Dongpirang Hotteok: My Regular Stop in Tongyeong
Golden hotteok on the way down from Dongpirang Mural Village (Dongpirang Byeokhwa Maeul:동피랑 벽화마을)
Hi, I’m CULT.
As you explore Tongyeong, you’ll come across quite a variety of street food. Much of it will be seafood, dried filefish or honey-glazed buns, but I’ll save those for another time. Today, I want to tell you about Dongpirang Hotteok (동피랑 호떡), a hotteok shop I visit regularly.
At 500 KRW each, the hotteok are so cheap and tasty that I come here very often. The shop wasn’t listed on Naver Map or Google Maps, so I added it myself. After exploring Dongpirang Mural Village, stop for an inexpensive snack on your way down. It’s a taste that international visitors and children will enjoy too.
Location and Summary
A good stop for a hotteok on your way down from Dongpirang Mural Village.
Details
Daily 9 a.m.–7 p.m.
Occasionally closes at 6 p.m.
For international visitors using public transport, there’s a bus stop nearby, so it’s easy to get here. Most domestic travelers bring a car, of course. There are plenty of places to park in the side streets or around Gangguan Harbor (Gangguan:강구안), so parking shouldn’t be much of an issue. The opening and closing times vary a little, but the shop generally opens daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The owner told me they sometimes close at 6 p.m. if they have something to attend to.
It isn’t listed on Naver Map, so look for the paint shop.
Dongpirang Hotteok closes from June through September every year. The hotteok ingredients can spoil during those months and cause food poisoning. So the shop only opens from October through May.
This is what the shop looks like. It may be old and shabby, but it reminded me of the neighborhood where I lived as a child, so I found it very endearing. Bear in mind that they only accept cash or bank transfers, so bring a few 1,000 KRW notes or one 5,000 KRW note.
The plastic barrel out front makes Dongpirang Hotteok easy to find. I did a little research and found that a hotteok cost 300 KRW before the pandemic in 2020, but the price rose to 500 KRW after the pandemic. Still, it’s wonderfully cheap.
Hotteok Made to Order
They cook them as soon as you order, so grab one to eat or take some away.
They make the hotteok fresh when you order. Koreans will know this, of course, but international visitors may not, so let me explain. Visitors to Korea will find them delicious too. They’re sweet, with no heat.
Brown sugar and cinnamon go inside wheat-flour dough, which is then fried in oil. Think of them as a traditional Korean snack.
You can order just one to eat as you go, or take several away. I find four hotteok for 2,000 KRW and four pulppang for 1,000 KRW just right. That’s only 3,000 KRW in total, so it’s easy on the wallet. With so many inexpensive shops, I quite like living in Tongyeong. Though the long drives to photo shoots in other regions every week do get a little tiring, since it’s so far away.
Then enjoy your hotteok, cooked golden like these.
I once took some away before heading to a photo shoot and ate them in the car.. The cinnamon smell lingered in the seats for about three days, which was a bit of a nuisance. Please, don’t eat hotteok in your car.
Pulppang
Less sweet than hotteok, these make a good snack for older people too.
These are pulppang, and four cost 1,000 KRW. I used to visit almost every day for a while.. so the owner would give me five. They don’t leave your mouth feeling dry, and they’re less sweet than hotteok, making them a good snack for older people too. Where else in Korea.. can you get four snacks for 1,000 KRW? Living in Tongyeong still surprises me quite often.
This is what I get from Dongpirang Hotteok when I’m having them as something of a meal. All this costs 3,000 KRW. At home.. I eat the hotteok with chopsticks. Because.. if the syrup inside drips out, it gets incredibly sticky and needs a thorough wipe.
A hotteok is a little bigger than a folded Samsung Z Flip7. It’s cheap, and slightly smaller than the hotteok that cost 3,000 KRW each in Myeongdong (명동). That price is a little out of date.. Is a hotteok in Myeongdong about 4,000 KRW these days?
A Snack for Sightseeing
Take a paper bag of them somewhere nearby and enjoy them while watching the sunset.
They pack them in a paper bag inside a plastic bag, so you can take them up nearby Nammangsan (남망산), to Yi Sun-sin Park (Yi Sunsin Gongwon:이순신공원), DPIRANG (디피랑), or Dongpirang Mural Village to eat. The shop usually stays open until 7 p.m., so buying some around 6:30 p.m. and enjoying a snack while watching the sunset sounds like a good idea.
It’s near Dongpirang Mural Village and Tongyeong’s Jungang Market (Jungang Sijang:중앙시장), so I hope you’ll stop for some cheap, delicious hotteok at Dongpirang Hotteok. That’s all for now. I’ll be back with more travel tips 😀
- Hotteok cost 500 KRW each, and pulppang cost 1,000 KRW for four. These are the prices from June 2026, when I wrote this post.
- It closes from June through September and only opens from October through May. The ingredients can spoil in hot weather and cause food poisoning, so the shop closes for summer.
- They only accept cash and bank transfers. Credit cards, debit cards, mobile payments and local gift certificates are all unavailable, so pay by bank transfer if you have no cash.
- The usual hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The owner told me they sometimes close at 6 p.m. if they have something to attend to.
- They're filled with brown sugar and cinnamon and cooked, so they're sweet, with no heat. Pulppang are another good choice if you want something less sweet.
- You can order several to take away. They pack them in a paper bag inside a plastic bag. You can take them to nearby Nammangsan or Yi Sun-sin Park to eat.
