Pyeongtaek cockle restaurant with cockle pancakes: Kkomak Manse

I usually eat meat or noodle dishes quite often, so every now and then I find myself craving something completely different. That day, I wanted something with a chewy texture and that distinctive savory taste of the sea, so I looked around and visited a cockle specialty restaurant near Jukbaek-dong in Pyeongtaek. It was Kkomak Manse Pyeongtaek Manse-ro Main Branch :)

Kkomak Manse Pyeongtaek Manse-ro Main Branch is on the first floor at 1728 Manse-ro, Pyeongtaek-si, Gyeonggi-do. The parking lot is spacious!

It was easy enough to get to from Jukbaek-dong and Sosabeol, and above all, since it specializes in fresh cockles, I was looking forward to the menu from the start.

The restaurant atmosphere and self-serve corner

When I stepped inside, the overall atmosphere was clean, and it was larger than I expected.

The tables were spaced comfortably apart, and although there were quite a few diners when we visited, it felt like a relaxed place to eat rather than a noisy one.

I also liked that each table had a tablet, so we could browse the menu at our own pace and order right away.

There was also a self-serve corner on one side, where you could help yourself to as much rice and as many side dishes as you needed.

At places like this, you somehow end up eating a lot of rice, so it was nice to have a self-serve bar without feeling self-conscious about it haha.

A generous spread starting with the side dishes

As we waited after ordering, the complimentary dishes started arriving one by one. Hot fish cake soup and tofu kimchi came out first, and they were nice, simple bites while waiting for the mains.

The fish cake soup in particular had a warm broth that paired well with the cockle dishes, and with the tofu kimchi too, I thought it would work well not only for a meal but also with a casual drink.

There were plenty of side dishes as well, so I kept picking at this and that even before the main dishes arrived.

The Family Set, from Manse seasoned cockles to cockle pancakes

We ordered the Family Set.

• Manse seasoned cockles (medium)
• 3 cockle jeon (savory pancakes)
• Spicy cockle bibimbap

That was the lineup, and I loved being able to enjoy cockles in several different ways. If we had only ordered one dish, it might have felt a little lacking, but with seasoned cockles, bibimbap, and pancakes, it felt like a proper full cockle feast.

Manse seasoned cockles, already prepared for easy eating

All the cockle shells had been removed, and the bowl was filled only with plump, ready-to-eat meat, so it looked appetizing at a glance.

Shelling cockles is surprisingly bothersome, but these were prepared from the beginning, so it was really convenient to just pick them up with chopsticks and eat. They were topped with spicy seasoning and flying fish roe too, which made them look especially appetizing.

Personally, my favorite combination was wrapping them in perilla leaves. Put seaweed on a perilla leaf, add cockles and flying fish roe, then eat it in one bite—the fragrance of the leaf, the nutty flavor of the seaweed, and the chewy cockles all come through at once. Best of all, there was hardly any of that fishy cockle flavor, so I kept eating them without hesitation. The more I chewed, the more a subtle sweetness and savoriness came through, and I liked that the seasoning was not so strong that it overwhelmed the cockles.

Spicy cockle bibimbap that was milder than expected

Bibimbap is something you would miss when eating cockle dishes, right? Haha. The spicy cockle bibimbap had lightly spicy seasoning as its name suggests, but it was not overwhelmingly hot. It had just the right sauce for mixing into rice, like Jeonju bibimbap!

When I mixed the rice and cockles together, the sweet and spicy flavor of the sauce came through, and I kept reaching for another spoonful.

Personally, overly intense bibimbap can become tiring quickly, but here I could taste the cockles' flavor alongside it, so I enjoyed it all the way through. Saving a little of the seasoned cockles to eat with the bibimbap worked really well too.

The memorable, unusual dish: cockle pancakes

To be honest, I did not have high expectations for the cockle pancakes that day, but this dish was surprisingly memorable. Each one was quite large and thick, so I thought the portion looked good from the first glance. Once I tried it, there were cockles inside, giving it a definite chew. Whole, chewy cockles came through amid the savory egg flavor, which made the texture fun.

The pancakes were especially satisfying because they were thick rather than too thin, so even one piece was surprisingly filling. After the seasoned cockles, bibimbap, and pancakes, I was truly stuffed by the end haha. At first, I only meant to taste a little of everything, but I ended up having a much more complete meal than expected.

Finishing the meal with plum tea

After finishing our filling meal, I had a cup of plum tea on the way out. After the cockle dishes, pancakes, and bibimbap, it neatly cleared the lingering flavors in my mouth, making it the perfect finish.

Preparing cockles at home is a hassle—you have to purge them of sand, boil them, and shell them—but it was convenient to try various dishes all at once with cockles already prepared like this. If you want to enjoy chewy fresh cockles with spicy seasoning, cockle bibimbap, and savory cockle pancakes in one meal, I think Kkomak Manse Pyeongtaek Manse-ro Main Branch is worth adding to your list when looking for a good spot in Jukbaek-dong :)