Charcoal dakgalbi with banchan spread near Gapyeong, Dami Seorak

This is a post about a restaurant I stopped by while out on a nice-weather weekend trip near Gapyeong. Charcoal-grilled dakgalbi and refreshing makguksu (buckwheat noodles) — this is Dami Seorak Charcoal-grilled Dakgalbi, and it was seriously good❣️

Hours and parking at Dami Seorak Charcoal-grilled Dakgalbi

• Hours: 10am–9pm
• Parking available

There's plenty of parking space right in front of the restaurant, so it's really convenient. You just park and walk right in.

Restaurant vibe and coming with kids

I visited during the early lunch hour so there weren't many customers yet. But around noon, locals and travelers like me started pouring in and it got busy fast! The restaurant is spacious and comfortable, so it looked like a great spot for couples, families — pretty much anyone👍

They also have plenty of baby chairs ready, so it's totally fine to bring young kids😍

You can also try Gapyeong soju and Gapyeong pine nut makgeolli here. Plus regular soju, beer, soft drinks and more were all well stocked🤗

Ordering: half soy sauce, half seasoned dakgalbi, plus cold makguksu

After grabbing a table, I checked out the menu first. Each table has a tablet, and there's also a big menu board on the wall.

You can get dakgalbi (stir-fried marinated chicken) split half soy sauce, half seasoned, so we ordered one serving of seasoned dakgalbi and one of soy sauce dakgalbi. We also added a cold makguksu😆

There was a Naver review event running too. And they had tips posted on how to eat it for the best flavor, which was a nice touch.

Banchan spread on the level of a full Korean set-meal restaurant

A little while later, the side dishes were set out first🤤

This place is seriously a banchan powerhouse!! Chives, deodeok (bellflower root), fish cake, perilla leaves, acorn jelly, eggplant... so many varieties, and every single one was so good I could've finished a whole bowl of rice on these side dishes alone haha. It's basically hanjeongsik (traditional Korean set-meal) or baekban (home-style set meal) restaurant level.

The deodeok muchim (seasoned bellflower root salad) was especially delicious, and seeing the raw, unprepared deodeok sitting on one side of the restaurant made me realize they really use quality ingredients!

Charcoal-grilled dakgalbi and garaetteok (rice cake)

Soon after, the charcoal came out for grilling the dakgalbi. The charcoal looked really good too, and I got excited imagining how delicious the chicken would turn out cooked on it🥰

We started grilling the dakgalbi and rice cakes together. It comes pre-cooked once, so it cooks up quickly!

They cut up the meat for us and kept flipping it so it wouldn't burn. The delicious smell kept wafting up, making it harder and harder to resist haha.

I quickly grabbed the rice cake pieces that finished grilling first. Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside garaetteok — impossible to resist >.<

How much noodles does the makguksu come with?

The makguksu we'd ordered together arrived just as the meat finished cooking, so we could enjoy them side by side.

The noodles were packed so generously in the bowl it was plenty for two people to share. And the broth was so refreshing and delicious — this was a dish I would've regretted not ordering💕

Soy sauce vs. seasoned dakgalbi: the flavor difference

Once the dakgalbi was fully cooked, we dug in properly alongside the makguksu! First, the soy sauce dakgalbi — that sweet-salty soy marinade was exactly my taste haha. Wrapped up with deodeok muchim and chive salad, it was pure happiness😘

The seasoned dakgalbi wasn't too spicy either, just mildly spicy, so even someone like me who can't handle spice found it just right. Wrapped in the pickled perilla leaves, I couldn't stop eating it, it never got old haha.

Final thoughts

Using domestic chicken and domestic charcoal really seems to make a difference — this was a flavor pretty much anyone would love. The dakgalbi itself was great, but with the makguksu and banchan being this on point too, it genuinely felt like finding a real hidden gem! My parents and my niece would probably love it too, so next time I want to come back with the whole family.

There's a lot to see nearby too, so I'd highly recommend this as a place to eat if you're near Gapyeong IC, Seorak IC, The Stay Healing Park, Begonia Saejeongwon, or Mysterious Animal Zoo 🫶