Yeonnam-dong Korean restaurant: pork kimchi jjim at Susu Yeonnam

I'd been here before and remembered it being so delicious that I came back after a while. This is Susu Yeonnam (수수연남), a Yeonnam-dong restaurant with a slightly modern Korean vibe.

Where is Susu Yeonnam, and are dogs allowed?

Susu Yeonnam is in Yeonnam-dong, so it's easy to get to, and dogs are allowed too. But if you're coming with a dog, you can only sit on the outdoor terrace!

In weather like this, eating outside is pretty much perfect.

I came on a weekday, a bit early in the evening, and there were already people eating. As I ate, more and more customers kept coming in.

Susu Yeonnam's menu and what we ordered

Susu Yeonnam's menu is pretty varied. There's yukhoe bibimbap (raw beef rice bowl), seafood in soy sauce, ganjang gejang (soy-marinated crab), makguksu (buckwheat noodles), pork belly bossam, savory pancakes, and kimchi jjim (braised kimchi stew) — quite a lot going on. Last time I visited, the woo-samgyeop perilla cream potato sujebi (hand-torn noodle soup) was the standout — thick and creamy but not greasy at all, really good. The minari raw cockle sauce rice bowl was also fresh and generously topped. But this time, kimchi jjim was calling my name.

There's a wide range of drinks and alcohol too.

• Sous vide pork shoulder aged kimchi jjim ₩35,000
• Extra sorghum rice ₩2,000
• Flying fish roe sorghum rice ₩4,000
• Black sesame perilla oil ice cream (review event item)
• Total ₩41,000

Two basic side dishes come out too — I'm not entirely sure what they are, but they're perfect as banchan. The one on the left looks like it might be myeongi namul (wild garlic leaves).

So generous!

Sous vide pork aged kimchi jjim, 35,000 won: portion and taste

Sous vide pork shoulder aged kimchi jjim, ₩35,000.

Just so you know, rice isn't included with Susu Yeonnam's kimchi jjim, so I ordered it separately. It already looked pretty generous in the photo, but the portion really is huge.

There's plenty of kimchi in there, and being sous vide, the pork shoulder looked super tender. At first I wondered if I could really finish it all given how big the portion looked... but it was so good I just demolished it, haha.

Flying fish roe sorghum rice, 4,000 won

Flying fish roe sorghum rice, ₩4,000.

Rice with kimchi jjim is already an unbeatable combo... but eating it together with the flying fish roe sorghum rice made it even better. The rice was nice and dense, with the roe popping between bites, and mixed into the kimchi jjim broth it was so good.

Sorghum rice, large, 2,000 won

Extra (large) sorghum rice, ₩2,000. Regular sorghum rice is ₩1,500, but since there was a large option I got that instead. It definitely comes in a generous portion.

Anyway, both the meat and the kimchi were braised through, soft, and really delicious. The meat just melted apart, and the minari added a fragrant kick. The broth was subtly spicy and tangy with a touch of sourness and sweetness — really well balanced.

So much kimchi in there too! Wrapping rice in that well-fermented kimchi jjim kimchi... honestly makes you grateful to have been born in Korea.

The pork was thick, generous in portion, and so tender. Rice, meat, kimchi, over and over — before you know it, it's all gone...

The meat was cut into bite-sized pieces, and it just kept coming no matter how much I ate. It was subtly spicy overall with a good sweet-and-sour balance, so I think pretty much anyone would enjoy it. Kimchi jjim is usually decent wherever you go, but making it truly delicious is actually hard! This was genuinely great.

Scraped the pot clean.

Dessert: black sesame perilla oil ice cream

Black sesame perilla oil ice cream (review event item). This was provided as a review event item, and the combo of nutty, fragrant perilla oil with sweet ice cream is great. The ice cream itself is decent quality — thick and rich. There seemed to be some fried sorghum or something mixed in, giving it a fun crunchy texture too. Perfect for dessert, recommended!

Is Susu Yeonnam worth going back to?

Susu Yeonnam, a fusion Korean restaurant in Yeonnam-dong! The sous vide pork shoulder aged kimchi jjim, with its well-braised kimchi, melt-apart pork, and fragrant minari combo, was so good, and eating it together with sorghum rice and flying fish roe sorghum rice made it disappear fast. The kimchi jjim I had this time was really great, but the cream sujebi is delicious too — personally the best of the two dishes I've tried here! Honestly though, whatever you order seems to be good. If you're looking for a good spot in Yeonnam-dong, I highly recommend this place.