Gangnam Korean restaurant with crispy potato pancake: Kkeutjang Yeoksam

Walking to Kkeutjang Yeoksam from Yeoksam Station

Kkeutjang Yeoksam is a six-minute walk from Exit 7 of Yeoksam Station! It is also close to Eonju Station, so it is an easy spot for office workers using Lines 2 and 9 to visit.

The old-school storefront, starting with its retro sign, really caught my eye. There is a menu board out front so you can see what is available before going in. Let’s head inside~

A homey, grandmother’s-house interior and barley rice

The interior was very pleasant and clean, making it a nice place to linger. Posters and little objects gave it the warm feeling of visiting your grandmother’s house. With two- to four-person tables and window seats, it is easy for people working near Yeoksam Station to come alone or in a group.

There was a private room too, but it was not currently used for guests; staff were using it or prepping ingredients there.

In one corner of the restaurant, you can refill side dishes and have barley rice when each person orders a menu item. They were so generous that even if two people order one kalguksu and one pancake, they count it as two orders, so we had the barley rice too >.< Add shredded radish salad, bibimbap sauce, sesame oil, plus the seaweed flakes and sesame seeds at each table, and you have barley-rice bibimbap (mixed rice)~~ You can eat it as bibimbap or mix it into the kalguksu broth, so it makes for such a filling meal.

What to know before ordering jang kalguksu and pancakes

Here is the menu. Along with its signature jang kalguksu, there were several kinds of kalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup). The pancakes and drinking dishes are available after 5:00 PM. It is a shame they are only available after 5:00 PM, but thankfully there are side dishes, so lunch can still be a satisfying meal >.<

When you order the iced makgeolli pitcher, it arrives in a chilled ice bucket so you can enjoy the makgeolli nice and cold! Oh, and there is yogurt for dessert, so make sure you get itㅠ I forgot mine... sob 😭

You order on a tablet, and every tablet has tips on how to enjoy the jang kalguksu, so give them a read! With a receipt review, you can receive two mini kimchi pancakes per person or a drink, but since we had the potato pancake, we did not add anything else haha. They also say you can add dried-pollack broth if the jang kalguksu is too strongly seasoned.

Our jang kalguksu, potato pancake, and jumbo dumplings

• Jang kalguksu: ₩11,000
• Potato pancake: ₩13,500
• Jumbo dumplings, 4: ₩7,000
• Iced makgeolli pitcher: ₩10,000

Ta-da! The shredded radish salad and seasoned pickled radish came as the basic side dishes. The complimentary drinking snack was puffed macaroni crackers~ haha

The food was ready about 10 to 15 minutes after ordering. It looked wonderfully generous and delicious even at a glance, right~? Let me introduce each dish.

Crisp outside, wonderfully chewy inside: potato pancake

First up was the potato pancake. It was seriously crazy-chewy and crispy! The outside was crisp, while the middle was truly springy and chewy—easily one of the best potato pancakes I have had. I am normally 100% team kimchi pancake, but I thought jang kalguksu calls for a potato pancake, so I ordered one. Absolutely no regrets! One thing, though: the pancake sticks tightly to the parchment paper, so I think it is best to separate it with the tongs first. It will not stick, and you can enjoy it properly! Still delicious even when it sticks, though 👍🏻

Generous, less intense jang kalguksu

Next was the jang kalguksu! You can make it an extra-large portion for an additional ₩2,000, but the serving was so generous that I wondered, is this already the extra-large one? Thankfully, it was less intense than the version I had in Gangneung, so I was very satisfied :)

The jumbo dumplings were meat dumplings, and they were a perfect match for the jang kalguksu broth. Their wrappers were not thick, and they were packed with filling, making them easy to enjoy.

With a spread that looks like this, how could you not drink~~ haha. We immediately clinked glasses of makgeolli. Maybe because the food was so good, the drinks went down very easily!

They serve dishes that are not commonly found in Seoul, yet they tasted so much better than what I had in Gangneung that I thoroughly enjoyed my makgeolli here. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for great kalguksu and potato pancakes in Yeoksam! :)