Korean gastropub at Pangyo Station: weekend lunch with a kid, Useum

A Pangyo Station lunch spot with all kinds of Korean food: Useum It's perfect as a Pangyo Station bar too

A friend recommended Useum for lunch near Pangyo Station. The meal, with its wide range of dishes, was so good that I decided it has to count as a Pangyo Station bar too. Here's my review.

Useum Pangyo Branch: address and hours

Useum Pangyo Branch is on Daewangpangyo-ro 606beon-gil, right in front of Pangyo Station Exit 1, and it's open Monday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. with no break time. Since there's no break time, it was easy to just drop by, and it's a good place for a meal at lunch and for drinks in the evening.

• Address: 31 Daewangpangyo-ro 606beon-gil, Bundang-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi (Samphyeong-dong 647)
• Subway: Pangyo Station (Gyeongganggang/Shinbundang Line), Exit 1
• Hours: Mon–Sun 11:00–23:00
• Last order: 22:00
• Group seating, takeout, delivery, reservations, high chairs

Where to park at Useum Pangyo

For parking, you use the building's parking lot. Parking is a pain at Pangyo restaurants, but this one had plenty of room, so it was great for driving over and for company dinners. Useum is a good Pangyo Station bar for that reason too.

Indoor seating and terrace seats

Even at an early weekend lunch, lots of people were there. It's a popular Korean restaurant for lunch near Pangyo Station, visited by office workers nearby for lunch and dinner, and it's good for family meals too.

You can push tables together, which is great for a company dinner, and the terrace tables look like a lovely spot for an evening drink near Pangyo Station. The booze would just slide down, I bet.

Useum Pangyo menu and prices

Menu and prices at Useum: mini yukjeon (beef pancake) ₩8,000; hanwoo clear gomtang / hanwoo milky gomtang / tteok-mandu-guk (rice cake and dumpling soup) / hanwoo beef bone tteokguk ₩13,000; hanwoo haejang gomtang (hangover soup) / yukhoe bibimbap (raw beef bibimbap) ₩14,000; hanwoo stone-pot bulgogi ₩15,000; hanwoo dogani suji-tang (ox knee cartilage and tendon soup) ₩19,000; jeonbyeong (kimchi-filled pancake) / tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patty) ₩12,000; wang-mandu (big dumplings) ₩7,000

Hanwoo eobokjaengban (beef hot pot platter) ₩78,000; hanwoo half-and-half suyuk (boiled beef) ₩55,000; galbi-jjim (braised short ribs) ₩56,000; hanwoo suyuk ₩43,000; hanwoo ox-foot stir-fry / hanwoo mul-yukhoe (raw beef in chilled broth) ₩29,000; mandu jeongol (dumpling hot pot) ₩35,000,

Yukjeon ₩27,000; ice persimmon ₩13,000; potato jeon / spicy chive jeon / kimchi jeon / nurungji (scorched rice) with Häagen-Dazs ₩18,000; collagen muchim ₩9,000,

There are lots of add-ons too, like buckwheat noodles, kalguksu, glass noodles, udon, sujebi, mushrooms, rice cakes, dumplings and thin wheat noodles, so you can add them to a hot pot order,

and the drinks list is wide too: highballs, soju, beer, non-alcoholic beer, Iljum Jinro, Hwayo, makgeolli and bokbunja, so it's perfect as a Pangyo Station bar.

You can pick what you need on a tablet when you want to ask for something, which was handy. The staff were kind and the place was clean, so it was also nice to come with family, and a great pick for lunch near Pangyo Station.

Side dishes and the brassware table setting

I'd booked ahead, and they set the table for our party size. The tableware was brassware (yugi), which felt upscale and hygienic, and each of us had a small plate and a seasoning sauce.

The side dishes were seaweed (gim), kimchi, kkakdugi (radish kimchi), bean sprouts and salted squid. Put rice on the seaweed, add the salted squid, wrap it up, and that alone finishes off a bowl of rice.

My kid wrapped rice in seaweed really well too, and must have loved the seaweed, because we got a refill.

What we ordered

To really enjoy lunch near Pangyo Station, we ordered the ppoyan gomtang (milky beef bone soup), stone-pot bulgogi, hanwoo yukhoe bibimbap and a mini yukjeon. It took about 10 minutes for everything to arrive after ordering, which is perfect for a busy lunch.

Milky gomtang with tteokgalbi and jeonbyeong added

There are two kinds of gomtang, milky and clear. The milky one is rich and nutty, and the clear one is said to be cool and clean, so I'll have to try the clear one next time.

The bowl was also packed with thin wheat noodles, which were soft and tasty with the broth,

It's simmered from hanwoo ox bones and ox head bones, so it's deep and savory. Anyone, young or old, can enjoy it, and a bite of hot gomtang on a hot summer day is fighting fire with fire (yeolchi-yeolyeol) at its best.

It was loaded with meat too. I never ran out of meat before finishing the soup, so generous.

The kkakdugi was just right with the gomtang. Crunching on it, I cleared the whole bowl.

For extras we picked tteokgalbi and jeonbyeong. The tteokgalbi, grilled from minced meat in a sweet marinade, is great as a side and even better on top of the gomtang.

The jeonbyeong is filled with kimchi, crisp outside and moist inside, and just right as a snack with drinks at this Pangyo Station bar.

The tteokgalbi was sweet and a little salty, and my kid ate it happily, so it's good for kids' meals too.

Hanwoo yukhoe bibimbap

I hadn't had yukhoe bibimbap in a while and was craving it, so I ordered it. A plate came heaped with vegetables and raw beef, and I dumped in a whole bowl of rice, ready to go.

They gave the seasoning sauce separately, so I added it to taste and mixed. There's an egg yolk in it, which made it even richer and nuttier.

The raw beef itself was tender and nutty, and the aroma of minari (water dropwort) made it better than other yukhoe bibimbap I've had. The ingredients were fresh, so it's tasty and healthy, a lunch near Pangyo Station that gets both.

With kimchi you get a spicy kick, and if you top it with seaweed and yukjeon you get even more nuttiness.

Lunch-only mini yukjeon

The mini yukjeon you can only order at lunch is a small size, but for something called a taster there's quite a lot, so it's great value.

Thin slices of beef are dipped in egg and pan-fried, so it was piping hot. Freshly grilled yukjeon, I'll always love it.

It comes with buchu-geotjeori (fresh chive salad), and wrapping them together made a perfect snack with drinks at this Pangyo Station bar. With makgeolli, oh, it's amazing~

The yukjeon was nutty, and the meat was thin and not chewy, so my kid ate it happily. If you come with kids, ordering yukjeon as a side is the best value.

Stone-pot bulgogi the kid ate well

I ordered the stone-pot bulgogi for my kid, who loves bulgogi. It came bubbling, filling the whole pot, so it was fighting fire with fire again,

It was full of tender, soft bulgogi, seasoned with various fruits, so the flavor wasn't harsh but gently sweet, something anyone would like.

With enoki mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, onion and green onion in it, it was hearty, and since it's cooked right after ordering, the meat and vegetables weren't tough but tender.

Eaten with rice it works as a meal, and there are seasoned glass noodles inside, so grabbing a bite of those too is pure happiness.

Mix rice into the broth and a whole bowl vanishes. There are chewy rice cakes in there too, and my kid said it was delicious and ate well, which made me proud. A lunch near Pangyo Station that worked.

Meal review

Another clean plate today. This is my honest review of lunch near Pangyo Station. Every dish was made with care, and the good ingredients made it taste great at Useum Pangyo Branch. Next time I'll come for drinks at this Pangyo Station bar :)

** Recommended for **

• Anyone looking for a Pangyo Station lunch spot to go with a child
• Anyone looking for a variety of Korean dishes
• Anyone looking for Korean food to go with drinks at a Pangyo Station bar
• Anyone looking for a place for both a meal and a drinking session
• Anyone looking for a Pangyo restaurant with easy parking