Sokcho Korean restaurant for perilla pollack soup brunch: Bigeumdo

Why we skipped the Sono Delpino breakfast for Bigeumdo

The day after staying at Sono Delpino in Sokcho, we skipped the resort breakfast and had a late brunch of pollack hangover soup rice (hwangtae haejangguk-bap) at Bigeumdo (비금도), a Korean restaurant in Sinheung-dong, Sokcho. I slept like a log at Sono Delpino and thought about signing up for breakfast, but I wasn't confident about getting up early, and I could predict that after stuffing ourselves at dinner I'd wake up all puffy ^^ so no breakfast package for us.

Instead, the place we went for a late brunch was 📍Bigeumdo, a Sokcho breakfast spot. It's known for being clean and tidy 😊

Is Bigeumdo in Sokcho good for a family meal?

Bigeumdo has baby chairs and private rooms, and the menu is mostly Korean food that all ages will like, so it suits a family meal. We visited at 11 a.m. on a Monday, and maybe because it was a weekday and an awkward time, we were the only customers. But soon a big family of 6 adults and 4 kids came in. Bigeumdo is definitely a perfect spot for a family meal ✨ There are baby chairs, there are rooms, and the menu is packed with dishes everyone from kids to grandparents will enjoy.

How to order Bigeumdo's pollack soup rice, and the conditions

You order easily on a tablet at the table, and the pollack soup rice can only be ordered for 2 servings or more. We'd had makgeolli and other drinks the day before after a long time, so my husband and I agreed on pollack soup rice easily. Since it needs at least 2 servings, you need the other person's consent, and we settled it in one second 👍🏻

How many side dishes at Bigeumdo, and which was the best?

The pollack soup rice came with 5 side dishes, tidy home-style ones, and all of them were delicious. The food came out quickly! In other blog reviews I think I saw grilled flatfish too, and I don't know whether it comes with a different menu or was just left out for us T.T

Still, the side dishes were so good that I ate my rice well!

No. 1 side dish: radish salad with salted squid

The salted-squid radish salad (jeotgal musaengchae) seems to be a signature, since they even sell it separately. I ate it thinking it was plain radish salad, but it was so good that I looked closer and found very finely chopped salted squid in it! That was the kicker,, I still think about this taste 💛

No. 2 side dish: stir-fried potato strips as soft as radish

The texture is so soft that at first I wondered if it was even potato. You can't really feel that crunchy potato bite, it's soft like radish 👏🏻👏🏻 The rest are tied for 3rd, haha. The garlic scape and anchovy stir-fry was tasty too,, honestly all 5 were delicious.

How does Bigeumdo's pollack soup rice served in a pressure cooker taste?

The pressure cooker comes to the table whole, with pollack, bean sprouts and scallions plus perilla powder, and a nutty aroma hits you right away. The sight of the whole pot is violent! It seems to hold only pollack, bean sprouts and scallions, but the smell is amazing. It's a nutty smell that makes you want to scoop up a spoonful right now!

My husband said, "This tastes like perilla seeds?" So I looked closely and there was perilla powder! Found the source of the nuttiness. Turns out Jang-geum (the famous cook from a Korean drama) was living in our house, haha

Seriously insanely good,, it's incredible with kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi) on top! I'm so curious about the owner's broth secret. I've never once made pollack hangover soup at home, but now I want to try right away 💚 I've been on a clean diet lately and kept away from soups, so I could feel the sodium zinging all over my body!

Yongdae-ri pollack from Inje makes up for last winter's regret

The pollack in Bigeumdo's soup is Yongdae-ri pollack from Inje. Last winter when we traveled to Inje, we couldn't have pollack soup and only ate tofu, and I went home so disappointed, but that regret was settled right here ^^

This is a scene you only see after a satisfying meal. I guess my husband scraped it clean to the bottom while I wasn't looking, haha

Bigeumdo, Sokcho overall: parking, service and interior

Bigeumdo has roomy parking and interior and friendly staff, and it's a place I'd go back to on a morning that needs a hangover cure. As expected, hahaha, not a single piece of pollack in sight and just a few grains of rice left, the soup rice fell heroically and settled my stomach nicely~~ Bigeumdo was cleaner and more charming than I expected. I liked the interior too. Above all, I can't forget that pollack soup broth haha