Oido (오이도) is a coastal area located in Siheung City just southwest of Seoul. For those of us who live in Seoul, it’s a pretty popular destination for day trips and weekend getaways, particularly during the warmer months. Since it’s a pretty easy one and a half hour trip there by subway, it’s a great way to enjoy those costal city vibes without having to go all the way east to Gangneung or down south to Busan.

Originally, Oido was an island, but during the Japanese occupation it was connected to the mainland as its tidal flats were used as a salt plant. Nowadays Oido famous for clam digging and its long streets of seafood restaurants, which is usually the main draw. It certainly is for us.

Delicious Seafood Delicacies

If you’re a food-centric traveler, then Oido’s Seafood Street (오이도 음식문화거리) will be right up your alley. Right along the coast, you can find a long street of back-to-back seafood restaurants serving local specialties with local proprietors lingering outside urging you to come eat in their restaurants. It’s pretty competitive and a bit overwhelming if it’s your first time, but well worth the effort. It definitely helps to look up some menus in advance on Naver Map to get an idea of what each restaurant serves.

As you might imagine, Oido’s local specialties revolve around the fresh seafood that’s caught daily. Fresh raw fish like flounder (광어), rockfish (우럭), or sea bream (도미) are usually pretty popular, along with other dishes like seafood pancakes (해물파전), clam noodle soup (바지락칼국수) and (our personal favorite) grilled clams (조개구이).

At these restaurants, you can certainly pick and choose the dishes you’d like to try, but we recommend ordering a set menu. These are designed specifically for tourists and visitors, but in the best way. Rather than focusing on one specific dish, they come with two main dishes and tons of side dishes that vary from place to place and day to day depending on what is caught that morning. We go for sashimi (raw fish) along with grilled clams with multiple sides and a seafood kalguksu (knife-cut noodles in a seafood broth) at the end.

So Much to Eat

Our chosen sets always starts off with a pile of every different kind of shellfish we can think of and then the side dishes just keep rolling out. Last time we got steamed octopus legs, sea squirt, salmon sashimi, grilled fish and seafood ramen, just to name a few. Then it was followed up with a plate fresh raw fish. And we finished up strong with a big bowl of seafood kalguksu that for three that could’ve fed five. If it sounds like a ton of food, that’s because it is, so we always make sure to come hungry. These sets are typically serve a minimum of two people and start at around 40,000 KRW per person.

If you’re looking for a lighter meal and don’t mind being a bit more adventurous, there is a small outdoor fish market on the boardwalk where you can choose what you’d like to eat and then they will prepare and serve it to you in a tented seating area. You can even order beer and soju to wash it all down with.

After the meal, the boardwalk is a great place to walk off all that food and take in the gorgeous ocean view. You can check out Oido’s iconic landmark the Red Lighthouse (빨간등대) and Tree Of Life Observatory Deck which are great places to take gorgeous sunset photos and just enjoy the ambiance.

How to get to Oido

The easiest way to get to Oido from Seoul is by subway. Simply take Line 4 to Oido Station. It should take roughly around 1.5 to 2 hours from central Seoul. Then, from the station, we recommend taking a taxi to the main boardwalk area.

If you choose to take a car it should take around 1 to 1.5 hours, depending on the starting point and traffic. Parking in the area can also be a bit tricky, so keep that in mind as well.

There are plenty of restaurants in the area, but the easiest place to drop a pin is the Red Lighthouse. It’s just across the street from all the restaurants and a few feet away from the fish market.

• Address:
  • 경기 시흥시 정왕동 2043 (Naver Map)
  • 2003-16 Jeongwang-dong, Siheung-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea (Google Maps)