Local Flavor in Wonju — 6 Local Restaurants to Try in Wonju
Local Flavor in Wonju — 6 Local Restaurants to Try in Wonju
Beyond its reputation as a colorless, flavorless city, discover the tastes of Wonju, infused with a deep affection for ingredients grown in the region’s mountains and fields.
Words Pyo Youngso
Photos Park Nahui
Okhee Bangatgan, a Sesame Roastery
How many shops opening these days under the name ‘bangatgan’ (traditional grain mill) are actually real mills? Amid a wave of cafés and restaurants that either renovate old mills or simply borrow their nostalgic image, Okhee Bangatgan stands apart. It’s the kind of neighborhood gathering spot where customers waiting for their oil to be pressed are handed a cup of coffee. On a main road in Haenggu-dong, Wonju, with a full view of the foothills of Chiaksan, the fading scenery of an old-fashioned oil mill is brought back to life.
Although it opened under its current name three years ago, its story goes back much further. Owner Moon Jiyeon’s grandfather ran a rice mill for 35 years starting in the 1970s, and her mother ran an oil mill—making Okhee Bangatgan a business now in its third generation. During a difficult period after leaving her job, Moon found comfort in helping her mother at the mill. Her affection for the mill that had long been her family’s livelihood, her interest in local ingredients, and the reporting experience she built up while working as a travel magazine editor all came together in the result: Okhee Bangatgan, a sesame roastery and café.
Taking a hint from olive oil, whose flavor, variety, and use all vary depending on how it’s made, Moon introduced the concept of roasting to sesame as well, and developed her own beverages and desserts using perilla seeds. While Moon oversees the brand and business as a whole, oil production rests entirely in the hands of her mother, Okhee. It’s a field where her mother’s know-how—honed from running an oil mill even before her daughter did—truly shines. Perilla seeds from Gangwon-do, including Wonju, and domestic sesame seeds are carefully handled by hand, roasted in two stages, then pressed into oil and bottled.
In the pressing room at the back of the mill (certified under HACCP, which evaluates and verifies food safety hazards from raw ingredient production through final sale), golden, fragrant perilla oil is made, while the café serves a creamy perilla latte enriched with roasted perilla powder, and a perilla honey ice cream topped with whole perilla seeds, perilla oil, domestic honeycomb honey, and a perilla leaf garnish. Some customers stop by simply to buy the oil. Since the core customer base is a generation familiar with old-fashioned mills, it’s common to see a heartwarming mix of younger visitors and elders enjoying the space together.
Around this summer, following an expansion, the first floor will be transformed into a showroom and experience space, with the café moving up to the second floor. A multipurpose perilla oil dressing called ‘Kkaetchap,’ developed in collaboration with local chef Park Eunhye of Soro, Traveler’s House, is also set to launch soon. With Gangwon-do perilla as its theme, this mill dreams of becoming an anchor store for Wonju travel—and its next chapter looks promising.
Interview
(Q1) What kind of neighborhood is Haenggu-dong? It used to be an area full of fruit trees—apricot, peach, and pear trees. That’s why the character for apricot, ‘haeng (杏),’ is part of the neighborhood’s name. It used to be called ‘Yeongnang Village,’ so my grandfather’s mill was originally named ‘Yeongnang Bangatgan.’
(Q2) Why did you choose this location? My grandfather’s mill used to be right next to the building where Okhee Bangatgan is now. Until he closed it in 2007, I have so many memories of playing around this neighborhood.
(Q3) How is the Wonju you grew up in different from the Wonju you’ve returned to? As a kid, Chiaksan, visible from everywhere, felt suffocating—like a fence I needed to escape. Now, after experiencing the outside world and coming back, that embrace feels comforting instead. I’ve discovered beauty I never noticed before, and I feel like I understand and see local life on a deeper level now.
Soro, Traveler’s House
The odds of stumbling upon Soro, Traveler’s House by chance, with no prior information, are slim. Near Wonju Severance Christian Hospital in Ilsan-dong, tucked into a narrow corner of an old residential neighborhood, sits a faded red brick building. Though the glass door bears the name ‘Soro,’ the blue lettering next to it—reading ‘Seonghwa Bangatgan’—tends to catch the eye first. This local restaurant, beloved steadily for a decade, resembles the city itself: never one to make a fuss.
Soro, Traveler’s House is chef Park Eunhye’s third restaurant. Her first, Soro Soro—named after an old word meaning ‘gently, softly’—served just one home-style dish that changed daily, drawing mostly students from nearby universities. Her second restaurant was a French spot called Bistro Soro. Opened in 2020, Soro, Traveler’s House serves dishes inspired by the food and ingredients she has personally encountered while traveling, just as its name suggests. With a strong interest in seasonal and local ingredients, the restaurant also collaborates with local brands on new menu items and occasionally runs pop-up late-night dinners.
Past the cozy counter-cum-shop connected to the entrance, the dining area opens up to reveal an open kitchen trimmed in mustard-colored tile. Just a few tables sit close enough that you could strike up a conversation with the chef while she cooks, and shelves stocked with ingredients and cookbooks line the walls, alongside writings and photos from her travels. Chef Park Eunhye, who loves to travel so much that she used to take month-long trips even while running the restaurant, last traveled to Italy just before the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the current menu centers on Italian dishes like tomato basil pizza, seafood squid ink rice, and anchovy spaghetti—but if she travels to Thailand next, Thai dishes will appear on the menu, and if she goes to Japan, Japanese dishes will follow. If you want to continue exploring Wonju after your meal at Soro, Traveler’s House, check the traveler’s map hanging on the wall by the counter before you leave. It’s a map of Wonju hand-drawn by chef Park Eunhye herself, complete with her recommendations for cafés and restaurants.
Interview
(Q1) What kind of neighborhood is Ilsan-dong? It’s Wonju’s old downtown area. There’s also a traditional market here (Miro Art Market).
(Q2) Why did you choose this location? My first restaurant was here. My second restaurant was in a different neighborhood, but Ilsan-dong just seemed to suit me better. There used to be a 30-year-old mill on this exact spot. I happened to see it and fell in love with it instantly, so I kept pestering the elderly owner—asking him to stop running the mill and rent the space to me instead. I waited five months, and eventually I was able to move in.
(Q3) Who comes to Soro, Traveler’s House? It’s about half locals and half visitors from outside the area. Quite a few people also stop by while passing through on trips to the surrounding region.
Neungseon, a Local Grocerant
The word ‘grocerant’ is a blend of ‘grocery’ and ‘restaurant.’ First coined in the late 1990s, it refers to a food culture space where you can shop for groceries and dine at the same time. Last December, a grocerant opened in Bongsan-dong, an old neighborhood in the original downtown of Wonju. True to its name, Local Grocerant Neungseon is both a café serving drinks and desserts made with Wonju produce, and a shop introducing F&B products born in Gangwon-do. The old sign reading ‘Jinan Hypermart,’ left untouched on the building’s exterior, fits the space almost too perfectly.
When naming the brand, food director Ryu Sunwoo, a Wonju native, and content director Hwang Injeong, who has lived in Wonju for a decade, chose the word ‘neungseon,’ meaning ‘ridge,’ to evoke Mount Chiaksan. The dark green tones and wooden furniture of the interior, as well as the scenery of Geodonsaji, a former temple site at the foot of Hyeongyesan in southwestern Wonju that appears in the brand video looping on one wall, both bring to mind the image of a mountain ridge. Sweet potato cream latte and potato cream pie, made with produce grown in Wonju, are the café’s signature menu items. In one corner, drinks and food items produced by Gangwon-do brands—such as Gangneung’s Gamja Amusement Park, Yanggu’s Camino Cidery, Chuncheon’s Potato Island, and Wonju’s Mowal Brewery—are on display. The café is also preparing its own F&B products using local ingredients like peaches and pears, and plans to run classes and workshops centered on local produce.
Take a seat by the window and, through the floor-to-ceiling glass, you’ll find yourself facing ‘Nam Hair Salon,’ topped with an old tiled roof. As you savor the signature menu and the dessert of the month made with seasonal local ingredients, your imagination starts to wander—how long has that salon been open? Could it be a men-only barbershop? Bongsan-dong, nestled between Mount Bongsan (鳳山) and the Wonjucheon Stream, was a densely populated area until the mid-1970s. As new towns formed on the city’s outskirts, the neighborhood lost its vitality and is now known for its aging population and high proportion of old houses. Since there are few cafés nearby, quite a few of Local Grocerant Neungseon’s visitors are local residents. Locals are often especially interested in experiencing already-familiar local produce in a new way. Though it has changed from a hypermart to a local grocerant, the description ‘a small neighborhood (local) mart’ still seems to suit this space perfectly, now as it did then.
Interview
(Q1) What kind of neighborhood is Bongsan-dong? It was once famous as Umul Market. The market took shape around a well in the village, which is how it got its name.
(Q2) Why did you choose this location? While looking for a place to open a grocery-concept café, we found this building, which had housed a mart for 50 years. Since it had long been a gathering place for the neighborhood, we felt it matched our intentions well.
(Q3) What’s the appeal of Wonju? I like that it strikes just the right balance between city and countryside. Nature is close by, and daily life isn’t particularly inconvenient. I think that’s exactly why the city holds so much potential.
Mowal Brewery
Drive about 20 minutes south from downtown Wonju, and before long, the ridgelines stretching down from Mount Chiaksan and Mount Baegunsan rise up to fill your view. In Sinchon-ri, Panbu-myeon, facing a low ridge, sits Mowal Brewery. In this modest two-story building equipped with brewing facilities and a tasting space, traditional liquor is produced using totomi, a native Wonju rice variety.
The reason Kim Wonho, head of Mowal Brewery, got into brewing is simple: a sense of duty to protect disappearing rice paddies. To do that, raising the value-added of agricultural produce is key, and nothing does that better than alcohol, he reasoned. His experience working as an engineer in the machinery and electronics field and living in various European countries during the 1990s also played a role. Encountering a wide variety of liquors made with local produce, and seeing how relatively comfortable the lives of local farmers were, made him realize early on just how important local breweries could be. Having spent his childhood in Wonju as a farmer’s son, he understood the value of local produce better than most. To him, rice paddies are not simply a means of obtaining food, but a tourism resource that offers nature and rest in our lives, and an environmental resource that preserves biodiversity.
It was Kim who suggested that singer Park Jaebeom start actually farming when he came to him wanting to make soju. Kim advised him that if he wanted to make real traditional liquor rather than just putting his name on a product, he should establish an agricultural corporation and become an actual manufacturer. Wonsoju, launched in 2022, broke new ground in Korea’s distilled soju market by surpassing its break-even point within the same year. Wonsoju Classic, born from a collaboration with Mowal Brewery, is also made with Wonju totomi rice.
It has been ten years since those preparing for the second uprising in Wonju during the Donghak Peasant Revolution established a cooperative under the name Mowal, referring to Mount Chiaksan. Today, Mowal Brewery produces five kinds of traditional liquor in total: the soju varieties Mowal In and Mowal Ro; the yakju (refined rice wine) varieties Mowal Yeon and Mowal Cheong; and Narang, a lower-proof soju launched last November. Among these, Mowal In won the President’s Award at the 2020 Korean Traditional Liquor Competition. Made only with rice, water, and nuruk (fermentation starter), Mowal’s liquors are known for their clean, understated flavor and smooth finish. Kim Wonho’s goal is to use 10 percent of the 15,000 tons of totomi rice purchased annually in Wonju at Mowal Brewery. He says there’s no work harder than farming, yet he farms the land himself; running a brewery profitably isn’t easy either, yet he quietly keeps brewing—so perhaps that goal isn’t so far out of reach after all.
Interview
(Q1) What kind of neighborhood is Sinchon-ri? The Maebong ridge facing the brewery was once a habitat for egrets. There were as many as 10,000 egrets roosting in the forest at one point—it was quite something. Now, with all the construction noise nearby and the stream gone, they’ve all left. The village grew in size when refugees settled here during the Korean War, which is how it came to be called Sinchon (新村), meaning ‘new village.’
(Q2) Why did you choose this location? I was born in Gwanseol-dong, just over the ridge. The spot where the brewery now stands used to be our family’s field. We founded the cooperative in 2014 and released our first liquor, but running the brewery wasn’t easy. I gathered childhood friends to recruit a second batch of members, and decided we needed to build a proper brewery—so I convinced my father. I told him, ‘Does it make sense to talk about protecting our own agricultural produce while drinking makgeolli made with imported rice?’ I saw something shift in his eyes right then. We originally made our liquor in a space of about 30 pyeong in downtown Wonju, but in 2018 we built a new brewery here and moved.
Gelaro
Gelaro is Wonju’s first and only artisanal gelato shop. It opened last September on the first floor of a multiplex cinema in Musil-dong. With its yellow signage, the shop is a cozy space of about 10 square meters. The gelato flavors on display change frequently. Owner Park Jeongeun, who once worked as a rehabilitation trainer, began studying gelato-making after wondering if there was a healthy dessert she could enjoy without worry. She loved ice cream, but working in health management meant she was always a bit conscious about eating it. She was drawn to gelato because she could choose the ingredients and methods to her liking. Gelaro’s gelato uses no fresh cream whatsoever, and its sugar and fat content is low. With a mission to promote her hometown of Wonju’s local specialty produce, she actively incorporates local and seasonal ingredients.
The shop offers about 10 flavors of gelato at any given time — slightly more in summer when fruits and ingredients are abundant, and one or two fewer as winter approaches. The signature menus are Chiaksan Riso, made with Wonju’s toto-mi rice, and Chiaksan Seoritae, made with black soybeans. Other flavors include seasonal fruits like strawberry, yuja (citron), and hongsi (ripe persimmon), as well as gelato made with mugwort, sweet pumpkin, red beans, and other local produce. She’s also unafraid to experiment with bold combinations like cream cheese and scallion, or tomato and basil.
Despite a large ice cream franchise being just a few steps away, Park’s confidence in choosing this location is proven by the taste. Every morning, she makes gelato by hand in the kitchen tucked behind the shop, using fresh ingredients bought at the market that day — the distinct flavor and texture of each ingredient come through vividly, giving every scoop real character. As you find yourself murmuring ‘one taste and you’ll be hooked’ like a mantra, the two scoops on your cone vanish in no time. True to her hopes, it seems only a matter of time before a second Gelaro location opens up near some apartment complex in Wonju.
Interview
(Q1) What kind of neighborhood is Musil-dong? It’s part of Wonju’s newer downtown area. It’s a residential area, but there’s also a decent mix of commercial facilities like a movie theater, restaurants, and shops.
(Q2) Why did you choose this location? At the time, I was participating in a support program that required me to open the shop by a certain deadline. Since it was my first shop, I agonized over the decision, but people around me advised that I should go somewhere with an established commercial district, even if it cost a bit more. This spot fit that exactly.
(Q3) What Wonju ingredient would you like to try in the future? I’m thinking of making gelato with native Wonju hardy kiwi. I tried it once after peeling the skin off, but since it’s actually a fruit you’re meant to eat skin and all, I want to try again.
Hidden Spot
A restaurant specializing in namul (seasoned wild greens and vegetables) located in Jijeong-myeon, Wonju. It was the first place we visited on this trip, and the one where we left the fullest. The menu couldn’t be simpler: ‘rice.’ Order the rice, and you’ll get about ten namul side dishes sourced from Wonju and all across the country, along with hot stone-pot rice, doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew), and steamed egg. You never know in advance which namul will appear on the table, but honestly, it doesn’t matter which ones show up — from Wonju mulberry leaves to jeonho namul (aster) and myeongi namul (wild garlic leaves) from Ulleungdo, bracken from Sinan, and bangpung namul (glehnia root greens) from Geumeodo Island in Yeosu, each one is on a completely different level from any namul you’ve tasted before. There are side dishes too (grilled pork, grilled dried pollack, mung bean pancake), but simply finishing all the namul on the table is already quite a feat.
The secret to the flavor seems to lie in the philosophy of the owner, who even refused to register the restaurant on portal sites, wanting to cook food with care and joy only for those who make the deliberate effort to seek it out. Out of respect for the wish to keep things exactly as they are, we won’t reveal the restaurant’s name here. But don’t be too disappointed — if you’re determined enough, you’ll find it, and once you experience it for yourself, you’ll understand and agree with this decision.