Dandong North Korean Restaurants

I was a bit behind schedule as I woke up on Saturday morning, to make up for my sleepiness I set a limit of 1 hour before I would have to have my bags packed and my tickets + hotel room purchased. After some hemming and hawing over a map of China I zeroed in on a city called Dandong, about 900km northeast of Beijing. I met my goal and 4 hours later I was in the air.

The main drag on the Yalu river is a tourist haven, dotted with hotels and North Korean restaurants. I dropped into many of the restaurants to get a feeling for what they had to offer, most had walls of aquariums from where you could select which fish to eat. I chose to focus in on the more land-based restaurants. 

Bombed Iron Bridge to North Korea

North Korean water park?

One of many North Korean restaurants

A view down the river front strip

North Korean crabs

North Korean seafood selection

The first place I dropped into only had a menu printed on the wall and offered a less then desirable selection, I decided to just get a snack and a beer and move on to the next.

Fish Balls?

The second place had a real menu and a much more interesting selection. I got myself a dish of Marinated Leaves and a pile of Pork to fill me up, the flavor in both of these was unusual yet really nice. While in here I took a snapshot of the waitresses standing near the door, they were startled enough that one of them actually jumped. They then all came over to me to explain through hand motions that photos were strictly prohibited here.

Outside the second restaurant

Marinated Leaf

Pork Pile

The girls on the right are the ones that freaked out