Hanam kodari-jjim for a couple, Sunday noon booking: Appa Jjim

The best kodari place in Hanam is Appa Jjim!

What kind of restaurant is Appa Jjim Hanam Main Branch?

Not-artificial sweetness, seafood steamed moist on ganbanseok (heated stones), and a wide parking lot right out front. Korean spicy braised dishes can sometimes lean too sweet. But Appa Jjim's cooking doesn't have that artificial sweetness — the balance of spicy and sweet is just right, and I liked that.

8 minutes on foot from Hanam Pungsan Station, with easy parking

It's an 8-minute walk from Hanam Pungsan Station on Line 5, so it's great to reach by public transit,

and there's a wide parking lot right in front of the restaurant, so it's also good if you're driving.

Sunday noon at Appa Jjim: can you walk in without a reservation?

When I went at noon on a Sunday, it was packed with people.

Good thing I'd booked in advance — if I'd shown up without a reservation, I probably would have had to wait a long while.

There was also a group seating area set up further inside the restaurant.

They were also selling homemade soy sauce marinated crab.

After eating spicy braised dishes, a cold, sweet ice cream to cleanse the palate is perfect. As if reading the customers' minds, they were thoughtfully selling ice cream too.

The lunch menu you can order on weekends too

There's a great-value lunch menu that includes suhyangmi pot rice with kodari-jjim or braised hairtail. What I loved most was that this lunch menu is orderable even on weekends.

My husband and I, planning to properly stuff ourselves that day, ordered siraegi kodari-jjim, poached cuttlefish, shrimp tempura, and pot rice too.

The five side dishes that come with every meal

There were a whopping five basic side dishes, and each one was good quality. Sweet-and-tangy cabbage salad and tangy, cool cold seaweed soup came first to whet our appetites. Then stir-fried mushrooms, seasoned bok choy, and nutty stir-fried soybeans rounded out the warm-up before the main meal.

Siraegi kodari-jjim: is it mild enough for spice-shy eaters?

Finally, today's main dish, siraegi kodari-jjim, arrived. It was generously packed with large-cut tofu and radish, thick kodari, well-dried siraegi (dried radish greens), and chewy-looking rice cakes. The hearty look alone was already a pass before I even took a bite.

A staff member personally deboned the kodari for easier eating, which made it much more comfortable to enjoy.

I mixed in the poached bean sprouts that came alongside, tossing everything evenly with the spicy sauce.

There was plenty of seaweed too. Wrapping the spicy sauce-soaked kodari in savory seaweed was truly the perfect pairing.

The radish was cut into thick pieces, great for big bites. I was a little worried it might be bitter or bland since it was summer radish, but the sauce had soaked in well with no bitterness, so my joy doubled.

The siraegi gave off a subtle, savory aroma unique to well-dried greens. Cooked long and slow, it had a soft texture with no tough or fibrous feel, which I really liked.

Suhyangmi pot rice: why one order wasn't enough

Appa Jjim's pot rice is called 'suhyangmi pot rice.' Apparently it's cooked with fragrant rice, and maybe that's why the flavor of the rice was incredibly good. Since I'm on a diet, I ordered just one pot rice, gave two-thirds to my husband, and kept only a third for myself. But once I actually tasted it, I deeply regretted taking so little. Still, it felt too proud to ask for some of it back after already giving it away, so in the end I said nothing and just endured it.

Shrimp tempura and poached cuttlefish at Appa Jjim

The shrimp tempura came out with about five or six pieces per plate. The batter was extremely crispy, and the accompanying sauce paired well with the shrimp too.

The gently poached cuttlefish came with vegetables including carrots.

I liked being able to enjoy the clean, chewy cuttlefish together with the crisp vegetables.

Why we'll go back to Appa Jjim Hanam Main Branch

The siraegi kodari-jjim I ate at Appa Jjim wasn't too spicy for someone like me who's spice-shy, and since the sweetness wasn't artificial, it felt like something anyone could enjoy. Getting to experience so many different textures — the big radish and tofu, plus the chewy rice cakes — was a rare, memorable dining moment. The number and quality of the basic side dishes were great, the suhyangmi pot rice was amazing, and since they run a lunch menu even on weekends, there's no reason not to go back to Appa Jjim.