Eight Century Shop Restaurants in Korea, Region by Region

Eight restaurants the Ministry of SMEs and Startups has designated as Century Shops, running from Gangneung down to Suncheon. Each entry gives the dish to order, the city it stands in, what the designation credits the house with, and what a serving costs.

Published Sep 4, 2026Updated Oct 24, 20266 min read

This guide gathers eight restaurants designated as Century Shops, ordered from Gangneung in the northeast down to Suncheon in the far south. For each one it gives the dish to order, the city it stands in, what the designation credits the house with, and what a serving costs.

A Century Shop is a designation the Ministry of SMEs and Startups gives to long-running small businesses. Each designated shop appears on a regional list with a one-line note on what it was credited for, and the 2026 edition of the list the ministry and SEMAS publish on Korea's public data portal runs to 1,511 shops.

What each house is known for

That one line points at something different in every case. Some houses are credited for an ingredient, some for the family that has kept the place, one for a movement of the hands repeated every day.

Chodang Halmeoni Sundubu — Chodang-dong, Gangneung. Credited for setting its curd daily with Korean beans and seawater brine from the East Sea. The curd comes as a set meal, so one person can sit down to a full lunch.
Silla Galbi — Woncheon-dong, Suwon. Credited for having served the same salt-seasoned fresh ribs since it opened. The ribs go on the table to share, which makes it a group meal.
Kkachigumeongjip — by the Woryeonggyo bridge, Andong. Credited for dividing the heot-jesabap table two ways, a yangban table with croaker and a seonghyeon table with salted mackerel. Heot-jesabap is the food of an ancestral rite laid out and eaten without the rite, which makes it the natural meal after a day on Andong's Confucian heritage.
Sambaekjip — beside the Jeonju Gaeksa. Credited for its people: the present owner and their son run it together. One bowl per person, ordered at the table.
Dalbit Tteurak — Bongsan-myeon, Damyang. Credited for developing a young-chicken soup and a chicken broth with bamboo shoots. It is the one house on this list credited for inventing a dish rather than keeping one.
Jeonnam Sikdang — Songjeong-dong, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju. Credited with the descent of its usam-tang, a court preparation once served as jokpyeon and later turned into a soup. It is inside Gwangju, reachable without leaving the city.
Geomok Sundae Gukbap — Pungdeok-dong, Suncheon. Credited for putting bean sprouts in the soup and serving the rice apart from 1996, the first in Suncheon to do it. A meal that finishes in one bowl.
Suncheon Bokjip — Yeonhyang-dong, Suncheon. Credited for thirty years of the owner dressing the fish by hand each day. It serves the clear soup, bok-jiri.

Budget 9,000 to 70,000 won for a meal

Sambaekjip, kongnamul-gukbap 9,000 won — the moju served alongside is 3,000 a glass.
Geomok Sundae Gukbap 11,000 won — 10,000 without the sausage.
Chodang Halmeoni Sundubu 14,000 · Kkachigumeongjip 15,000 · Dalbit Tteurak 18,000
Jeonnam Sikdang, usam-tang 27,000 won
Silla Galbi, wang saeng-galbi 70,000 won

The eightfold gap is a unit, not a grade. Nine thousand won buys one bowl for one person; seventy thousand buys meat for a table. Silla Galbi's own set meal is 39,000, and Kkachigumeongjip's two tables are 25,000 and 50,000.

Suncheon Bokjip has no single price. The fish decides: milbok 18,000, chambok 25,000, live fish 40,000.

Check before you travel, and what to do if it is shut

None of the eight publishes opening hours or closing days. Phone the restaurant, or check its current map listing, before you set out for it.

If you arrive to find the door shut, Suncheon is the only city where another house on this list is close at hand: Geomok Sundae Gukbap and Suncheon Bokjip are in the same city. Elsewhere, look for another restaurant in the Jeonju, Gwangju or Gangwon guides listed under "More eating guides for these cities" below.

Which house suits whom

The list is not a ranking of flavour; what gathers these eight is the Century Shop designation from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. Narrow it by the city you are going to first, then choose by how many of you are eating and what else the day holds.

Eating alone, or wanting a quick meal: Sambaekjip's bean-sprout soup, Geomok Sundae Gukbap's bowl and Chodang Halmeoni Sundubu's set meal each come as one serving for one person.
A group sharing a table: Silla Galbi's wang saeng-galbi and Kkachigumeongjip's yangban and seonghyeon tables are laid out to share.
Tying the meal to the city's sights: Kkachigumeongjip's heot-jesabap follows a day on Andong's Confucian heritage, and Dalbit Tteurak's young-chicken soup with bamboo shoots fits a Damyang day around Juknokwon and the bamboo groves.
Setting a budget first: the range runs from a 9,000-won bowl at Sambaekjip to Silla Galbi's 70,000-won ribs for a table, so read the price list above together with the unit each price covers.

Choosing by city

The eight sit in seven cities: one each in Gangneung, Suwon, Andong, Jeonju, Damyang and Gwangju, and two in Suncheon.

The Suncheon pair is the only one that joins up in a day. Geomok Sundae Gukbap and Suncheon Bokjip are in the same city and both within 2km of Suncheonman National Garden, close enough to split between lunch and dinner on a day at the garden. The other six each belong to a different trip, so this reads less as a route than as a line to pull out when you find yourself in one of these cities.

In Jeonju, Sambaekjip is 1.1km from the Hanok Village. In Suwon, Silla Galbi is 3.3km from Hwaseong. In Gangneung, Chodang Halmeoni Sundubu is 3.5km from the coffee street. Jeonnam Sikdang is 3.9km from the Kim Daejung Convention Center and Dalbit Tteurak 7.8km from Juknokwon, both comfortably inside a day in those cities. Only Andong's Kkachigumeongjip stands apart, 21.9km from Hahoe Folk Village, which needs its own leg of the journey.

For the rest of Gangwon, see Gangwon food guide.

What else is in that city

More eating guides for these cities

If one of these cities is already on your route, these guides cover what else is worth a meal there.

Jeonju — Five Jeonju houses and four kilometres
Gwangju — Gwangju food guide, and if you arrive by air, Gwangju Airport into the city
Gangwon — Gangwon food guide
Seoul — Five Seoul houses that grill and Seoul's eight bowls
Incheon — Incheon food guide

Frequently asked questions

What is a Century Shop?

It is a designation the Ministry of SMEs and Startups gives to long-running small businesses. Designated shops appear on the ministry's regional lists, and each entry carries a one-line note on what the shop was credited for. It records how a business has kept going, not a verdict on how good the food is.

Can I visit all eight on one trip?

Not comfortably. They are spread across seven cities — Gangneung, Suwon, Andong, Jeonju, Damyang, Gwangju and Suncheon — and the only pair that fits into a single day is the two in Suncheon. Treat the list as one choice per city, added to a trip you were already making.

What time do they open?

None of the eight publishes opening hours or closing days. Phone the restaurant, or check its current listing on a map app, before you set out.

How much should I budget?

The rice-and-soup bowls run from 9,000 to 14,000 won. The soups and the pufferfish go from 18,000 to 40,000, and Silla Galbi's 70,000-won ribs and Kkachigumeongjip's 50,000-won table are laid out for a group rather than priced per person.

Which of them suit a solo traveller?

Sambaekjip's bean-sprout soup, Geomok Sundae Gukbap's bowl and Chodang Halmeoni Sundubu's set meal are each served to one person. Silla Galbi's ribs and Kkachigumeongjip's two ritual tables are meant to be shared, so they work better with company.