Group Dining in Sokcho — A 150-Seat Hall, Parking for 10 Coaches, 20 Minutes from Seoraksan

Every autumn the same phone call starts coming in.

“We’re doing Seoraksan in the morning. Can you feed forty of us afterwards?”

Yes. We end up explaining the same things each time, so here they are in writing.

How large a group can you seat?

The third-floor hall seats 150 people at once. It is built wide enough to hold events, and a single group often takes the whole floor. The tables stay as they are. There is no minimum either, so a party of ten is fine.

Twice a year we host around 300 elderly residents of Abai Village for a meal in this building. The photograph above is the third-floor hall on one of those days.

Where do the coaches park?

Around ten full-size coaches can park. We have our own car park, and the Sokcho Beach public car park is immediately next door. Between the two there is room even when several coaches arrive together.

Set your navigation to “속초해변” (Sokcho Beach). Our building is right beside the public car park.

How to book

One phone call. +82-33-635-4488.

Call as soon as the date is set. Knowing your headcount and arrival time lets us cut that much more fish and hold the room. On a busy autumn weekend the limit is not seating but how much we have prepared, so a week’s notice is far better than a day’s.

Choosing the food

There is no separate group course. You order from the regular menu.

One piece of advice for large parties: narrow it to two or three dishes. If forty people all order differently, the kitchen falls out of sequence and the first bowls are empty before the last ones arrive. Keep the choice to mulhoe and bibimbap, say, and each table goes out together.

One thing worth knowing in advance. Dishes containing squid are priced at the market rate of the day. Squid supply and price swing with the catch and the closed season. Groups usually need a total in advance, so ask about that day’s rate when you call.

If you are coming off Seoraksan

Most of our groups are hiking clubs, then company outings and hobby clubs. They cluster in autumn.

Two things worth knowing when you plan the day.

Seorakdong to our door is about 20 minutes by car, straight across town towards the beach. If your group includes people who would rather not climb, the cable car up to Gwongeumseong takes about two and a half hours return and needs no hiking.

Check the last-order time before you set off. A large party takes a while between ordering and eating, so arriving near closing means rushing. It differs by day and shifts with the season, so check the current table on Find us. Tell us your arrival time when you call and we will have everything ready for it.

We open at nine in the morning, so groups that start early and come off the mountain around eleven often eat an early lunch. That is the quietest hour of the day.

Why cold mulhoe after a mountain

You come down carrying heat. Hot soup does not go down easily in that state.

Mulhoe does. The broth arrives with ice crystals still in it, the sourness brings your appetite back, and the thick earthenware pot keeps the last spoonful as cold as the first. We have written separately about why we use the pots.

Mulhoe is on the spicy side. There are non-spicy dishes on the menu as well, so a group with older members can choose from those. Abalone porridge, sea urchin and seaweed soup, and stuffed squid are not spicy.

Somewhere to stop after the meal

The top floor has the Sky Stairs viewing deck. Sokcho Beach and the Sokcho Eye ferris wheel sit in one frame from up there, which makes it an easy group photo. Anyone who has eaten with us can go up.

The beach is directly behind the building. You can walk down to the water and back while the coach is waiting.

Call first

Preparing the room and the fish comes down to one thing: knowing in advance.

+82-33-635-4488 · Find us and park · See the menu