Jeonju Hanok Village soy crab set with roe-filled crab: Hanjamae

Hi everyone! Honestly I'm not much of a plain-rice eater at meals, but there's this one dish that makes me polish off two bowls of rice, easy, haha. My parents actually used to buy me this dish back in the day just to get me eating more rice, and I genuinely, genuinely love it.

Yep, it's soy crab (ganjang gejang)! Whenever I travel near the coast I always stop by a soy crab restaurant. But this time, even though Jeonju isn't a coastal city, it's so famous for its hanjeongsik (Korean full-course set meals) and good rice, I got curious how soy crab would pair with that rice — so that's how I picked this spot, haha. Let's get into it! ><

Where is Hanjamae Ganjang Gejang in Jeonju Hanok Village, and is there parking?

Hanjamae Ganjang Gejang Jeonju Hanok Village Main Branch is on the 1st floor at 23 Gyeonggijeon-gil, Wansan-gu, Jeonju-si, Jeonbuk, South Korea, open daily 11:00–22:00 with a break time from 15:00–17:00. There's parking for about 4 cars right next to the restaurant, and the restroom inside is separated by gender.

There was a separate parking area right beside the restaurant (about 4 spots). If you park in the inner spots you might end up double-parked in front, but since the staff manage it — and it's right next door — it seemed easy enough to get your car pulled out quickly.

Today's spot was 'Hanjamae Ganjang Gejang Jeonju Hanok Village Main Branch,' which apparently used to be called 'Gomso-eo Ganjang.' It seems they renovated fairly recently, since the sign next to the storefront still had '(formerly) Gomso-eo Ganjang' written on it.

Hanjamae Ganjang Gejang Jeonju Hanok Village Main Branch doesn't just do soy crab — it's the whole mukbang-style seafood-in-soy-sauce lineup you see a lot on YouTube these days, haha. You can also enjoy other seafood cured in soy sauce, like shrimp jang, salmon jang, and abalone jang — that's a real strength of this place!

Inside Hanjamae: the dining room and tables

So I walked inside! The place already looked big from outside, but once I got in, it felt really long horizontally.

Since each set comes per person, the tables themselves were pretty large. Here's a video capturing the overall interior vibe — hope it helps!

There were plants visible toward the back of the restaurant, nice and green — I liked that, haha.

And since you're dealing with soy sauce, splashes on your clothes are a real risk — an apron is a must!!!

You can enjoy the soy crab in the restaurant, but Hanjamae Ganjang Gejang Jeonju Hanok Village Main Branch also sells takeout and gift packaging separately, so if the flavor suits you, you can buy some to take home too, haha. I saw a ton of packing and delivery boxes inside the store — looks like they do a lot of delivery business too.

Once I sat down at the table, there was this cute little napkin tissue box right beside me, haha.

And on one side of the restaurant there was roasted seaweed flakes, along with extra scissors, tongs, and wet wipes — for whenever you want to mix rice into the crab shell to your own taste, you could just grab what you needed right there.

There was also an origin label posted somewhere clearly visible — since they use domestic (Korean) blue crab and abalone, that's something you can eat with confidence, right?

Hanjamae menu and prices: assorted set 28,000 won, single-crab set 21,000 won

Here's the menu! The basic soy crab set with one whole crab was selling for 21,000 won. Honestly, isn't that a great price for a full soy crab course per person?!

Ordering is done via the tablet at each table ><

• 🦀 Assorted soy crab set: ₩28,000 (abalone, salmon, shrimp, crab, egg)
• 🦀 Soy crab (1 crab) set: ₩21,000
• 🍚 Extra rice bowl: ₩1,000

If you order the assorted set, you get to try every soy-cured item Hanjamae Ganjang Gejang Jeonju Hanok Village Main Branch offers, so it's really great value for money! Maybe that's why most tables around us seemed to be ordering the assorted set.

There's a review event where you can choose a tasting portion of seasoned shrimp, soy shrimp, or a drink — might be worth joining in, haha.

While waiting after ordering, I had some water, and it was a strange familiar-but-first-time flavor! It wasn't quite barley tea, but it had a reddish tint and a really nutty, delicious taste that I liked.

This container ends up completely full later, haha — it's for tossing the shells!

What comes in the assorted set: soy shrimp, salmon, abalone and blue crab

Whoa.................... look at that spread! 🦀 The assorted set comes with every type of jang all at once — shrimp + abalone + salmon + blue crab! The owner recommended eating the salmon together with the onions it came with.

And here's the 🦀 basic soy crab set with one whole crab. Since they use domestic crab absolutely packed with roe as their standard, every crab was completely full of roe!!!

And when it all came out as a full set, the standard sides included egg rice, gat kimchi (mustard leaf kimchi), pickled vegetables, seaweed soup, salted seaweed relish, and braised fish cake, which made it really nice to eat alongside the rice. Personally, the salted seaweed relish and gat kimchi were so good I used them as palate cleansers too, and honestly, plain rice with just gat kimchi and seaweed was already more than satisfying!

And that soft-boiled egg on top of the rice was just perfect... (egg rice comes standard!) (※It's soft-boiled by default, but you can choose fully cooked from the kiosk if you prefer.)

How the soy crab tasted: mild soy sauce and firm, roe-filled meat

First, pop the egg yolk on top of the rice and mix it all together — ready to eat!

I started with the shrimp jang! The shrimp were really plump, and all the shell except the head was already peeled off, so you just tap the head with your chopsticks and it comes right off (there's scissors nearby too!) — then it's just pulling out the meat. So springy, that shrimp jang, seriously ㅠㅠㅠ

Then the salmon jang I was so curious about — my parents came with me that day, and they tend to dislike salmon because of its mushy texture, but this salmon was cured in soy sauce and came out so chewy and springy that my parents said, 'Salmon's actually good eaten this way!' and ate it happily.

Next I tried the main soy crab! The roe was absolutely packed in, and I really hate mushy soy crab meat, but this meat was genuinely springy and not mushy at all! And the soy sauce itself wasn't salty at all — so easy to eat, even kids would probably love it.

Abalone jang was, well, abalone, so of course it was delicious, haha, and eating all the jang together with the egg rice — the nutty richness of the egg rice plus the savory saltiness of the soy sauces — wow, that flavor made me proud of myself for choosing this spot to bring my parents, haha.

Look at this, look at this!!! Can you see how springy the meat is?! If the meat were mushy this trick wouldn't work, but because it's genuinely chewy, pressing on it like this just pops the whole thing right out! So easy to scoop onto rice~

Mixing rice in the crab shell: sesame oil rice seasoned just right

This right here! Pop!ㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ Since the rice itself already has sesame oil drizzled on it, just mixing it into the crab shell alone gets the seasoning perfectly balanced — so good, hehe.

And the eggplant and zucchini jeon (savory pancake) was a free service from the owner — nutty and a little sweet, I demolished this one too, haha. So good! And yep, two bowls of rice again today (I ordered extra rice!)

... ... ... Yep, all done... two bowls of rice, cleared!

Is Hanjamae a good Jeonju hanjeongsik meal to take your parents to?

On the way out, I grabbed a mint candy from the counter as a palate cleanser and walked out patting my full belly, haha. If you're looking for a lunch or dinner spot in Jeonju to enjoy hanjeongsik with your parents, and you already love soy crab, I honestly don't think there's a better option in Jeonju. The set composition is great, and having seaweed soup included too made it a really satisfying full meal. Highly, highly, highly recommend as a Jeonju hanjeongsik spot!!!