Sindang-dong Korean restaurant, 3 kettles of makgeolli: Gyeryugwan

Sindang-dong is having a moment these days. There are so many good restaurants pulling people in, but one spot I can never just walk past is Gyeryugwan. A whole chicken roasted properly over an open wood fire — game over! I've been hooked ever since I first tried it a few years back.

Where is Gyeryugwan in Sindang-dong, and what are its hours?

The pile of firewood stacked outside the door already tells you this place means business.

And with whole chickens turning slowly in front of the wood fire, you basically eat with your eyes before you even walk in, haha.

• Address: 15-17 Toegye-ro 87-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea, Units 102 & 103
• Location: About 85m from Exit 2 of Sindang Station
• Hours: Daily 16:00–23:00 / last order 22:00
• Parking: Use nearby public parking lots
• It's behind the IBK bank near Exit 2 of Sindang Station, so it's easy to find.
• This place specializes in oak-fired chicken with neungi mushroom and other chicken dishes.
• A well-known Sindang-dong restaurant that's been featured on several TV shows!

I'd been burned by the waiting line every single time I tried to visit, so this time I decided to do a weekend opening run and skip the wait for good. Seeing the firewood piled up at the entrance already made me happy, knowing I'd get to meet that smoky chicken again today.

Inside Gyeryugwan: seating and open kitchen

Once you step inside, the first thing you notice is the wall of photos from various TV features.

The interior is roomier and cleaner than I expected. There's an open kitchen on the left, so you can naturally watch the cooking, and the tables are spaced out comfortably.

On the right side there are tables for 2 and tables for 4, well arranged by party size. We were only two, but since it was still early and there was room, we got seated at a 4-person table. The partitioned seating meant we could chat away without worrying about the next table. 😊

Gyeryugwan's menu and house makgeolli lineup

Roasted chicken, chicken jeon, chicken salad, chicken makguksu, chicken gaejang — I didn't realize you could make so many dishes out of chicken! The menu is packed. 😋 Everything looks delicious, so it's a happy kind of struggle deciding what to order. If you're visiting with a group, ordering a bunch of dishes to share sounds like a great plan.

If you're a makgeolli lover, the lineup here will make your eyes light up too — Horangi, Neurin Maeul, Song Myung-sup, Haechang, and more. There's plenty of variety, so it's fun picking one based on your taste.

What we ordered at Gyeryugwan

• Oak-fired chicken with neungi mushroom: ₩23,000
• Assorted chicken jeon: ₩25,000
• Chicken doenjang makguksu: ₩13,000
• Gyeryugwan makgeolli: ₩6,000 × 3

The basic side dishes come out first — sauce that pairs well with the fire-roasted chicken, kimchi, yeolmu kimchi (young radish kimchi), and radish pickle. Honestly, even the side dishes at this Sindang-dong favorite are top notch.

That day I was somehow craving makgeolli from a kettle, so we ordered Gyeryugwan's house makgeolli.

Oak-fired chicken with neungi mushrooms, 23,000 won: crisp skin and stuffed sticky rice

Once the oak-fired chicken with neungi mushroom (neungi mushroom, 능이버섯) officially arrives at the table, the whole mood at the table lifts.

Smoked over oak for more than an hour, the golden-brown color of the skin alone sets Gyeryugwan's oak-fired chicken apart. Slow-roasted over the wood fire, it has a subtle smokiness that's really appealing. The fat renders out and all that's left is the clean, savory flavor of the chicken — in my book, this is the best whole chicken out there.

Inside the chicken's belly, it's packed full of neungi mushroom and sticky rice! Just seeing how stuffed it is makes you feel satisfied already. 😋

First bite: the golden-brown skin. Crispy skin gives way to moist, tender chicken underneath. This is exactly why you end up eating every bit of skin at this place.

Dip the skin into the pollock roe mayo — savory chicken skin plus salty, creamy pollock roe mayo is an absolute delicacy.

For the tender meat, I added a bit of herring roe on top.

Next up: the sticky rice infused with neungi mushroom aroma. Even on its own the rice is already well seasoned, but adding a little herring roe sends the umami through the roof!

Throw a bit of kimchi in between bites and there's no room to feel greasy. From the crispy skin to the moist meat to the fragrant neungi mushroom rice, there's so much to enjoy in a single chicken — I think one taste here and you're a regular for life.

Chicken doenjang makguksu, 13,000 won: house-made buckwheat noodles

Then there's the chicken doenjang (soybean paste) makguksu (buckwheat noodles). The name alone makes you curious, right? It's topped with a doenjang sauce made by long-simmering chicken and butter together. Unlike the typical sweet-and-spicy bibim makguksu, this one stands out for the savory depth of the doenjang, the richness of the butter, and the umami of the chicken all coming together.

The noodles at this Sindang-dong favorite are house-made by blending bitter buckwheat from Jeju with regular buckwheat. You can really taste the deep buckwheat flavor, and the noodles themselves have a nutty quality. The sliced boiled meat on top is also nicely chewy and full of flavor.

This spot next to the entrance is the noodle-making room! (A great restaurant even makes its own noodles differently! 😋)

Pairing the tender chicken with the makguksu soaked in savory doenjang sauce makes the whole meal feel even richer!

Assorted chicken jeon, 25,000 won: from chicken hearts to pepper meatballs

The golden-fried assorted chicken jeon (savory pan-fried fritters) is a fun dish too. It's made up of chicken thigh, neck meat, heart, and a spicy pepper meatball made from minced breast meat and cartilage. Being able to enjoy chicken in so many different fried forms is a huge draw at this Sindang-dong favorite. I also loved that the assorted jeon comes with pickled onion and scallop jeotgal (salted seafood) on the side.

The heart is scored with cuts, making it easy to eat.

My personal favorite is the pepper jeon, stuffed generously with the meat meatball filling.

There's zero gaminess typical of chicken, and it's moist all the way through.

I love the combo of jeon plus jeotgal, so I topped mine with the scallop jeotgal.

Salty chicken jeon plus the sweetness of makgeolli makes for an automatically happy mouth. One bite of jeon makes you want a sip of makgeolli, one sip makes you want another bite of jeon — an endless loop 😃 We may have been the reason someone else couldn't get Gyeryugwan house makgeolli that day. (We polished off three kettles.)

Is Gyeryugwan worth a weekend open run?

If you're looking for something a bit different in the world of chicken dishes in Sindang-dong, Gyeryugwan is worth a visit. From watching the whole chickens spin over the wood fire outside to actually eating them, the fun was real from start to finish. Chicken fully infused with oak smoke, assorted chicken jeon, makguksu, and makgeolli on top of it all! We ate well and full today. We came for one chicken and left having enjoyed a full spread — a delicious night in Sindang-dong. 😋