restaurant is the kind of place you'd only find if someone who grew up in Buan took you there. The centerpiece is pul-chi baekban — a rice table built around young cutlass fish, a silvery species hauled out of these exact tidal waters. Surrounding it: row after row of fermented condiments made from bandeng sardines, ark clams, and hairtail innards. The umami depth is unlike anything you'd encounter at a standard Korean restaurant. After the episode aired, reservation slots filled up quickly — calling ahead is no longer optional.
| Address | 22-13 Gomso-hang-gil, Jinseo-myeon, Buan-gun, North Jeolla Province (Apt. 159) |
| Phone | 063-581-1239 |
| Hours | 08:00 – 18:00 (last order at 18:00) |
| Reservation | Required — call at minimum one full day ahead |
| Groups 20+ | 20% deposit of the total bill required upfront |
| Parking | Street out front or in the Gomso Jeotgal retail market lot |
Stop 2 — Halmeoni Pi-Sundae
Halmeoni Pi-Sundae
(Halmeoni Pi-Sundae)
If you think you've had Korean blood sausage before, Buan-style pi-sundae will recalibrate your expectations. Standard sundae uses glass noodles as a filler; the Buan version replaces them almost entirely with fresh pork blood, braised vegetables, and offal — the texture is denser, the flavor deeper, and the whole thing is more complex than it sounds. Even Han Greu, who's clearly eaten around Korea, visibly paused mid-bite. This place, in Buan's Haeng-an-myeon district, has been serving it for decades and previously appeared on the broadcast show Live Today back in 2021.
| Address | 2524 Buan-ro, Haengan-myeon, Buan-gun, North Jeolla Province |
| Phone | 063-584-4371 |
| Hours | 07:00 – 20:00 |
| Last Order | Lunch: 14:30 / Dinner: 19:30 |
| Break Time | 15:00 – 17:00 (no entry) |
| Takeout | Available 14:30 – 15:00 only |
| Closed | 4th Tuesday of every month |
Stop 3 — Gyeokpo Harbor Clam Feast
Gyeokpo Harbor Clam Feast
(Gyeokpo-hanggil Baekham Jeongshik)
A short walk from the famous Chaeseokgang sea-cliff formations and Gyeokpo fishing harbor, this small restaurant serves what might be the most honest seafood meal in Buan: a full baekham clam set, built around hard-shell clams the size of your fist, sourced directly from the harbor that morning. Alongside the main set comes a slow-simmered clam porridge, seasonal banchan, and whatever the sea gave up that week. It tastes like the West Sea in bowl form. The room seats a modest number of people, which means weekends are genuinely difficult — come on a Tuesday or Wednesday and call first regardless.
| Address | 16 Gyeokpo-hang-gil, Byeonsan-myeon, Buan-gun, North Jeolla Province |
| Phone | 063-583-3234 |
| Hours | 08:30 – 20:30 (last order 19:30) |
| Break Time | 15:00 – 16:30 |
| Closed | Irregular — always confirm by phone before visiting |
| Weekends | Reservations rarely available; weekday visits strongly preferred |
Planning One Day Across All Three
On paper, all three restaurants are within Buan County. In practice, the drives between them take 20–35 minutes each, so the sequencing matters. Run them in geographical order and you'll avoid backtracking:
Recommended One-Day Sequence
Gomso Lighthouse Rice Table
Halmeoni Pi-Sundae
Gyeokpo Clam Feast
The key is getting to Gomso by 09:00–10:00 (with a reservation confirmed the day before), wrapping up there by 12:00–12:30, arriving at Halmeoni Pi-Sundae before the 14:30 lunch cutoff, and then heading to Gyeokpo for an early evening meal. Mind the 15:00–16:30 break at Gyeokpo and you'll hit all three without a single door closed in your face.
Questions People Actually Ask
The Short Version Before You Go
These three Buan restaurants aren't just good places to eat — they're windows into a regional food culture that doesn't get nearly enough attention. Gomso's salted seafood tradition, Buan's singular pi-sundae craft, and Gyeokpo's tidal-fresh clam cooking each represent something that took decades to develop in this specific geography. Episode 298 was a reminder that the most interesting Korean food often doesn't show up in Seoul dining guides.
- Gomso Lighthouse Rice Table — book by phone, one day minimum before your visit
- Halmeoni Pi-Sundae — skip the 15:00–17:00 window; confirm it isn't the fourth Tuesday
- Gyeokpo Harbor Clam Feast — call the evening before; irregular closures are real
Buan also has Naesosa Temple, the Chaeseokgang sea cliffs, and the Byeonsan Peninsula National Park all within easy range. Build this into a proper overnight trip and you'll leave with a much fuller picture of what the Korean west coast actually feels like.
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