On Korea’s east coast, about two hours from Seoul, there’s a seaside city called Gangneung (강릉) — all pine-lined beaches, a mirror-flat lagoon, and cafés stacked along the water. Tucked just behind Gyeongpo Beach is a small neighborhood named Chodang-dong (초당동), and it’s famous for one unlikely thing: tofu. Not the bland stuff, but silky, warm Chodang sundubu (초당순두부), soft tofu set with real seawater from the sea a few minutes’ walk away.
⭐ Gangneung at a glance
| 🏛️ Sights & things to do | ★★★★☆ |
| 🍜 Food | ★★★★★ |
| 🚄 Easy to reach | ★★★★☆ |
A personal take based on our own experience — the variety of things to see, the taste, and the travel time involved. Yours may well differ.
The short version: Chodang sundubu is soft, freshly curdled tofu that gets its gentle, faintly briny flavor from being set with clean seawater instead of the usual bittern. A whole village of tofu restaurants grew up around it in Gangneung. Here’s what makes it different, the scholar behind the story, and where to eat it.
First — what exactly is sundubu?
Sundubu (순두부) means “soft” or “uncurdled” tofu — the loose, custardy stage before the curds are pressed into a firm block. Scoop it and it barely holds together, more like warm silken clouds than the tofu you slice for a stir-fry. Eaten plain, it’s about as gentle as food gets. That’s the base. What sets Chodang sundubu apart is the way it’s made.
Why seawater is the whole trick
To turn soy milk into tofu, you need a coagulant — something that makes the proteins clump into curds. Most tofu uses gansu (간수), refined bittern. Chodang does it the old way: with clean seawater drawn straight from the East Sea. That single swap is the whole point. The sea salt sets the curds more softly and leaves a faint, savory brininess and a nutty sweetness you just don’t get otherwise. Locals will tell you the tofu tastes like the sea it came from. After a bowl or two, I understood what they meant.
Plain, or fired up? Two ways to order
You’ll mainly see two styles. The classic is chodang sundubu baekban — a bowl of the warm plain tofu with a bowl of rice, a light soy-scallion sauce for dipping, and a spread of Gangwon side dishes. Quiet, clean, comforting. Then there’s the local twist that took over the internet: jjamppong sundubu (짬뽕순두부), soft tofu swimming in a spicy seafood broth borrowed from Korean-Chinese noodle soup. One is a hug, the other’s a wake-up call. My advice? If you’re with someone, order one of each and share.
The story behind the bowl
Most street foods have murky origins. Chodang tofu, by contrast, comes with a name attached — and it belongs to one of the more remarkable families in Korean literary history.
A scholar named Chodang
As the story is told in Gangneung, the tofu traces back to Heo Yeop (허엽, 1517–1580), a Joseon-era official whose pen name was Chodang (초당), meaning “thatched cottage.” Serving in the area, he is said to have made tofu using the sweet spring water near his home and seawater from the coast to set it. The result was so good it took his pen name, Chodang tofu, and the very spot where that spring stood is the neighborhood still called Chodang-dong today.
Here’s the detail I love: Heo Yeop was the father of two of Korea’s most famous writers. His daughter was Heo Nanseolheon (허난설헌), the brilliant, tragically short-lived poet, and his son was Heo Gyun (허균), author of Hong Gildong, often called Korea’s first novel in the vernacular. Nanseolheon’s memorial park sits right there in Chodang-dong, so you can visit the poet’s home and eat the family’s tofu on the same afternoon.
How one dish became a whole village
Whether or not every line of the legend is literal, the tradition stuck. Over generations, Chodang-dong households kept grinding soybeans and setting the curds with seawater, and after the Korean War the little cottage industry grew into something bigger. Today the lanes of Chodang-dong hold close to twenty tofu restaurants, many run by second- and third-generation families who still use domestic soybeans and real seawater. Koreans call the area the Chodang Tofu Village (초당두부마을), and it’s a genuine food-pilgrimage stop.
🗓️ Plan your visit
When: Gangneung is a year-round coast town, but summer is peak beach season, and the shoulder months of late spring and early autumn are calmer and mild. Tofu is a warm, all-seasons comfort, so honestly you can’t go wrong — just expect weekend crowds and waits at the best-known shops.
Getting there: From Incheon Airport, plan on roughly 3–4 hours via Seoul — take the airport railroad into the city, then a KTX high-speed train to Gangneung (about two hours). From Gangneung Station, Chodang-dong is a short taxi or bus ride toward Gyeongpo Beach.
Costs: A tofu meal runs roughly ₩11,000–15,000 a person, which makes this one of the better-value regional specialties. For the trip itself, midsummer and any long weekend are the priciest and busiest times for east-coast rooms — book ahead, or come off-peak for calmer beaches and softer rates.
Where to eat it
Two very different bowls, both in the Chodang Tofu Village:
Chodang Halmeoni Sundubu (초당할머니순두부) — the traditional one
If you want the plain, old-fashioned bowl, this is the address. “Halmeoni” means grandmother, and the name fits — it’s one of the village’s long-running shops, into its second generation, still making the soft tofu by hand the traditional way. Order the sundubu baekban and let the tofu speak for itself.
- 📍 Address: 77 Chodang-sundubu-gil, Gangneung, Gangwon (강원 강릉시 초당순두부길 77)
- 🕒 Hours: 08:00–19:00 (Tuesdays 08:00–15:00)
- 🍲 Sundubu baekban: around ₩11,000 · whole-block tofu (modu-bu) around ₩15,000 · parking available
Donghwa Garden (동화가든) — the spicy original
This is the shop credited with inventing jjamppong sundubu, the spicy-seafood version that turned Chodang into a national craze. Expect a line, since it’s been a Blue Ribbon Survey pick for years, but the queue moves, and the deep, fiery broth over that soft village tofu is worth the wait.
- 📍 Address: 15 Chodang-sundubu-gil 77beon-gil, Gangneung, Gangwon (강원 강릉시 초당순두부길77번길 15)
- 🕒 Hours: 07:00–19:30 (break 16:00–17:00), closed Wednesdays
- 🍲 Jjamppong sundubu: around ₩15,000 (spicy seafood soft-tofu stew) · made with 100% domestic soybeans
One honest caveat: prices and hours are accurate as of July 2026, but small family restaurants change both more often than you’d think, and popular ones sometimes close early when they sell out. A quick check before you go never hurts.
🔗 More Korean food to explore: still in the Gangwon mountains, try gondeure namul bap in Jeongseon. Or head elsewhere for Jeonju’s famous bibimbap and a warming bowl of Seoul’s ox-bone soup, seolleongtang.
A few quick questions
Does Chodang sundubu taste salty?
Not really — just faintly savory. The seawater sets the curds, but it isn’t seasoning the tofu like a brine. You get a gentle, clean, slightly nutty flavor, and you add saltiness yourself with the soy-scallion dipping sauce.
Is sundubu vegetarian?
The plain tofu is plant-based, so sundubu baekban is usually a good vegetarian bet — though it’s worth checking the side dishes. The spicy jjamppong sundubu, however, is made with a seafood broth, so it isn’t.
Is this the same as sundubu-jjigae?
Related, but not identical. Sundubu-jjigae is the bubbling red soft-tofu stew you’ll find all over Korea. Chodang’s specialty is the tofu itself — often served plain to show off its texture — though the local jjamppong sundubu is its own spicy, souped-up cousin.