Wednesday dinner ordering gopchang, makchang, daechang: Jinseong

Jinseong Hanwoo Gopchang is a Sindang Station dinner spot. It's a famous place — it made a huge name for itself over in the Songpa side of town. But it also has a direct-run branch here in Sindang-dong near Sindang Station, so people living in Gangbuk or Seongbuk don't have to trek all the way to Jamsil just to try Jinseong Hanwoo Gopchang.

For reference, I've been to both the Jamsil and Sindang branches quite a few times on my own dime, and this visit was the most satisfying one yet. The auntie running the place was hilarious too, haha.

The exterior in front of Sindang Station Exit 7, and parking

Here's the exterior. Jinseong Hanwoo Gopchang Sindang Direct Branch is located right in front of Sindang Station Exit 7. There's no dedicated parking, so if you're driving, use a nearby public parking lot — but the restaurant is visible right as you come out of Exit 7.

How long is the wait? 30 minutes on a Wednesday at 8pm

You can spot this brutal waiting line the moment you come out of Sindang Station Exit 7... For reference, I got there close to 8pm.

You write your name by hand on the whiteboard outside the restaurant for the waitlist. Jinseong Hanwoo Gopchang is truly, seriously popular. I visited Wednesday at 8pm and waited about 30 minutes before getting a table. I can only imagine how long the wait is on Friday and Saturday — but it's delicious, so of course people come from all over Seoul, right?

Interior atmosphere and seating

Here's the interior. As you can tell from the outside, Jinseong Hanwoo Gopchang Sindang Direct Branch uses a fairly spacious interior. Long tables stretch across the whole space, which means it can seat a lot of people at once. It's fun to watch — everyone from couples on a foodie date, to coworkers, to what look like local residents, all mixed together in one place.

Just three menu items, and why there's no combo platter

Here's the menu. It's an extremely simple menu board. Just three items: hanwoo gopchang, hanwoo daechang, hanwoo makchang. Two sides: ggakdugi jeorim maneul yangbap and anchovy noodles. Prices are quite reasonable — the restaurant preps everything itself using real domestic hanwoo beef, and it's under ₩20,000. What's even funnier is the star rating displayed, which actually seems pretty trustworthy (?).

You can see the pride in this menu board, and there's no combo platter. But honestly, if you order hanwoo daechang, hanwoo makchang, and hanwoo gopchang one at a time, that IS your combo, right? I actually preferred it this way. I really hate it when other places throw in beef heart as part of their combo set...!

Side dishes: chive salad, 3 kinds of homemade kimchi, steamed egg, and sauce

First up as a side dish is chive salad. It's seasoned just right, so my chopsticks kept going back for more.

Next is the 3-kind homemade kimchi set. They use kimchi made in-house rather than store-bought, which is probably why they also sell it. You can see mustard leaf kimchi, ponytail radish kimchi, and green onion kimchi — three kinds,

and this stuff is next level. It's the kind of flavor where you take one bite and immediately want to knock back a shot of soju!

They also give you a complimentary steamed egg at every table. It was great as a base to eat with a spoon — mild and clean-tasting.

And finally, the sauce. This is actually what Jinseong Hanwoo Gopchang is famous for — they make their own garlic pickles, remove the garlic, and load the pickling liquid with minari (water dropwort), minced garlic, sliced chili, and red pepper flakes. Just from the combination alone it couldn't possibly taste bad — if you say this isn't good, you should lose your Korean citizenship, haha.

One each of hanwoo gopchang, hanwoo makchang, and hanwoo daechang

But well, this is the main event! I ordered one each of hanwoo gopchang, hanwoo makchang, and hanwoo daechang. When you order, they set it on the table for you along with

a timer, and while it's counting down

you can read this note about the owner's confidence in the food. From the menu board on, there's a lot of stuff that shows off the restaurant's pride in what they do, which I found pretty fun.

When the timer goes off, the managers come to your table and prep everything themselves, adding the 3-kind homemade kimchi set and chive salad, then frying it all in beef tallow almost like deep-frying.

Once it's done, this is the visual! Personally, I loved how pale and clean every single part looked — the prep was really thorough. And there's some potato and rice cake filler included as a base, so you can fill up on carbs too, like a proper glutton.

The makchang was grilled for just the right amount of time — really chewy but not tough at all, and so delicious,

and the gopchang was crispy on the outside and packed full of fat inside, which made it amazing. These days, most famous Seoul beef intestine restaurants serve gopchang that's all flabby with the fat gone, so it was so nice to taste 'the real thing' again after a long while.

The daechang had that great savory burst of beef intestine fat. But it was so cleanly prepped that there was zero heaviness to it — I could eat it cleanly, and the aftertaste was clean too.

All the cuts are delicious eaten plain, of course, but once the auntie carefully grilled them and

you pair them like this, it tastes even better. Personally, I thought the chive salad tasted best grilled like this, almost fried.

As you can tell from the visuals, I couldn't hold back on drinking. Leave the car at home. There's nowhere convenient to park nearby anyway, and if you eat this without drinking, that's basically a crime — so you're bound to end up drinking regardless.

A must-order side: ggakdugi jeorim maneul yangbap

This is the side dish I ordered — ggakdugi jeorim maneul yangbap (radish kimchi garlic fried rice). It comes out looking great, with radish salad, diced radish kimchi, seaweed flakes, and a fried egg all served together. You mix it all up once, then let it sit on the leftover heat of the pan to crisp up like nurungji (scorched rice).

The crunch of the diced radish kimchi was great, and the bite of garlic scattered throughout was also really good. This is definitely a must-order at this restaurant.

Final verdict

After many self-funded visits to the Jamsil branch, I finally came back to the Sindang Direct Branch after a while, and it brought back a lot of good memories. Of course, part of why my memories are fond is that the flavor has stayed consistent all this time, and even revisiting now with more grown-up taste buds, it's still delicious, well-priced, and the auntie running the place is hilarious — I really love it. I've already pinned it right onto my personal list of go-to restaurants.