Giheung kalguksu restaurant with baby gim for kids: Jangwongap

After signing up for a dishwasher and water purifier at Living Power Center, I looked for somewhere to eat nearby and — Jangwongap Kalguksu, my favorite, has a branch here too! Our second kid happened to be asleep, so I needed somewhere with a big parking lot. This was it!

Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch, a Lotte Outlet Yongin Giheung favorite

• 🏠 90 Gomae-ro, 1st floor, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
• ⏰ Daily 10:30–21:00, break time 16:00–17:00
• Last order 15:00, 20:00

Weekend 5pm visit: was there a wait at Jangwongap Kalguksu?

Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch is a genuinely popular spot every time I come. We showed up right as weekend break time ended, at 5pm for an early dinner, and the place was already full before our food even arrived... is this real? haha. I guess a good restaurant is a good restaurant, weekday or weekend.

Inside and outside Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch

Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch, a Lotte Outlet Yongin Giheung favorite, has easy parking and a spacious interior. Baby chairs, of course! And they even provide baby rice and gim — a truly kid-friendly restaurant! As a parent of two, this gets a full five stars ★★★★★

Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch, a Lotte Outlet Yongin Giheung favorite, hand-makes its noodles the traditional way, kneaded a thousand times, for a dense yet soft texture. More and more restaurants are doing house-made noodles these days, and this is the best kalguksu I've had.

The interior of Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch, a Lotte Outlet Yongin Giheung favorite, is really, really spacious! And yet... it fills up completely, weekday or weekend.

There's a self-serve bar, and even pancake takeout is self-serve! Paper boxes and plastic bags are all ready to go.

Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung menu, prices and how to eat it

Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch menu

We ordered the signature chadol minari ssam shabu kalguksu for two at Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch, ₩15,500, a Lotte Outlet Yongin Giheung favorite. There's also a live abalone chadol shabu kalguksu, which seems great for building strength, plus plain shabu kalguksu and basic kalguksu. I'd always wanted to try the whole shrimp seafood pancake, so we ordered it without chili since the kids were with us — plus two live abalones!

How-to-eat guides are posted helpfully everywhere. Definitely read them carefully before eating!!! If it's a bit confusing, there's a video too. To sum it up simply:

• Blanch the beef brisket, then dip in raw minari (water dropwort) + sesame oil
• Blanch the beef brisket, then dip in raw minari + hairtail jeotgal (salted hairtail) + sesame oil
• Dip blanched minari and mushrooms in soy sauce

After finishing the kalguksu at Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch, a Lotte Outlet Yongin Giheung favorite, definitely order the fried rice — it's free! Don't forget... the fried rice is seriously no joke.

Since we came with a kid, the staff brought out baby rice and baby gim — five packs of gim, can you believe it? Even the free gim was genuinely delicious, thick and felt premium.

What comes with the chadol minari ssam shabu kalguksu

Food at Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch

The chadol minari ssam arrived! Clean and neat, genuinely great value for the price. The minari for wrapping is trimmed to only the tender parts, and the brisket doesn't taste cheap either.

The mushrooms and minari come with plenty of carrots too.

Nothing is thrown together carelessly at Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch, a Lotte Outlet Yongin Giheung favorite. You can experience the kalguksu in five different textures — an omakase of noodles, basically.

This is the house-made noodle, kneaded ten times.

You'll definitely refill the kimchi — Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch, a Lotte Outlet Yongin Giheung favorite, makes its kimchi fresh daily with Uiseong garlic kimchi.

From brisket wraps to live abalone and the whole-shrimp seafood pancake

Now for the real eating. With so many ingredients set out, this is finally the main event! Meat in, ready to make a chadol minari ssam! The meat is thin so it cooks fast — don't get distracted. Once the shabu broth starts boiling, lightly cook the brisket, then wrap it with minari — that's the style!

Fragrant, tender minari that tastes even better this way! Shall we try a wrap?

The savory, tender brisket combined with the fragrant, refreshing minari works better together than you'd expect. Dipping the minari lightly in sesame oil brings out even more of that nutty flavor. Dipping the vegetables boiled in the broth in soy sauce gives that familiar shabu-shabu taste we all know! The broth itself isn't overpowering but has a deep savory quality, so you can really taste the ingredients themselves.

I try adding a bit of hairtail jeotgal on top too. That's my style!

After finishing the meat, we considered ordering more, but instead got a live abalone each with my husband, for good health! Cooking the live abalone in the boiling shabu broth gave it a properly chewy, springy texture! Adding abalone on top of the brisket made the shabu-shabu feel much more substantial than just the brisket alone. If you like seafood, I'd personally recommend adding abalone.

And of course, the whole shrimp seafood pancake! Seafood tucked between the crispy layers made it a great side to eat alongside the shabu-shabu. Crispy outside, moist inside — eating it warm, I kept reaching for more. It looked like a lot, so we thought about taking the leftovers home, but as the big eaters we are, my husband and I cleaned the plate.

The kalguksu course and the free kkakdugi fried rice

After eating our fill of brisket and abalone shabu-shabu, of course the finale is the kalguksu. Cooking the noodles in the broth let the flavors from the brisket and seafood we'd eaten earlier naturally soak in, making for a hearty finish.

The finish is ddukbaegi (radish kimchi) fried rice, generously loaded with perilla oil. You have to ask for this service yourself! Once you're done with the kalguksu, ask the staff for the fried rice, and they'll set you up to fry it yourself — make sure you do! The final highlight... this is honestly the best fried rice I've had recently.

Dessert at Jangwongap: misugaru slushie and snacks

Dessert at Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch

Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch, a Lotte Outlet Yongin Giheung favorite, even takes care of dessert. A sweet misugaru (roasted grain) slushie made with grandmotherly love! My husband had one cup and said it was so good he went for a refill... plus snacks that our little one loved! We had an absolutely huge, satisfying meal.

They tell you not to hold back and to enjoy as much as you want, confidently!!!!!!

Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch, a Lotte Outlet Yongin Giheung favorite, serves good ingredients at a great price, so of course it's popular...

Is Jangwongap Kalguksu worth it after Lotte Outlet Yongin Giheung?

If you're shopping at Lotte Outlet Yongin Giheung and looking for somewhere to eat, Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch is a solid choice! Adding the seafood pancake and live abalone to the chadol minari ssam shabu kalguksu made for a pretty filling meal for two, and it was satisfying to enjoy meat and seafood in one sitting. The chadol + minari combination especially — savory and fragrant — keeps coming to mind. I'll be back soon!