Summer cold soba lunch at Gyudongjip, a Noryangjin Japanese restaurant

What is Gyudongjip Noryangjin Main Branch like?

Gyudongjip Noryangjin Main Branch (규동집 노량진본점) is a gyudon (beef rice bowl) and donburi restaurant at 1 Manyang-ro 14ga-gil, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, on the first floor. It is open every day from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. It's a Noryangjin spot for eating alone, and you can sort out a simple, easy, good-value meal for either lunch or dinner.

This time I visited Gyudongjip Noryangjin Main Branch, a well-known gyudon place. It's popular, and I went for a weekend lunch, so there was a bit of a wait.

Seating and menu at Gyudongjip Noryangjin Main Branch

Gyudongjip has solo seats, 2-person tables, 4-person tables and group tables. As a Noryangjin solo-dining favorite, it had comfortable solo seats, and with the variety of spaces it was easy to eat comfortably.

The menu is wide: gyudon sets, chashu-don (braised pork bowl), yukhoe-don (raw beef bowl), curry, udon, cold soba and all kinds of fried sides, so there's plenty to choose from.

Order by tablet, help yourself to side dishes

Every table has a tablet, which made ordering easy, and there are pickled radish, kimchi, shichimi (Japanese chili seasoning) and more set out for self-serve side dishes. Review events and tips on how to enjoy the food even more are kindly laid out, so they're worth a look.

What did we order for about ₩35,000?

Here's what we ordered at Gyudongjip Noryangjin Main Branch that day.

• Gyudon set – regular size-up, mini udon, sweet potato cheese korokke
• Yukhoe-don set – mini udon
• Cold soba (extra noodles) – karaage chicken

The dishes arrived, and just from the lineup you could feel the reasonable price and value. Eating this much for about ₩35,000 makes it an incredible value restaurant!

How were the taste and portion of the yukhoe-don set?

The yukhoe-don set is something like yukhoe bibimbap (raw beef over rice). We ordered it with mini udon and also added karaage chicken. It seems really generous and plentiful for one person.

We put in as much of the provided sauce as we liked and mixed it well, and you can see the yukhoe is piled in generously.

It had a rich savory depth and was so good, and the portion was really generous, so I enjoyed it a lot.

They give you seaweed too, so wrapping bites in it was great. I never expected the yukhoe-don to be this fresh and tasty. There was a surprisingly large amount of yukhoe.

Gyudon set sized up, with karai sauce

The gyudon set normally comes with a mini gyudon, but we wanted a hearty meal, so we sized up to the regular size. We added the spicy karai sauce to make it hotter, and for the fried side we picked the sweet potato cheese korokke (croquette).

We went straight in, adding the poached egg and karai sauce and mixing.

First, the meat was piled on generously, so it was filling, and I liked that it tasted good and savory without any gamey smell.

It's "mini" udon, but the portion is big

The set comes with what they call mini udon, but for mini udon the portion was really big, which surprised me. The udon was very good and nice and warm.

Is the extra-noodle cold soba worth it?

The cold soba suits summer, and I ordered it because I wanted something really cool and refreshing. It looked cold at first glance and the color was great.

I really like noodles, so I added extra noodles too. The portion was huge, perfect for sharing, and the noodles were really chewy.

Cool and chewy enough to chase the heat away! The flavor is rich and the noodles are properly springy, so if you like cold soba, definitely order it.

Sides: karaage chicken and sweet potato cheese korokke

The karaage (Japanese fried chicken) went really well with the special sauce, and it was tender, warm and crispy, great alongside the main dishes.

The sweet potato cheese korokke was a really good side. If you like sweet potato and cheese, definitely order it. Eat it while it's warm and the cheese stretches like this!

Honest overall review of Gyudongjip Noryangjin Main Branch

Gyudongjip Noryangjin Main Branch was so tasty, and you can have a reasonable, filling lunch at a low price, so I was very satisfied. The staff were friendly and it's good for eating alone, so I could see for myself why it's popular as a Noryangjin solo-dining spot.

And plum tea for dessert! It's a nice palate cleanser, cool and sweet-tart.

There were also cute Gyudongjip hand fans, which would be handy when waiting outside in summer.

If you're looking for tasty, cheap rice bowls in Noryangjin, with good-value lunch and dinner options like gyudon, yukhoe-don, chashu-don, cold soba and udon, try Gyudongjip Noryangjin Main Branch!

Writer's star ratings

• Price: ★★★★
• Friendliness: ★★★★
• Taste: ★★★★