Hanam Wolho-ro braised pollock, early dinner with twins: Appa Jjim

Today's meal out was for mom and dad, who love spicy food! A food blogger friend genuinely recommended this place, and I'd been curious about it for a while — so when the chance came up, I took the twins along to Appa Jjim Main Branch.

Is Appa Jjim Hanam busy at 4:30pm?

Appa Jjim Main Branch is a braised pollock specialist on 60 Wolho-ro in Hanam, Gyeonggi. Since the twins didn't nap that day, we decided to eat dinner early and went in around 4:30pm. That's a really early hour to call it dinner, right? But once we walked in, there were already quite a few people eating.

The parking lot was spacious too, so it was easy to visit with the kids by car,

and there was a baby chair ready at the entrance.

What the family ordered: small siraegi braised pollock, seafood pancake and kalguksu

Today's main order was the small siraegi (dried radish greens) braised pollock, ₩35,000. You can choose small, medium, or large depending on your party size, and adjust the spice level too — we went spicy!

We added hyangmi pot rice, and the seafood pancake that came to the next table looked so good we ordered the crispy seafood pancake too, haha. For kids there was kalguksu, pork loin cutlet, and kids' shrimp fried rice — we picked kalguksu.

I used to think, when a braised-food restaurant had pork cutlet on the menu, 'who on earth orders cutlet here?' ...but after raising kids, I get it now. It's people like us. 🤣 We're just grateful that mom and dad can eat the spicy braised pollock while the kids can pick from kalguksu, cutlet, or fried rice, haha.

The twins start with the seaweed side dish

The moment the side dishes arrived, the twins — big seaweed fans — reached straight for it. Exactly as expected, haha.

Kids' utensils were prepared separately too, so it was easy to portion out food for the twins.

Appa Jjim's crispy seafood pancake, as crispy as its name

Then came the crispy seafood pancake. I was surprised the moment I saw the size. "Why is this so huge?" haha.

I put my hand next to it to show the scale in a photo, and the twins copied me and put their hands on the plate too 🤣. True to its name, the outside was nice and crispy — great on its own, but even better dipped lightly in the braised pollock sauce.

The siraegi braised pollock arrives at the table

Finally, the star dish! The siraegi braised pollock came out looking irresistible with its red sauce. The staff offered to debone the pollock for easier eating, and I watched them hold it with tongs and neatly slide the bones out to the side.

Deboning fish while eating braised dishes is a bit of a hassle, so having it done for us made it so much easier to just dig in. Along with the pollock and siraegi, I also tried the tofu, rice cake, and radish that had soaked up the rich sauce — all well-seasoned. I'm usually not a fan of the radish in braised fish dishes, but here I kept picking it up, haha.

The pollock itself, needless to say, and the siraegi weren't tough at all, so eating them together worked really well. Moderately spicy with a hint of sweetness — I'm still craving it as I write this post. 🤣

There was still plenty of sauce left, so we added bean sprouts and mixed it all together — also delicious! Wrapping it in seaweed, piling pollock onto siraegi, dipping the pancake in the sauce... the hyangmi pot rice just kept disappearing, haha.

Kalguksu for the twins, nurungji (toasted rice crust) for mum

We portioned out kalguksu for the twins, who can't handle spicy food. My son took one bite and suddenly said,

Mom, it's delicious! The best!

which had me laughing for ages, haha.

Except... he'd eaten walnut bread on the way to the restaurant, so he barely touched the kalguksu after all that. This kid... did he just say 'the best' to make mom happy? 🤣

Our little princess, on the other hand, got completely hooked on the nurungji (scorched rice) from the hyangmi pot rice. She even finished it off with sungnyung (scorched rice tea) — a proper finish!

Too full for the fried rice at Appa Jjim

Honestly, I wanted to finish with fried rice too. But after the braised pollock, seafood pancake, kalguksu, and pot rice, there really wasn't any room left, haha. The small braised pollock was a good portion for two, but if you order several sides like we did, you can eat really generously. I'm still a little sad we couldn't manage the fried rice. 🤣

By 5:30pm the car park fills at this Hanam braised pollock restaurant

We basically inhaled the meal and were done in about an hour, but by 5:30pm cars kept pulling into the lot. There were already customers when we arrived at 4:30pm, and as dinnertime approached it got even busier — I finally understood why my friend recommended it so strongly. Looking at other tables, the orders varied widely too — not just braised pollock, but braised monkfish, braised seafood, and soups. I'd love to try other dishes next time.

After the meal, the twins each grabbed an ice cream from near the entrance and finished off dessert sitting outside the restaurant. Appa Jjim Main Branch delivered on both taste and portion size for the ₩35,000 small siraegi braised pollock. Best of all, mom and dad could enjoy the spicy braised pollock while the kids picked their own non-spicy options like kalguksu, cutlet, or fried rice — a solid spot for a family meal out. Turns out my food blogger friend's recommendation was spot on. :) Next time, I'll definitely save room for the fried rice. 🤣

Appa Jjim Hanam Main Branch: address, parking and high chairs

• Address: 60 Wolho-ro, 1st floor, Hanam-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
• Parking: On-site parking available
• Baby chair: Available