Dongdaegu Station to Downtown Daegu: How to Get In, and Where to Eat

The station

Dongdaegu station is 282 kilometres south of Seoul Station on the Gyeongbu line. Every KTX on that line stops here, along with conventional expresses and local trains, and it has overtaken the older Daegu station — which is central — as the city's main rail hub. An express bus terminal and a Shinsegae department store stand beside it, so a great many journeys into the city begin at this one spot.

Film fans may recognise the name: it is the station in the 2016 zombie film Train to Busan.

Finding the metro

The railway station and the metro station are not directly connected. The entrance to Line 1 is outside, in the plaza area close by the main building. Follow the signs for 지하철 or Subway out of the concourse and expect a short walk in the open air; if it is raining, you will get a little wet.

As a rough allowance, give yourself ten minutes from stepping off the train to standing on the metro platform, and more with luggage.

Line 1 into the centre

Take Line 1 in the direction of Seolhwa–Myeonggok. The stops run:

1. Sincheon
2. Chilseong Market — for the riverside night market at weekends
3. Daegu station — the old central station, and the north end of Dongseong-ro
4. Jungangno — the middle of the shopping district
5. Banwoldang — the interchange with Line 2, and The Hyundai Daegu

Five stops, no change. One of the restaurants named below gives exactly this instruction on its own directions page, and it is the right one.

Pay with a T-money or similar transport card, which works across Korean cities, or buy a single-journey token from the machine. Do not count on a foreign contactless bank card working at the gates.

Onward from Banwoldang

• For Suseong-gu and Beomeo-dong: change to Line 2 eastbound. Beomeo is three stops: Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu Bank, Beomeo.
• For Seomun Market: Line 2 one stop west to Cheongna Hill, then Line 3 one stop. See what to eat there.
• For the modern history walk: Line 2 one stop west to Cheongna Hill, where Course 2 starts.
• For Samdeok-dong: walk east from Banwoldang or Jungangno, ten to fifteen minutes, or take a short taxi ride.

When to take a taxi instead

Taxis queue outside the station and are metered. For two or more people with bags, going anywhere other than a hotel right on Line 1, the taxi is usually worth it: the centre is only a few kilometres away, and Suseong-gu is closer to Dongdaegu by road than the metro route, which doubles back through Banwoldang, would suggest.

Have the address in Korean on your phone. Drivers do not reliably read romanised street names.

If you have one hour, or three

One hour between trains: do not go into the centre. Eat at the station (below). The round trip on the metro alone would take most of the hour.

Three hours: enough for the centre and one proper meal. Ride to Banwoldang, eat within five minutes' walk of the station, and ride back. Leave the restaurant forty minutes before your train.

For that three-hour version, two restaurants on one street a few minutes from Banwoldang's exits:

• Cheongwoo Haejang (한식당 청우해장) — Korean beef-broth restaurant at 남성로 11, in the Yangnyeongsi herbal-medicine alley beside the Museum of Oriental Medicine; five minutes on foot from Banwoldang station by its own directions. Daily 11:00–22:00, break 15:00–17:00, last order 21:00. cheongwoohaejang.com Its site has a page written for precisely this case, headed "from Dongdaegu station": Line 1, five stops, no change. A bowl of soup is also about the fastest sit-down meal there is. Mind the 15:00–17:00 break.
• Restaurant Gasik, Banwoldang branch — 남성로 29-1, a standalone building about a minute on foot behind The Hyundai Daegu. It is not inside the department store. Opened 15 June 2026. 11:30–21:30, closed Mondays. gasik.kr (run by this site's owner) No afternoon break, which helps with an awkward train time. Closed Mondays.

More choices in every direction from that junction are in where to eat near The Hyundai Daegu and Banwoldang.

Further out — a taxi rather than the metro from Dongdaegu:

• Restaurant Gasik, Suseong·Beomeo branch — 달구벌대로489안길 30, 1F, Beomeo-dong, a few minutes on foot from Beomeo station exit 8 on Line 2. Daily 11:30–21:30. gasik.kr (run by this site's owner) The closest of the three Gasik branches to Dongdaegu by road.
• Restaurant Gasik (레스토랑 가식), Samdeok main branch — Western dining: steak, pasta, pizza. 달구벌대로445길 44-22, Samdeok-dong, Jung-gu. Daily 11:30–21:30, last order 21:00, no afternoon break. gasik.kr (run by this site's owner)
• Inedit-dam (삼덕동 이네딧담) — a bar, as Naver lists it, at 국채보상로150길 83 in Samdeok-dong, roughly 250 metres in a straight line from Gasik's main branch going by Naver's map coordinates. @inedit_dam on Instagram

Eating at the station itself

The department store beside the station has restaurant floors, which is the simplest answer with luggage. Two places that come up in Naver Local there and nearby:

• 강산면옥 대구신세계백화점 — cold noodles, 8th floor of the Shinsegae department store, 동부로 149. map
• 미향뭉티기 동대구역본점 — mungtigi, Daegu's chunk-cut raw beef and one of the city's ten official dishes. 동부로32길 31. map

Menus, prices and opening hours are quoted from each restaurant's own website as read on 19 September 2026. They change, so check before you go.