If you’re driving around the east side of Jeju and suddenly want something fried and a little spicy, this is the place locals point you to.
It isn’t fancy. It’s a small snack shop tucked into a seaside village lane. But it has held on for eleven years, and most of that is down to one dish: the squid tempura.
Who it suits
This is a light-meal kind of stop, not a big dinner.
It works when you’re between spots on an east-coast drive, when you’re hungry near your guesthouse, or when you’ve had enough raw fish and want something hot and crunchy instead.
It’s fine for solo travelers, couples, and families alike. Dogs are welcome both indoors and on the rooftop, so quite a few people come specifically because they’re traveling with a pet.
Getting there, parking, and waiting
The address is 26 Daesu-gil (대수길), Gujwa-eup, just inside the lanes behind Pyeongdae Beach. Type the shop name “평대스낵” into your map app rather than the address - it lands you more precisely.
There’s no dedicated parking lot. You park along the village lanes or the roadside, and you have to be careful: farm tractors and trucks use these narrow roads, so don’t block them, and avoid the inner lanes where parking isn’t allowed. Honestly, the easier move is to park at Pyeongdae Beach or one of the coastal pull-offs and walk two or three minutes.
Waiting depends a lot on timing. On weekdays and in the off-season you’ll often be seated right away. On busy weekends it can stretch past an hour. Around noon it’s usually calm; after 1 p.m. the crowd builds. There’s no real indoor waiting area, so on busy days you’ll be standing outside.
Hours are short - 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed Wednesdays. They sometimes close a bit earlier than posted if they sell out or start cleaning up, so if you’re coming late in the afternoon, a quick phone call ahead saves you a wasted trip. Do check the operating hours and closing day before you go.
📍 View Pyeongdae Snack (평대스낵) on Google Maps →
The squid tempura first
The headline dish is the hanchi-twigim (한치튀김), squid tempura. They coat local Jeju squid in a thin, light batter and fry it only after you order, so it always lands hot.
The outside is crisp and the squid inside stays soft. Squid often turns rubbery when fried, but here it mostly doesn’t. The batter itself is nutty and toasty, and that’s a big part of why people remember it.
A single order is 15,000 won, which is not cheap for snack food, and the portion isn’t huge. You’ll see reviews grumbling about the price-to-quantity ratio, and that’s fair. Still, you won’t find Jeju squid fried quite like this in many places, so it’s worth trying once.
Tteokbokki, king prawn, and the fern gimbap
The tteokbokki (떡볶이) splits opinion. It’s seasoned with chili powder rather than chili paste, so the broth tastes clean rather than heavy, with soft wheat rice cakes in a soupy sauce. Some people find it nostalgic and homey; others find it ordinary. On its own it can feel plain - it really comes alive eaten together with the tempura.
A quick heads-up on spice: what reads as “mild-medium” to Koreans can still land as properly spicy for many visitors, so pace yourself.
The wang-saeu-twigim (왕새우튀김), king prawn tempura, lives up to its name - whole prawns fried head to tail, with firm, springy meat.
The gosari kkoma-gimbap (고사리 꼬마김밥), mini gimbap with Jeju fern, is a newer addition. It’s lightly salted, nicely sweet-savory, and surprisingly good dipped into the tteokbokki broth. The fried scallion fritter is a quiet favorite too, its sweetness playing well with the spicy sauce.
One local trick: don’t toss the loose tempura crumbs that pool under the squid. Scatter them into the tteokbokki broth and spoon it up - it turns into something else entirely.
Sets cost a little less than ordering à la carte. For two, the two-person set (27,000 won) plus one fern gimbap is a sensible combo.
The space and how it runs
It used to be a tiny red building, a cramped little snack shop. After a fire around 2022 they moved nearby and expanded. The current spot is a remodeled old house, much roomier and tidier than before. The little house drawn on the buzzer pager is actually the old location.
Inside there are yellow chairs, a checkerboard floor, and warm wood - it feels more like a café or pub than a snack stand. The kitchen is open, so you can watch the frying, which is reassuring.
The highlight is the second-floor rooftop. Climb the stairs and Pyeongdae Beach opens up in front of you. On a clear day, squid tempura with a cold draft beer up there is hard to beat. But Jeju wind is no joke - on really windy days they close the rooftop off, so that part takes a bit of luck.
You order at a kiosk and take a pager to your seat. Water and small plates are self-serve, and utensils aren’t set out by default - ask for a spoon, which you’ll want for the soupy tteokbokki.
About service: reviews genuinely vary. Some found the staff friendly, plenty found them brisk and matter-of-fact, especially at peak times. Going in knowing that helps. A couple of useful notes for foreign visitors: tipping isn’t a thing in Korea - no need to tip, and it may even confuse the staff. English isn’t really spoken here, but ordering is easy enough since you tap through the kiosk and can point at the photo menu. And like almost every restaurant in Korea, an internationally accepted card works fine, so you don’t need to worry about payment.
One more practical tip: Google Maps walking and transit directions can be unreliable in Korea, so Naver Map or KakaoMap will guide you better on the ground. If you’re carless, the Kakao T app makes grabbing a taxi simple.
A similar place, and the verdict
Jeju has a running joke about its “twin snacks”: Myeongnyang Snack on the west side in Hallim, and Pyeongdae Snack here in the east. People say the two shops are related. Myeongnyang leans a touch sweeter; Pyeongdae’s broth is a little looser. Pair them by region - Pyeongdae if you’re in the east, Myeongnyang if you’re in the west.
So: come for the Jeju-only squid tempura and the rooftop sea view rather than for the tteokbokki itself. It isn’t cheap, and parking and service can be hit or miss, but it slots neatly into an east-coast day. The squid is the kind of thing you find yourself wanting again.
📍 View Pyeongdae Snack (평대스낵) on Google Maps →
- Address: 26 Daesu-gil, Gujwa-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju
- Hours: 11:00 - 16:00 (closed Wednesdays)
- Phone: 070-8825-3524
- Parking: no private lot (village roadside / beach pull-offs, 2-3 min walk)