Gyeongju Korean restaurant dinner with parents and kids: Dongyang

A comforting Korean dinner on Gyeongju's Hwangridan-gil: chicken stew at Dongyang Baekban

I had a piping hot chicken stew at Dongyang Baekban Gyeongju Hwangridan-gil Main Branch. Traveling in Gyeongju with my parents and my kid, we'd been eating mostly spicy food, so I got a craving for something that felt more like a restorative, body-nourishing meal.

Traveling around Gyeongju, I find myself craving Korean food more than usual, haha — maybe it's all the walking, or maybe it's just because there's so much good Korean food here. This is a great place to eat something warm now that the weather's turned a bit chilly.

Where is Dongyang Baekban Gyeongju Hwangridan-gil Main Branch, and what are the hours?

Dongyang Baekban Gyeongju Hwangridan-gil Main Branch sits right on Hwangridan-gil street, and you can find it easily by heading straight from the Hwangnam-dong Community Service Center. It has a spacious front yard with two statues that look kind of like haetae (mythical guardian creatures?), so it stands out.

Hours are 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM. There's a break time from 3 to 5 PM, and last order is at 8 PM, so you just need to time your visit — I went for dinner! I imagine the mood is quite different in the evening compared to daytime.

Inside the converted old house: atmosphere and seating

The inside of Dongyang Baekban Gyeongju Hwangridan-gil Main Branch feels like it was renovated from an old traditional house, keeping the old-school charm of Gyeongju intact. Walking into the main house, the atmosphere completely changes, hahaha. With the soft, dim lighting added on top, it feels like a genuinely upscale Korean restaurant!?

Maybe because we went in the evening, the quiet, old-fashioned atmosphere felt even more striking! The tables come in various sizes — for 2, 4, 6 people and more — so it works well for couples, families, or a whole extended family stopping by together while traveling in Gyeongju! On the day I visited, there were couples there besides my family, so it really seems like a place that suits people of all ages.

The ox bone and herbal broth behind the stew

What sets Dongyang Baekban Gyeongju Hwangridan-gil Main Branch apart is its health-food feel — all of the soup dishes use an ox bone and herbal broth, giving them a faint herbal aroma along with a taste that feels both healthy and delicious. These are all familiar Korean dishes, but the way they're made here feels distinctly their own, hahaha. The chicken stew uses mushrooms for a restorative, body-nourishing feel, and there's even a tomato-based spicy braised chicken — it's all pretty unique.

Dongyang Baekban's menu and what we ordered, with prices

The main dishes on the menu at Dongyang Baekban Gyeongju Hwangridan-gil branch include the eun-i mushroom nurungji black chicken stew, spicy braised chicken (dakbokkeumtang), duruchigi (stir-fried pork), and jjimdak (braised chicken), hahahaha. From the reviews, a lot of people order the spicy dakbokkeumtang, but since I was there with my kid, I wanted something milder, so I ordered the eun-i mushroom nurungji black chicken stew. It was ₩38,000! There's a medium and large size, so you can order based on how many people you have.

Beyond that, there were plenty of special-menu items and rice dishes people were ordering, and for families with kids, there were also add-ons like beef jeon, mackerel, or tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patties) that both adults and kids could enjoy together. Next time I want to try one of everything from the special-menu and rice sections.

What side dishes come with the meal?

The water served by default had a nutty, savory flavor, and the basic side dishes were bean sprouts, braised soybeans, rice, and seasoned seaweed flakes — good ones for kids to eat too.

How does the silver mushroom nurungji black sesame chicken stew taste?

The eun-i mushroom nurungji black chicken stew we ordered really lives up to its restorative-food reputation, with a savory herbal aroma that's genuinely delicious. It's made with eun-i mushrooms, golden enoki mushrooms, and ginseng, simmered richly with black sesame and nurungji (scorched rice) into a body-nourishing boneless chicken stew, hahaha. Chicken and mushrooms alone could feel a little plain or empty, but with the nurungji added, it felt properly filling too, haha.

With a mushroom base, boneless chicken, and nurungji, it's easy for kids to eat and delicious for adults of any age too. The real hook of Dongyang Baekban is the broth — it's genuinely so good, I finished a whole bowl of rice with it, that savory and delicious it was. The nurungji was also simmered until it had soaked up all that broth flavor, which made it incredibly tasty too.

After eating mostly spicy food while traveling around Gyeongju's Hwangridan-gil, having this restorative chicken stew to soothe my stomach felt so warm and comforting. If you're looking for a good Korean restaurant in Gyeongju, I'd recommend Dongyang Baekban Gyeongju Hwangridan-gil Main Branch, hahaha.