24-hour soup restaurant in Jemulpo with a toddler: Sopuri

A hot bowl of gukbap at Yeonan Pier, whenever you need it

Especially when you are stopping by Yeonan Pier Fish Market early in the morning, using the Incheon Port Coastal Passenger Terminal, or coming back from boat fishing and craving a warm bowl of gukbap (rice soup), finding an open restaurant can be a task. This place is open 24 hours! Sopuri Yangpyeong Haejangguk is somewhere everyone, young and old, can eat without watching the clock. We visited with our 30-month-old and had a wonderfully filling meal. You can help yourself to as much seonji (coagulated ox blood), rice, and side dishes as you like at the self-service bar. Seonji can often be a little chalky or have an off smell, but the seonji here was so nutty...

It is near Yeonan Pier General Fish Market, making it conveniently located for people passing through the area. It would be great for a meal after visiting the fish market, or for a warm bowl of gukbap before or after using the Incheon Port Coastal Passenger Terminal.

Its biggest advantage is definitely being open 24 hours. Early risers can have a meal here, and you can stop by late at night or at dawn when a warm broth suddenly sounds irresistible. Lots of people are out early around Yeonan Pier for fishing or the fish market, so I thought this restaurant suited the character of the area really well.

When I visited, there were people coming in for meals, and perhaps because of its Yeonan Pier location, it had an atmosphere that seemed ideal for nearby workers or people out enjoying fishing to drop in and eat. Above all, I liked that its 24-hour hours make it easy to visit even when meal times are awkward.

Gukbap and hangover soup menus, with a little one

The kind of restaurant that comes to mind when it is too early for breakfast, an awkward time for lunch, or late at night when you want gukbap. There was a wide selection of gukbap and haejangguk (hangover soup) on the menu.

• Yangpyeong haenaetang (offal and tripe soup)
• Yangpyeong haejangguk (hangover soup with seonji and tripe)
• Korean beef head gukbap
• Bean sprout hangover soup
• Yeolmu naengmyeon (young-radish-water kimchi cold noodles)
• Stir-fried offal
• Offal hot pot
• Suyuk (boiled sliced beef)

Yangpyeong haenaetang contains offal and tripe, while Yangpyeong haejangguk contains seonji and tripe. The restaurant noted that its beef, tripe, offal, seonji, and kimchi are domestically sourced, and that every menu item is available for takeout.

This time, we ordered two of the dishes we had tried ourselves. Both were gukbap-style dishes, but their flavors leaned in slightly different directions, so they were nice to order together and compare.

Personally, I do not reach for overly dry meat, even in gukbap, but here there was a good mix of lean meat and pleasantly chewy pieces, making it lovely with the broth. It also came with wasabi soy sauce, so you can lift out the meat and dip it separately. A spoonful with thin wheat noodles, rice, and meat is seriously filling. Our little one and I shared the clear broth, while my husband happily had the red broth, haha. He loaded it up with chopped chili seasoning, chili oil, and lots of pepper—ahhh!

A self-service bar for extra seonji and rice

After ordering, the basic side dishes were set out, and the part I really liked was the self-service bar. You can have extra seonji, rice, and side dishes. When you are eating gukbap or haejangguk, sometimes you need a little more rice or want another helping of banchan (side dishes), you know?

This will be especially welcome for anyone who loves seonji. The seonji was kept warm, so it went nicely with the gukbap, and it was also good dipped in wasabi soy sauce. The rice came in a generous bowl, and since you can get more, it seems well suited to anyone looking for a truly filling meal. A spoonful of gukbap with a piece of kimchi on the side was such an understatedly good match.

Beef head gukbap that starts clean and lingers deeply

If I had to put it in one phrase, the broth started out mild and clean, then left a deeper flavor as it went on. I tend to taste the broth first when I eat gukbap, and I liked that it did not feel overly heavy or murky. Another appealing point of the beef head gukbap was the thin wheat noodles in it. I personally love having somyeon (thin wheat noodles) in gukbap, so that was right up my alley. I slurped up the noodles first, had a spoonful of broth, then ate it with the meat too; even in one bowl, there were so many different textures.

We had a proper meal at Sopuri Yangpyeong Haejangguk, then even had a cola! After looking around to our hearts' content, we headed to Jemulpo-gu Sangsang Platform, explored some more, had dessert, and wrapped up the day.

It was a good place to stop by when you want a hearty meal at Yeonan Pier or are craving a hot, spicy bowl of hangover soup.