Gijang Korean restaurant for kids: Dongam Tteokgalbi

Gijang actually has quite a few kid-friendly places, but when I want to feed my little one a proper Korean meal with rice, the options seem to shrink so much 😢 You really start wondering where to go. Every time we go out, Yeondu ends up having udon or pork cutlet, but that day I really wanted her to have rice, so I found Dongam Tteokgalbi (동암떡갈비). It was great for the adults too, and great for babies to have a filling meal!!

Dongam Tteokgalbi location and parking in Gijang

It is right in front of Lotte Dongbusan Outlet and the luge. You can park on the building's first floor, and the lot was fairly spacious, so parking was easy.

This building itself seemed to be full of good restaurants!! There were seriously so, so many people eating there. Out of them all, we picked Dongam Tteokgalbi on the third floor 🤞

Spacious seating that is easy with a baby

I heard there can be a long wait on weekends. I also liked that the waiting area was nicely set up ⭐️ It has the kind of style older diners would enjoy, but there were also lots of younger people inside craving Korean food!! And another thing I loved: the space was seriously so comfortable. Most of the tables seat six, so we had tons of room 😆 Plus, they have high chairs.

They also have a review event, so don't miss it. We could order by tablet, and there were baby meals as well as adult dishes 🙈 And honestly, I was shocked by the full spread that appeared as soon as we ordered. How many side dishes even were there? But that was not all. Then I saw the self-serve bar and thought, wow, are they making any money here?

Side dishes, the self-serve bar, and pot rice

Making even one side dish is a lot of work, but they brought out a table full of them—and the self-serve bar had tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), tofu, and jeyuk (spicy stir-fried pork) too! I absolutely recommend it if you are a big eater. I honestly thought I could finish a whole bowl of rice before the main dish even arrived 😍 Of course, I only thought that. I could not actually eat that much.

And the rice was served in a stone pot, no less. They brought hot water if you asked 🤭 We are team nurungji (scorched rice), so of course we asked for it. I like my rice a little firm, so I loved it, but my mom said it was slightly hardㅠ That is just a matter of taste, though!!! Now, on to checking out the self-serve bar 🤞

Steamed egg and tteokbokki—kids would go absolutely wild for this, right? 😆🙈 Even I, with my elementary-schooler palate, was so excited haha. I kept thinking, was there really a place in Gijang where you could eat like this? Even the old-fashioned snacks were such a nice touch.

The original and Cheongyang cream tteokgalbi combo

The tteokgalbi we ordered came as part of a set like this. We ordered one original and one Cheongyang cream tteokgalbi! ⭐️ I totally recommend ordering one of each.

Wow, this tteokgalbi was unbelievably tender. It broke apart with chopsticks and just melted in my mouth. The original was delicious in its own way, and the Cheongyang cream version was insanely good too. The cream-and-Cheongyang-chili combo was wild. I am ordering it again next time.

Dipped in the sauce they gave us, it seriously melted away in my mouth. A spoonful of rice topped with one of the side dishes? Ridiculously delicious 🥰

And there was even jjigae (Korean stew)!!! The doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) was seriously delicious. It even had plenty of blue crab in it.

There are not that many great places where you can enjoy a proper meal, a proper Korean meal, but I absolutely loved this one 😆