Bracken sundaeguk with heotgae tea in Gangnam, Seoul: Sinju Okmi

Why Sinju Okmi near Gangnam Station became the first meal of the day

After finishing up work near Gangnam Station, my stomach — which had gotten nothing all morning and into the afternoon — started growling loudly, so I decided to grab a late lunch and get some proper nourishment at Sinju Okmi, a sundaeguk (blood sausage soup) restaurant near Gangnam Station.

(On the way there, I happened to overhear a group heading to the same place — one guy said the mom on some baby YouTube channel he watches always raves about this exact sundaeguk spot.)

Inside Sinju Okmi Gangnam Branch: a hanok-style dining room

Inside the restaurant. Since sundaeguk is such a classic Korean dish, the whole place is decked out in hanok (traditional Korean house) style interior — there's even a well inside, which I thought was pretty cool haha.

Sinju Okmi menu and prices

The menu board with prices. Alongside sundaeguk, there's also pork gukbap, and side dishes like pork cutlet or dumplings that kids would probably love. But the main event is clearly sundaeguk — there were several versions: spicy sundaeguk, bracken sundaeguk, sanghwang mushroom sundaeguk, myeongin (master's) sundaeguk, sundaeguk set, and more.

Heotgae tea instead of water, plus side dishes and the self-bar

The basic side dishes at Sinju Okmi. I was already tired and worn out, so when they brought heotgae (raisin tree) tea instead of plain water as the default drink, I was pretty pleased and drank it happily. I'm the type who prefers tea over plain water anyway haha.

The basic sides at Sinju Okmi are peppers, radish salad, and diced radish kimchi, with seasoning sauce, perilla powder, and salted shrimp for the sundaeguk set out on the table. If you want, there's a self-bar in the middle of the restaurant with somyeon noodles and various seasoning sauces and side dishes you can grab yourself. I'm more of a rice person than noodles so I didn't bother with the somyeon, but a lot of people seem to like adding noodles to their soup — I saw plenty of people carrying somyeon back to their tables. I eat a lot of vegetables, so having everything laid out at the self-bar meant I could just go back and forth grabbing whatever I wanted, as much as I wanted, which was great.

I was really hungry that day, and since I had to catch a train and keep moving after this, this single meal ended up being the first and last thing I ate all day. So I treated it as catching up on all the boknal (dog days of summer) restorative food I'd missed this summer, and went a little all out — bracken sundaeguk for ₩12,000, and a half plate of freshly boiled pork suyuk for ₩15,000.

Master's bracken sundaeguk, 12,000 won: how soft is the bracken?

Sinju Okmi's bracken sundaeguk. I already love bracken (gosari) in bibimbap or as a regular side dish, but I'd never had it in sundaeguk before, so it caught my eye. While I was looking over the menu, I kept hearing staff calling out orders like 'four bracken!' and 'bracken order's up!' at other tables — it seemed like this was clearly their signature dish, so I ordered it.

Even eaten by the spoonful in a hot soup, the bracken had no weird texture at all — it was soft and tender, not chewy or tough. There was a generous amount of sundae (blood sausage) and meat in there too. The broth was clean but savory and really tasty, with plenty of meaty bits. Alternating between a hot spoonful of broth and a bite of meat, my whole body felt like it opened up — that hot-but-refreshing feeling!

Freshly boiled pork suyuk, half plate for 15,000 won

Sinju Okmi's freshly boiled pork suyuk half plate, priced at ₩15,000.

The half plate of pork suyuk had a nice variety of cuts and was delicious. There was one moist piece with a slightly fatty, hangjeongsal (pork jowl)-like texture that was the best of all — though I'm not too well-versed in cuts of pork, so I'm not totally sure what it was called.

What I learned about Sinju Okmi after the meal

Just now, while adding this place to my map, I found out that Sinju Okmi's original branch is actually in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province. I guess they've been expanding as a chain since the portions are generous and everything is clean and solid? Anyway, between the hearty, restorative bracken sundaeguk and the pork suyuk with its range of cuts, it was a satisfying meal that gave me the energy to power through the rest of my day — my sundaeguk lunch at Sinju Okmi near Gangnam Station.