Marinated crabs are one thing that I always make sure to get while visiting South Korea.
I was looking for a place to get some fresh crabs in Yeosu, which led me to Crab 1st Avenue Kkotdol!
This restaurant is run by a larger food company, Hanil Foods (한일식품), which makes and delivers marinated crabs and gat kimchi, a popular type of kimchi from Dolsan island made with mustard leaves, nation-wide.
On your way in and out you can browse their store, where you can buy packaged gat kimchi and their other products.
They do not have outdoor seating, but they have plenty of seating indoors. Luckily we did not have to wait, but typically you can expect a wait time with this popular restaurant.
We chose the blue crab dinner (돌게정식) which costs 30,000 Korean won (~$26 USD) per person. Along with two types of marinated blue crab, soy sauce based sauce (간장게장) and spicy red pepper based sauce (양념게장), this dinner came with plenty of side dishes ranging from small fried crabs, stir fried marinated pork, gat kimchi, marinated herbs, crab stew, and rice.
Pictured below is the blue crab dinner for four people.
It was nice that you could also try fresh gat kimchi at this restaurant, and the crab stew was refreshingly tasty!
They also had a side dish bar, which had smaller marinated crabs (돌게장; not as tasty as the bigger ones but still pretty good for it being unlimited), marinated veggies, kimchi, salad, and even fish cake skewers! The variety of dishes at the bar were impressive, especially since it is unlimited, and I especially enjoyed the fish cake skewers dipped in soy sauce.
The side dishes are good, but let’s get to the highlight: which are definitely the marinated blue crabs! The crabs were very fresh and filled with meat and eggs. The crab meat can be on the saltier side because of the sauce, so it was best enjoyed with lots of rice. The soy sauce based sauce had a creamier taste (due to the crab eggs) and brought out the freshness of the crab. Make sure to mix some rice into the crab shell for extra flavor!
The spicy marinated crab had a kick and some slight sweetness. As a spicy food lover, I enjoyed this very much and the sauce was definitely addicting.
There was plenty of food with the side dishes and even for the freshness of the crabs alone it was well worth the price. I definitely recommend this location if you are looking to enjoy lots of marinated crabs and other side dishes. They deliver their products nation-wide, so you could even look into their delivery service!
Address: 210-2 Bongsan-dong, Yeosu-si, Jeollanam-do, South Korea
