Large pork bone stew for three near Cheonggyecheon: Jangheon Gamjatang

This is a new find between Jonggak Station and Cheonggyecheon in Seoul. The pork and kimchi are Korean-grown and delicious, and I went to cure a hangover but ended up wanting to order drinks haha. It has a Korean house vibe, and besides gamjatang (pork bone and potato stew) there are other choices like bone jeongol (hot pot) and steamed pork bones. Here's my review of Jangheon Gamjatang!

Where is Jangheon Gamjatang Jongak, and what are the hours?

Jangheon Gamjatang Jongak is on Youth Street (Jeolmeumui-georI), between Jonggak Station and Cheonggyecheon in Jongno, Seoul. Within the street, it sits closer to the Cheonggyecheon end.

• Open 10:00–22:00 (closed Sundays)
• Open until 24:00 on Thursdays

Check out that hanok-style entrance! With its quiet tiled roof and soft lighting, it has the full aura of a Korean food spot, and being right in the middle of Jongno's Youth Street makes it easy to reach!

A hanok-style basement: can you go as a group?

The restaurant is on the first basement level, but the inside feels like dining in a traditional hanok. Jonggak Station is near Gyeongbokgung, so doesn't the interior feel suitably traditional! Even on a weekday, I noticed a group from a company who came for a hangover meal. Since there's steamed pork bone as well as gamjatang, I also saw people eating steamed bones served on plates, which made for a lively scene.

Going down the stairs I thought it would be small, but it was comfortable enough to take a group, which I liked. My husband often has business trips near Jonggak Station, and he thought it would work well for a weekday lunch or dinner with colleagues, since the single-serving gamjatang is probably a bone hangover soup (ppyeo haejangguk).

Where do the kimchi and seokbakji come from?

The real kick at Jangheon Gamjatang was the side dishes: seokbakji (chunky radish kimchi) and regular kimchi. They were seriously so good! The kimchi is made fresh every day with Korean ingredients, and the seokbakji is prepared from scratch, starting with cutting the radish. It was so tasty that I kept asking for refills!

See the country-of-origin sign? Lots of places use Chinese ingredients these days, but even the chili powder here is Korean, so the quality shows, and the Korean pork (hanwoo-grade hanbon) bones and meat were top notch!

Jangheon Gamjatang menu and prices

On the menu, gamjatang comes in sizes from medium to extra large, and there are single-serving options too, so it looked great as an easy weekday meal for office workers! There's even a review event with a generous option: extra noodles and add-ins, or fish roe fried rice for free. Personally, I recommend adding the fish roe fried rice for dessert, it's that good.

• Jangheon Gamjatang (large) ₩39,000
• [Add-on] Fish roe fried rice ₩4,000

Portion and taste of the large gamjatang for three

The three of us, my sister and my husband and me, shared the large Jangheon Gamjatang, and it looked hearty! I liked that the glass noodles, sujebi (hand-pulled dough flakes) and potatoes are included without extra charge, and the portion was generous. The stew is boiled fresh every morning, and even though the place is new, the ingredients and flavor were high quality, even better than some famous places.

The meat was big and tender, and when the glass noodles took a while to cook, the owner and staff came to check on them themselves. They even recommended adding the noodles last, and that kind of attentive care showed their kindness and put me in a good mood.

See how the meat melts so softly? Honestly, if you're looking for Korean-ingredient bone hangover soup near Jonggak Station and Cheonggyecheon in Jongno, you have to go to Jangheon Gamjatang. Seriously, there was no frozen-meat taste, just clean and tender, and excellent! And since it's hangover soup, the broth was mild rather than spicy, nicely balanced, and the kimchi was so good that eating them together was great too!

Should you add the fish roe fried rice?

I think the fish roe fried rice (₩4,000) at Jangheon Gamjatang is a must-add. At some gamjatang places where I praised the broth or meat, the fried rice was too mushy or too salty, so I usually don't recommend it as dessert, you know?

Here, a staff member fries it so it's not too salty and nicely fluffy, then even scrapes up the crispy rice crust at the end. Honestly, skipping it would be a loss, since the texture, seasoning and taste are all great, so I really recommend it.

As you eat the fried rice and it starts to stick into crispy rice (nurungji), a staff member comes over and scrapes the bottom so none is wasted and you can keep enjoying it, that's Jangheon Gamjatang haha. My husband works in a male-dominated workplace, and he was so satisfied that he vowed that on his Seoul business trips, Jonggak Station means coming straight here.

Will I go back to Jangheon Gamjatang Jongak?

From the cooking process to the fried rice dessert, nothing fell short. My husband decided to come back on business trips, and my sister, who lives in Seoul, decided to return too, it was that good.

My one regret is that I was too full to sweep up the scraped crispy rice and tip it into my mouth. From the broth and meat texture to the clean taste with no gamey smell, the kimchi and the fried rice dessert, this is the cleanest all-around lineup I've had this year and I want to rave about it. I can't believe Jangheon Gamjatang is so new!