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Yukhoe and Live Octopus at Gwangjang Market: What Reviewers Found

Travel Analysts

📄At Gwangjang Market, 36 of 39 reviewers who judge the yukhoe call it good, and 19 of 24 say so of the live octopus. Plus Yukhoe Alley, the wait and the dare.

Two diners with chopsticks lean over a plate of seasoned raw beef topped with an egg yolk, with pale chopped seafood and sprouts beside it, at a wooden table set with bowls of soup

💡Quick Answer

Are the yukhoe and live octopus at Gwangjang Market worth ordering? Of 1,458 reviews of the market, 118 name yukhoe, the raw beef dish, and 70 name live octopus (sannakji). Among reviewers who say how it tasted, 36 of 39 call the yukhoe good and 19 of 24 say the same of the octopus. Seven ordered both on one plate. Six describe a wait or a number system at the yukhoe restaurants, and one reviewer felt ill the next day. We did not verify current prices or hours.

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Yukhoe and Live Octopus Are the Raw Side of Gwangjang Market

Yukhoe is seasoned raw beef, served in these reviews under an egg yolk. Live octopus, sannakji, is cut and served while the pieces still move. At Gwangjang Market both are sold in restaurants along what reviewers call Yukhoe Alley, and often together.

🥢 Reviews that name the dish	Yukhoe (raw beef)	Live octopus (sannakji)
Of all 1,458 reviews	8.1% (118)	4.8% (70)
Of the 1,216 with 4–5★	8.2% (100)	4.8% (58)
Of the 242 with 1–3★	7.4% (18)	5.0% (12)

Neither dish leans toward happy or unhappy reviews. Each is named at about the same rate by people who rated the market high and people who rated it low. What stands out is who writes about them: 80 of the 118 reviews that name yukhoe are in Japanese or Chinese, and so are 48 of the 70 that name the octopus. Thirty-six reviews name both.

The trade-off: a mention is not a meal. More than four in ten of these reviews only list the dish among the things the market sells. The sections below keep the reviewers who ate it.

Thirty-Six of 39 Verdicts on the Yukhoe Are Good

We read every one of these reviews in full, in the language it was written in, and sorted each by what it does with the dish.

What the review does with the dish	🥩 Yukhoe (118 reviews)	🐙 Live octopus (70 reviews)
✅ Ate it and says it was good	30.5% (36)	27.1% (19)
🟡 Ate it and found it was not for them	0.8% (1)	2.9% (2)
❌ Ate it and did not like it	1.7% (2)	4.3% (3)
Ate it, gives no opinion	11.0% (13)	10.0% (7)
Recommends it without describing their own	11.0% (13)	8.6% (6)
Did not dare, or gave up on the wait	2.5% (3)	2.9% (2)
Only lists it among the market’s foods	42.4% (50)	44.3% (31)

Of the 39 reviewers who say how the yukhoe tasted, 36 say it was good. One found it was no longer to their taste, and two did not like what they were served.

The beef tartare is amazing fresh and delicious! — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 5 stars, October 2025

Yukhoe is a MUST, especially accompanied by makgeolli. — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 5 stars, August 2026

Nine of those verdicts come from reviews of three stars or lower, and six of the nine are good. Two Korean reviewers who were unimpressed with the market make the yukhoe the exception. In the separate set of low-rated reviews that we read for quotations and never count, one visitor who disliked Gwangjang Market found the same thing:

I ended up walking into one of the shops to get yukhoe (beef tartare), mung bean pancakes, and kimbab. That was decent. — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 2 stars, March 2023

Japanese-language reviews give 18 of the 39 verdicts. Ten reviews mention raw liver ordered alongside, nine of them in Japanese, and three say these are dishes they can no longer eat at home. Three reviewers mention a soup that comes with the yukhoe, and five pair it or the octopus with makgeolli, soju or beer.

The trade-off: people who order raw beef wanted raw beef. That shapes a result of 36 in 39, and it says little about how you will feel if you are unsure.

Live Octopus: Nineteen Good Verdicts and a Dish Some Will Not Sit Near

Twenty-four reviewers say how the octopus was. Nineteen call it good, two are glad they tried it and would not again, and three did not like it.

Try the live octopus - absolutely crazy. Still moving on the plate when you eat it! — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 5 stars, October 2025

although not my favourite I can say I’ve had it — TripAdvisor review of Gwangjang Market, 5 stars, April 2019

Seven reviews describe the pieces still moving: on the plate, on top of the raw beef, or in the mouth. Three mention what it is dipped in, which is sesame oil in one, gochujang in another and a sweet and spicy paste in the third.

Six reviews frame one of the two dishes as a dare, and two of those reviewers left the octopus to others:

I was not even brave enough to sit at the same table with them. — TripAdvisor review of Gwangjang Market, 4 stars, September 2019

Two reviewers saw something else: an octopus put on a grill while alive. One gave the market five stars and a warning:

like your octopus live before it hits the grill then maybe avoid — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 5 stars, May 2025

The other gave it one star, and this sentence is the whole review:

It was all fun and games until the lady slapped a live octopus onto a slow cooking grill — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 1 star, July 2026

The trade-off: this is the one dish at Gwangjang Market that some visitors do not want at their table at all. If that is you or someone you are with, look at what a restaurant serves before you sit down.

Seven Reviewers Ordered Both on One Plate

Seven reviews describe the two dishes together, the octopus on top of the raw beef. They are among the most enthusiastic in the sample:

Best meal in Seoul was here. Live octopus with beef tartare and fresh pear for crunch. — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 5 stars, July 2025

Others tried them side by side and added a third raw dish:

We tried raw octopus, raw beef and raw beef liver. Better than we expected. — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 5 stars, December 2025

One 2025 review, written in Chinese, mentions a half-and-half order that the reviewer found friendly for a first try.

One reviewer, eating raw beef and live octopus for the first time, reports diarrhea the next day and still calls both delicious. A review cannot establish a cause, and one report among the 49 reviewers who give a verdict on either dish is not a rate. It is here because someone deciding on raw food should see it.

🔎 What reviewers describe	Reviews
A name for the place: Yukhoe Alley, yukhoe street	10
Raw liver ordered or mentioned alongside	10
🐙 The octopus still moving	7
Octopus and yukhoe on one plate	7
⏳ A wait, a number or a reservation	6
Say one yukhoe restaurant is in the Michelin Guide	6
Frame either dish as a dare, or did not dare	6
Name Buchon Yukhoe	4
A soup served with the yukhoe	3
Saw an octopus put on a grill alive	2
Felt ill the next day	1

The trade-off: the combined plate gets the strongest praise in these reviews, and it is raw on raw. If one of the two worries you, order them apart.

Yukhoe Alley: The Names, the Michelin Claim and the Wait

Ten reviews use a name for the place: Yukhoe Alley, or yukhoe street in Japanese and Chinese. One puts the raw beef at the east gate of Gwangjang Market and another on its eastern side.

Buchon Yukhoe (부촌육회) is the name reviewers give, in four reviews written in Japanese and Chinese. One calls it kind to children: the reviewer’s child did not want raw food, and no minimum order was forced. One Korean review names a second restaurant, 자매육회집, and notes that it sells only yukhoe and a pan-fried beef dish.

Six reviews say one of the yukhoe restaurants is listed in the Michelin Guide. A 2019 review attaches that to Buchon Yukhoe, and a 2026 review speaks of a Bib Gourmand restaurant without naming it. We did not check the current guide.

even a Michelin guided beef tartare place in there — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 5 stars, August 2025

Six describe a wait. In August 2026 one reviewer counted five groups ahead before 6 pm and 25 on the way out. In September 2025 one gave up and ate at a stall. Two describe the system: take a number and shop while you wait, in August 2025, or book on a tablet and get an email when your turn is near, in July 2026. A 2019 review mentions an afternoon break, with service resuming at 3 pm. We did not verify how any restaurant handles this today.

The trade-off: the restaurant with the name is the one with the line. Two reviewers skipped it, ate the same two dishes elsewhere in the market and were happy. That is thin evidence, and it is the only evidence the sample has.

Methodology

Figures come from the SeoulFoodTour research corpus. This article uses one part of it: 1,458 rated reviews of Gwangjang Market from Google Maps and TripAdvisor, collected without filtering by rating, of which 242 give one to three stars and 1,216 give four or five.

What counts as naming a dish. Yukhoe is counted when a review names it, or raw beef or beef tartare, in English, Korean, Japanese or Chinese: 118 reviews, dated March 2019 to September 2026, with 85 from 2025 or 2026. Forty-six are written in Japanese, 34 in Chinese, 19 in English and 19 in Korean. Live octopus is counted when a review names sannakji or octopus as a dish: 70 reviews, 33 in Chinese, 21 in English, 15 in Japanese and one in Korean. Two reviews about octopus kimchi and reviews that mention only squid are not counted. Thirty-six reviews name both dishes, so 152 reviews were read.

How the verdicts were sorted. Each review was read in full and placed by hand in one row of the verdict table for each dish it names. A review counts as a verdict only when the reviewer ate the dish and says how it was. The details table is separate, and a review can appear in several of its rows.

The second set. A separate pass aimed at low ratings added reviews that we use for reading and for quotations and never count. One quotation in this article comes from it and is introduced as such.

Quotations. Every quotation is from a review written in English and is reproduced exactly as it appears in the original record, spelling included. Reviews in other languages are counted and described in our words, never quoted.

What this article does not do. It states no prices. It does not verify the Michelin Guide, opening hours or how any restaurant runs its line today, and it makes no claim about food safety. A review records what one person found on one day.

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions

What is yukhoe?+

Yukhoe is Korean seasoned raw beef. In reviews of Gwangjang Market it comes with an egg yolk, sometimes with pear, and three reviewers mention a bowl of soup served with it. English-language reviewers call it raw beef or beef tartare.

Is the yukhoe at Gwangjang Market good?+

Of the 118 reviews in our sample that name it, 39 say how it tasted, and 36 of the 39 say it was good. One reviewer found it was no longer to their taste and two did not like what they were served. The other 79 ate it without saying how it was, recommend it, list it or did not try it.

What is sannakji, and is the octopus really alive?+

Sannakji is octopus cut up and served at once. Seven reviews of Gwangjang Market describe the pieces still moving on the plate or in the mouth. Two reviewers also saw an octopus placed on a grill while alive.

Is the live octopus at Gwangjang Market worth trying?+

Twenty-four reviewers say how it was. Nineteen call it good, two are glad they tried it and would not again, and three did not like it. Six reviews frame it as a dare, and two of those reviewers did not eat it.

Which yukhoe restaurant do reviewers name at Gwangjang Market?+

Buchon Yukhoe (부촌육회) is named in four reviews, written in Japanese and Chinese. Six reviews say one of the yukhoe restaurants is listed in the Michelin Guide, and one from 2019 attaches that to Buchon Yukhoe. We did not check the current guide or which restaurants are operating today.

Is there a wait for yukhoe at Gwangjang Market?+

Six reviews describe one. In August 2026 a reviewer counted five groups ahead before 6 pm and 25 on the way out. Two describe taking a number or booking on a tablet and being notified by email. We did not verify how any restaurant handles the line today.

Is it safe to eat raw beef and live octopus at Gwangjang Market?+

Reviews cannot answer that; they are not a safety record. Of the 49 reviewers who say how either dish was, one reports diarrhea the next day after eating both for the first time. That is one report, not a rate, and a review cannot establish a cause.

Can you order yukhoe and live octopus together?+

Seven reviews describe the two on one plate, the octopus on top of the raw beef, and they are among the most enthusiastic in the sample. One 2025 review mentions a half-and-half order that the reviewer found friendly for a first try.