Korean restaurant in Banwoldang, Daegu for lunch with a kid: Hyangtaek

Let me introduce a restaurant near Banwoldang, Daegu where you can eat clean, comforting Korean food. Here's my lunch review of Hyangtaek Daegu Jongno Branch (향택 대구종로점), a Banwoldang restaurant I'd happily visit again.

Where Hyangtaek Daegu Jongno Branch is and when it opens

• Location: 19-1 Jungang-daero 77-gil, Jung-gu, Daegu, South Korea
• Hours: Daily 11:00-20:00, break time 15:30-17:00
• Last order 15:00, 19:30
• Takeout / reservations available

Lunch for two, just me and my kid. Instead of anything spicy or heavy, I wanted something neat and clean, which is what brought me to Hyangtaek Daegu Jongno Branch. Turns out it's a small hanok (traditional Korean house) that's been renovated into a restaurant. (I used the nearby public parking lot.)

Inside the renovated hanok dining room

Hyangtaek, known for its modern one-bowl Korean dishes, apparently started out in 2022 in a corner of Daegu's Gyodong Market! The interior was tidy and neatly arranged too.

There's a good mix of tables for four and for two, though there were quite a few other guests having a late lunch, so this is the only photo I managed to get! The interior really brings out the quiet, timeworn charm of the hanok — stylish in its own way.

A clean, pleasant restaurant is always welcome, that's for sure!

Arriving at 2pm: was there a wait?

We arrived just before 2pm that day and got seated with no wait at all. But it seems this is a popular enough spot that during lunch or dinner peak hours there's quite a line — they've even set up a waitlist sheet inside the restaurant!

What's on the menu at Hyangtaek Daegu Jongno Branch

The menu was fairly simple. Main rice dishes included mackerel gondre rice, eggplant doenjang rice bowl, yukhoe bibimbap, and chamnamul squid rice bowl. For noodles, there was herring roe bibim noodles, and sides to go alongside the meal included grilled deodeok and mushrooms, hanpan mushroom pancake, hanpan galbi, and Cheongsong-style spicy chicken stir-fry.

And there was a summer-only menu item: pollock yukhoe mulhoe (raw fish in cold broth)!

That day at Hyangtaek Daegu Jongno Branch, I ordered mackerel gondre rice, eggplant doenjang rice bowl, and hanpan galbi. (They also have instructions posted on how to best enjoy each dish, worth checking!)

Out came a savory doenjang soup, pickles, mixed seasoned jeotgal (fermented seafood), gonjari-gim (seasoned laver), and sauce — and for the eggplant rice bowl, they even served kelp vinegar to add extra depth of flavor.

After a bit of a wait, the food arrived. Each bowl was beautifully plated too.

The eggplant doenjang rice bowl my child finished to the last bite

Thickly grilled eggplant piled on top of rice, chives, and stir-fried meat — Hyangtaek's eggplant doenjang rice bowl. My kid, who's obsessed with eggplant, initially refused it because it had doenjang in it, but the moment they tried it after it arrived, they polished off the entire bowl...

You tear the eggplant into small pieces and mix it all together — and honestly, this was genuinely appetite-boosting delicious! The rice was great and the way the ingredients came together was really nice too.

Spanish mackerel gondre rice, even if you don't love fish

The mackerel gondre rice was a rice bowl topped with gondre (thistle greens), sautéed shiitake mushrooms, scallions, sesame seeds, and grilled Spanish mackerel. Honestly, I'm not a big fish person, so I hesitated a bit even while ordering.

Mixing it all together with the sauce, and adding a little of the seasoned jeotgal on the side, made this naturally mild-flavored bowl even more delicious. I don't eat fish if it has any fishy smell, but the mackerel here was clearly grilled fresh, because I ate it very satisfyingly.

How was the hanpan galbi side dish?

The hanpan galbi comes out pan-fried into a small pancake shape, like tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patty). It wasn't dry at all, cooked moist, and had that sweet-and-salty flavor that's a perfect hit with kids.

Of everything we ate at Hyangtaek Daegu Jongno Branch that day, the top pick for me and my little one was the eggplant doenjang rice bowl!! My kid liked it so much they said we have to come back to Daegu and eat eggplant rice bowl again, haha. That wraps up my review of 'Hyangtaek Daegu Jongno Branch,' a restaurant near Banwoldang, Daegu where you can eat clean, comforting Korean food.