We were so lucky to have booked a hotel (Ibis Ambassador Myeongdong Hotel) so close to Myeongdong night market! Little did we know at the time of booking that this place was so convenient! It is located in the popular Myeongdong shopping district and is within walking distance of many popular locations, like LOTTE Department Store, LOTTE Young Plaza, Namsan cable car, meeting point for day trips etc. It is near Euljiro 1-ga subway station exit 6.
This place is a lovely shopping district and at night, the streets turn into street food paradise. Stalls would set up their stores around 4 pm onwards on weekdays and much earlier on weekends. They sell popular items like tteokbokki, twigim, hotteok, egg bread, walnut cakes, baby gimbap, sweet potato sticks, bundaeggi, toasted marshmallow ice cream, etc! They also sell non-food items such as soft toys, clothing and many more.
They are quite expensive for individual items (4,000 KRW onwards). One BBQ lamb stick cost us 7,000 KRW when you could have a bowl of noodles from a Michelin-rated restaurant for only 10,000 KRW at Myeongdong Kyoja. It is located at 8, Myeongdong 10-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul. They only offer four items on the menu as it specialises in dumplings and noodle soup. Their signature garlic-laden kimchi is made in-house.
Outside the Myeongdong Kyoja shop, I managed to find the ppopgi made by an elderly lady (she was only there for a short time). It is a popular street snack from the 1960s, made with melted sugar and baking soda. This cost me 2,000 KRW (approx. £1.20).
We also ate the candy grapes on a stick which were 5,000 KRW. The grapes were big and juicy, but one grape for 1,000 KRW seems a bit too expensive.
Another thing we bought from the street market was the toasted marshmallow ice cream. It cost us 8,000 KRW for one. We found that some shops (not in Myeongdong) only cost 5,000 KRW each. The street stalls mark up the price a lot!
I also bought socks (3,000 KRW each) and they were double the price compared to shops in the underground mall which had the same socks for 1,500 KRW.
In addition to it being expensive, when it rains, the street market is not so enjoyable as there are no places to shelter from the rain and no bins to throw your waste! We had to walk a good distance to throw our waste and sometimes we had to bring it back to our hotel room to throw.
It was a great experience trying out these street foods. But for that price, I would rather spend my money in a cosy restaurant. But some of the foods can only be found on these night markets so we had to try!