Chunseonne, Sokcho: A Bowl of Gomchi-guk, Soft Snailfish in a Red Broth

Chunseonne (춘선네) is a restaurant in Sokcho, a port on Gangwon's east coast, that serves one of the town's local bowls: gomchi-guk (곰치국), also called mulgomtang (물곰탕), a soup of a soft deep-sea snailfish. A Korea Tourism Organization travel article says the fish, known as mulgom or gomchi, is far from pretty outside but white and floppy inside, and that people order the soup to ease a hangover. A January 2020 Twig24 report adds that the Joseon-era fish book Jasaneobo (자산어보) already called it bland but good for a hangover. Elle Korea's July 2021 food column named Chunseonne's gomchi-guk the one bowl to eat if you only get one in Sokcho.

A house with a courtyard

In my November 2019 photos, the way in is a white wall with 식당정문 (restaurant main gate) painted in red above an arrow, and a small sign in the courtyard reads 식당 가는길 (the way to the restaurant). Elle Korea describes a modest family house turned restaurant.

What is in the bowl

The bowl in the cover photo is red-orange, with a large piece of translucent white flesh in the middle, onion, long-cut scallions and yellow crumbs. Small side dishes sit behind it, and several reviewers on Polle, a Korean restaurant-review site, praise them. The tourism article says the flesh is simmered with radish, onion, scallion and garlic, and that restaurants serve it clear, spicy or with sour kimchi. A Polle reviewer notes that Sokcho's version skips the kimchi used in Samcheok and that this restaurant's soup is heavy on innards and roe. Elle suggests adding chili powder and Cheongyang chili halfway through, and the small bowls of red powder and chopped greens blurred behind the spoon in the second close-up below look made for that.

On the spoon

Two close-ups show what the spoon brings up: a ruffled, translucent piece of flesh over a thicker grey one, and a clump of pale orange granules that looks like roe. The tourism article says gomchi carrying pale orange roe are popular.

Price and payment

Elle Korea quoted ₩30,000 per serving in July 2021. Polle's menu list, checked on November 14, 2026, shows mulgomtang at ₩40,000. Polle lists payment as cash, and reviewers say to pay up front. Reviews from March 2024 and April 2025 say cash only, but one from about two months before my check says staff offered cash or card and called cash cheaper. Several reviewers call the portion very large.

How to order