Garak-dong gopchang grill, after-work beer & egg yangbap: Jinseong

Why Jinseong Hanwoo Gopchang Garak Flagship for beef gopchang in Garak-dong?

Jinseong Hanwoo Gopchang Garak Flagship (진성한우곱창 가락본점) is the gopchang place near Garak Market that the writer goes to every time the craving hits. There are plenty of restaurants around the market, but for beef gopchang it's always Jinseong. This time too, I finished work and wanted gopchang with a beer.

This was visit number n for me!! There's a wait every time, but it clears faster than you'd think, so no worries~ I went on a weekday evening and it was still packed! Still a very popular spot.

Jinseong Hanwoo Gopchang menu and how much two people ordered

The menu at Jinseong Hanwoo Gopchang Garak Flagship has three items: hanwoo (Korean beef) gopchang, daechang and makchang. Daechang is just too sinfully good, so the two of us went with 2 servings of gopchang and 1 of makchang.

The gopchang here comes from cattle slaughtered the same day, so you really get that crispy-outside, juicy-inside charm!

The new minari sauce at Jinseong

I don't think this used to be here, but a minari (water dropwort) sauce seems to have been added. It's ground garlic and tangy soy sauce with extra minari, and the fragrant minari went really well with the gopchang.

Three homemade kimchis and seasoned chives, grilled on the griddle

The side dishes at Jinseong Hanwoo Gopchang Garak Flagship include homemade mustard-leaf kimchi, green onion kimchi and chonggak kimchi, plus seasoned chives. Put the green onion kimchi and chives on the cast-iron griddle while the gopchang cooks and grill them together. So good!

Do you have to grill the gopchang yourself at Jinseong?

At Jinseong Hanwoo Gopchang Garak Flagship the staff grill everything, so customers just wait. Out came 2 servings of gopchang and 1 of makchang, packed with filling, and I liked that onion, potato, kimchi, seasoned chives and tteok-sari (rice cake sticks) were already on the griddle by default.

It comes lightly pre-grilled, but it cooks about 5 minutes on the hot griddle, then gets flipped and cooked a few more minutes. The ladies who work there do it all, so we just drank beer and waited.

The Garak flagship, open since 2009

Jinseong set up shop in 2009, and the place I went to is the Garak flagship. Back when this was the only location the wait was even worse, and it looks like a few more branches have opened in Songpa~ Fitting for a famous Songpa gopchang spot.

Beef gopchang and a beer after work

You can't have gopchang without a drink, right? With a cold beer, ahhh~~~~

My precious gopchang sizzling away on the griddle.. The makchang came out whole and the staff cut it into small pieces as it cooked. There were also tteok-sari and potatoes so it never gets boring, perfect for pressing down on the griddle.

The steamed egg custard is a freebie too~ I soothed my stomach with it before the oil hit. And the gopchang sizzling away looked perfect.

How did Jinseong's beef gopchang and makchang taste?

The gopchang at Jinseong Hanwoo Gopchang Garak Flagship was so full that the filling melted away with the fat, and the makchang was surprisingly tender and delicious this day. We were finally told "you can eat now!!!", so this is how it looked right before I dug in. The gopchang had so much filling, melting away with the fat. This is what I wanted.

The piece next to it that looks like a cut of meat is the makchang, and it was sooo tender, like meat, so it was surprisingly good this day.

Gopchang with minari sauce! See the filling packed inside?!!! Rich and nutty from the fat, creamy, and of course it makes you want a beer!

I don't have a close-up of the makchang, but it's more tender than the gopchang, so even well cooked it was easy to eat.

Potatoes crisped in gopchang fat

The potatoes pressed into the gopchang fat were fluffy and delicious too. Eating these at the end with a sip of beer is the golden rule, right?

Jinseong's kkakdugi yangbap: how many servings to order?

Kkakdugi yangbap, the only dessert-course item at Jinseong, is huge, so even a big eater looked like they'd be fine with 1 serving. You still have to have some carbs to finish, right? It's a fried-rice style dish topped with seasoned radish strips and homemade kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi), and it looked really appetizing.

It also comes on a completely separate griddle, so you don't have to finish all the gopchang fat, which somehow feels a bit healthier.

Finely chopped yang (cow's first stomach) is mixed into the fried rice and the portion is huge, so even big eaters would be full with just 1 serving. Such a bargain, such a bargain..

I popped the soft-boiled egg and mixed it all together with the kkakdugi, fried rice and ground garlic, and it was so good!!! There was so much in it that I'd happily eat only this as a lunch menu.

Jinseong Hanwoo Gopchang Garak Flagship is where I'll come back on the days my gopchang gauge runs low. The owner is kind too, so good~~