Hanjeongsik near Konjiam Resort with a baby: fire pork at Bomseol

Now that our baby is over 8 months old, we finally felt ready for a little water play and summer getaway, so we went to Konjiam Resort. Before splashing around, you've got to fill up on something delicious! So after some searching, we went to Bomseol, a really, really famous restaurant in Chowol, Gwangju.

Both me and my husband, and even our 8-month-old baby Ppuggu, were completely satisfied at Bomseol! Here's my honest review of the meal our family of three enjoyed.

How long is the wait at Bomseol on a weekday lunch?

We visited Bomseol on a weekday for lunch, and it was still packed enough to have a wait. The photo below was taken as I was leaving, once the crowd had thinned out a bit.

Even after the lunch rush had technically passed, there were still this many people... Just a heads-up that if you come during peak time, there will be a wait!

Every single banchan (side dish) at Bomseol was so good. Apparently they make everything fresh, from scratch, every single day! That's an incredible amount of care, really.

Bomseol's menu: what to order when two people are eating

Since there were two of us, we ordered two servings of the Bomseol hanjeongsik set plus one serving of fire-marinated pork stir-fry, haha. Because this is a hanjeongsik restaurant, the set spread can only be ordered for 2 or more people. But the single set-meal menu items can be ordered for just 1 person. If two of you are coming, doing what we did — two hanjeongsik sets plus one extra single set meal — is perfect!

What's really great here is that once you finish all these delicious banchan, you can go scoop more from the self-bar. Every single side dish was so tasty that most customers kept going back for refills! I think this is a place parents would absolutely love, haha. There were a lot of people in their 40s to 60s.

Braised kodari comes with every Bomseol set

The moment the food arrived, the table was so lavishly set that I was genuinely shocked. Wow, the banchan... so many varieties, and the colors were so vivid — but most of all, I couldn't believe braised kodari (dried pollack) comes standard!

The braised kodari is included as part of the hanjeongsik set, so it comes automatically!!!! And funnily enough, I had just recently told my husband and a friend that I was craving braised kodari — isn't that crazy timing? This single fish is huge, big enough to finish a whole bowl of rice on its own.

Adding the fire-grilled pork stir-fry at Bomseol

Since my husband loves meat, we added the pork stir-fry too, haha. Oh, the pork stir-fry here is genuinely delicious. The meat is tender, the seasoning is spicy and punchy — totally hits the Korean palate.

Stone-pot rice and sungnyung (toasted rice tea) at Bomseol

The rice at Bomseol comes in a stone pot, so before we really dug in, they made us sungnyung (scorched rice tea) from it, hehe.

Wow... is it my birthday or something, because this looked so, so good T_T. Honestly, once you have a baby, it's genuinely hard to put together a proper meal like this. So getting to eat something this carefully made after a long time felt really wonderful T_T.

Bomseol's side dishes, one by one

Wait, is this place secretly a braised kodari specialist...? The kodari was so tender, spicy-sweet, and delicious... I was busy the whole time picking the flesh off the bone, hahahaha.

If you run low on cheonggukjang (fermented soybean stew), you can just scoop more from the self-bar — amazing......

The cheonggukjang was rich and packed with so much tofu, super soft and a real delicacy!!!!

The mushroom tangsuyuk (sweet and sour mushrooms), japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), and fried eggplant, plus the namul (seasoned vegetables) and kimchi were all so good my husband and I were surprised... The namul and kimchi in particular were seriously, seriously delicious.

Finishing the meal with sungnyung

After finishing everything, we wrapped up with a wonderfully nutty bowl of sungnyung~ Ah... now that I have a baby, the foods I crave the most are honestly all hot foods, hahahaha. Bubbling stews, sizzling meat, sungnyung straight from a hot pot. It had been a while since I'd had sungnyung, and it was nutty and warm and so good.

While I was drinking my sungnyung, it tasted so nutty and delicious that I gave our baby Ppuggu a sip — her eyes went wide and she opened her mouth for more. She kept opening her little bird mouth, so I gave her about four sips of sungnyung, haha. Bomseol was a great find even our baby loved.

Unlimited barley bibimbap from the self-bar

If the stone-pot rice isn't enough for you, there's unlimited barley bibimbap you can help yourself to, so even big eaters will be completely satisfied!

Bomseol sells its side dishes to take home

On our way out, I noticed Bomseol also sells banchan. If you're planning to cook meals at Konjiam Resort, buying some of these side dishes to eat alongside your other food would be a great idea!

Old-school barley gangjeong for dessert

Off to one side, I noticed they also sell barley gangjeong (puffed barley candy) and other desserts. K-dessert heaven....

The coffee area beside the dining room

Right next to Bomseol, there's a quiet little space where you can sit and have coffee! It would be so nice to grab some K-desserts and enjoy coffee and conversation there!!!

If we ever come back to Konjiam, Bomseol is a real local favorite in Gwangju, Gyeonggi that we'd absolutely want to revisit — highly recommend!