Sinnonhyeon Korean restaurant for a couple's gomtang date: Geumnyeong

A clean Korean restaurant near Sinnonhyeon Station: Geumnyeong Gomtang Yeoksam Branch

Geumnyeong Gomtang Yeoksam Branch (금녕곰탕 역삼점) is a gomtang (beef bone soup) restaurant near Sinnonhyeon Station where you can get a meal that sits easy on the stomach. Whenever we make plans around Sinnonhyeon Station, deciding what to eat is a big headache. There are tons of grilled-meat places, bars, light Western restaurants and cafés, but finding a tidy Korean rice restaurant where you can have a proper, comfortable meal narrows the options more than you'd think.

Geumnyeong Gomtang Yeoksam Branch

So that's how I found Geumnyeong Gomtang Yeoksam Branch. There's even an artificial cherry blossom tree decoration in front of the entrance, so it looked like a nice spot for a date too.

What are the atmosphere and seating like at Geumnyeong Gomtang Yeoksam Branch?

The restaurant is much bigger inside than it looks from outside, and the tables are nicely spaced. With wood-grain tables and chairs, it felt warm and calm. What I liked most was that wide spacing. When tables are jammed together, you end up hearing the conversation next to you the whole meal, but here there was room to breathe, so we could focus on eating.

One side of the restaurant has a slightly separated area, so it looked good for a cozy get-together or a family meal.

Looking around, I spotted an autograph from director Ryoo Seung-wan, and receipts for the Hanwoo shank beef were posted too, which boosted my trust before we even ate.

What the two of us ordered: minari gomtang, minari rice noodles and seasoned pollock salad

My husband and I both love minari (water dropwort), so we ordered the minari gomtang and the minari rice noodle soup, and picked the seasoned pollock salad (myeongtae-hoe-muchim) too :)

Self-serve side dishes and lemon water

On one side of the restaurant there's a self-serve bar with aprons hanging nearby. There were side dishes (banchan) like garlic and chili pickles, sweet braised soybeans and dried radish strips. Kimchi was prepared separately, heaped in a mini earthenware pot. We could take as much banchan and kimchi as we liked, which was great.

The water wasn't plain water but lemon water, served in a retro bottle that looks like a mini Delmonte glass bottle, which hit me right in the childhood nostalgia.

The minari gomtang and minari rice noodle soup came piled high with minari and with a spoon stuck in. With that much minari on top, a fragrant minari aroma spread across the table.

How does Geumnyeong Gomtang's regular-size minari gomtang taste?

What I ordered was the regular-size minari gomtang. The rice is already poured over with hot broth (tteoreom style), and the broth was clean and mild.

When I dug my spoon deep, the rice had already been warmed in the broth at the bottom of the bowl. The rich, nutty meat broth had soaked in between the grains of rice. The broth wasn't heavy or sticky, but clean and mild.

Maybe because it's Hanwoo shank, the meat was quite thick, yet it fell apart tenderly in my mouth.

There was no gamey smell at all, and when I lifted out just the meat and dipped it in the soy-based sauce, a salty, savory depth came alive.

It's tasty on its own, but it also goes beautifully with the kimchi and dried radish strips from the banchan!

As I ate, I found soft, chewy sliced rice cakes (tteokguk tteok) inside too. Hunting for them was a lot of fun.

Rice noodles in gomtang broth: the special-size minari rice noodle soup

My husband ordered the minari rice noodle soup in the special size, and true to the name, the bowl was overwhelming in size.

Gomtang broth with rice noodles sounded a little unfamiliar at first, but one bite and I got it: rice noodles are much softer and soak up the broth really well.

Slurping the smooth noodles with a slice of Hanwoo beef and a generous helping of minari, the nutty richness and fragrance filled my mouth. It was a real treat.

Perilla seed powder on the table: when should you add it?

There was also perilla seed powder on the table, which seemed to have pepper mixed in.

Enjoy it as the original for a while, then add it, and you'll get a different dimension of flavor.

Geumnyeong Gomtang's seasoned pollock salad: what's in it and how it tastes

The seasoned pollock salad at Geumnyeong Gomtang Yeoksam Branch came neatly plated on a round dish: bright red seasoned pollock, crunchy onion, fresh raw minari, sweet baby napa cabbage, cool cucumber, and ssamjang (seasoned dipping paste) in the middle.

The pollock salad itself wasn't too spicy and had a pleasant sweetness that really woke up my appetite. You can combine it with the vegetables however you like, so it's fun to eat in different ways.

On the way out after the meal, there were even Chupa Chups lollipops stuck in a holder at the register, so we could finish with something sweet.