Chilgok Vietnamese restaurant for a late lunch after Homeplus: Raichen

After grocery shopping at Homeplus in Chilgok 3-jigu, I stopped by Raichen for lunch. It's a Vietnamese restaurant that has never let me down in several visits, so I went in with high hopes, and on a hot day I ate a hearty meal of cold pho, trotter rice and banh xeo.

Where is Raichen Chilgok Branch, and what are the hours and parking?

Raichen Chilgok Branch (라이첸 칠곡점) is a Vietnamese pho restaurant serving local-style food at 30-23 Dongcheon-ro 23-gil, Buk-gu, Daegu, South Korea. It's open 11:00–21:30 (last order 20:45) and closed on Mondays. A native Vietnamese cook makes the food, so it's a good lunch spot in Chilgok 3-jigu.

The private parking lot's entrance is on the side of the building (Heat Town), next to the corner. If it's full, you can park for free on weekends at the Statistics Office across the street!

Raichen Chilgok interior and group seating

Monthly promotion: ₩3,000 off banh xeo, cold pho and condensed milk coffee

At the entrance I saw a monthly promotion: banh xeo, cold pho and condensed milk coffee at ₩3,000 off. Sounds like a summer-sniper lineup, so keep it in mind if you're going.

Raichen is a Vietnamese restaurant with an appealing mix of wood and rattan, and even after visiting several branches I still find it charming. I came for a late lunch and it was still quite busy, but Vietnamese food turns tables quickly, so seats freed up fast.

There's separate group seating at the back, so it's also a good choice for a get-together in Chilgok.

What's at the self-serve bar?

The self-serve bar at Raichen Chilgok has water, small plates and spoons, plus pickled chili and pickled onion. The pickled onion went really well with the trotter rice.

Raichen's signature dishes and set menus

At Raichen a native chef cooks everything, and cilantro, which people either love or hate, is left out. If you like it, ask and you'll get it served once.

• 1-person set: choice of pho + 2 shrimp rolls (nem)
• 2-person set A: choice of pho + bun cha (grilled pork with noodles) + banh xeo (Vietnamese crispy pancake)
• 2-person set B: choice of pho + bun cha + 2 shrimp rolls

Raichen's best-sellers are the pho (Hanoi classic pho / bean sprout / spicy), charcoal-grilled bun cha and banh xeo. Vietnamese home-style dishes include trotter rice, com suon (rice with pork), chili shrimp rice bowl, pork fried rice and shrimp fried rice.

What two adults ordered, and the prices

Two adults ordered cold pho (15.5), banh xeo (14.0) and trotter rice (12.5).

Let's take a look at what we ordered 😙

What does Raichen's cold pho taste like?

Raichen's cold pho comes with charcoal-grilled pork. To me it felt similar to bun cha, where you dip the noodles in nuoc mam (fish sauce) dressing. It's tangy and refreshing.

The chilled noodles are thin but chewy and slide down smoothly. With the radish, vegetables and charcoal pork, there's a crunch and protein too, so it felt even more filling. To add some savory depth to the tanginess, I sprinkled a little of the nuoc mam sauce from the table on top.

That smoky charcoal pork is the real kick of the cold pho. It goes great with the tangy broth too!!

What's the best way to eat Raichen's banh xeo?

Banh xeo, often called a Vietnamese pancake, is one of my favorites, and at Raichen they fry a rice-flour batter with egg until it's nutty and crisp.

It's packed with bean sprouts and flavored with shrimp, so it can't help but taste good as is. But if you put lettuce and the pickled radish onto the rice paper they give you, roll it up and dip it in the sauce, the nutty crunch is something you could eat endlessly.

It looks big, but rolled up and eaten in one big bite it's even better. Add plenty of nuoc mam sauce and your mouth is full of happiness, nothing monotonous about it, haha.

How big is Raichen's trotter rice portion?

Next is the dish I always order at Raichen: trotter rice. It comes with white rice, trotter generously covered in trotter sauce, and a side of pho broth.

The trotter is huge, with collagen-rich skin and plenty of lean meat. Press it with a spoon and it pulls apart tenderly, showing a generous amount of meat.

They give you lots of trotter sauce, so be sure to spoon the sauce over the rice, it tastes much better that way. I love the collagen-rich skin, and the tender, nicely seasoned combination is great. Sip the tangy pho broth in between to wash down the trotter, and eat it with the pickled onion from the self-serve bar, and you can finish the whole bowl without it feeling greasy. My husband said there's more trotter than at other places 👍

Overall verdict on Raichen Chilgok

I visited Raichen, the Vietnamese spot across from Homeplus in Chilgok 3-jigu. A local cooks here, and the food suits Korean tastes perfectly, so once again Raichen didn't disappoint. The nutty banh xeo, trotter rice with plenty of lean meat and the cold pho that's perfect for summer, I'd regret skipping any of them.

If you like cilantro, just ask and you'll get it, so don't miss out. It's light and ideal for a hot summer day, and as a simple Vietnamese lunch I recommend it when you've lost your appetite 😉