Bongmyeong-dong hanwoo BBQ with parents and marinated galbi: Worang

Hanwoo BBQ with my parents after a checkup at Worang Myeongga, Daejeon

On the day of my regular checkup after my kidney transplant, I went with my parents to Worang Myeongga Daejeon Yuseong Main Branch (워낭명가 대전유성본점), a hanwoo (Korean beef) butcher restaurant in Bongmyeong-dong, Daejeon. Whenever I go to the hospital for a checkup, I'm restricted from eating meat for 3–4 days, so I always eat beef right after the checkup! Today I picked Worang Myeongga, famous as a great hanwoo place in Daejeon~!

Worang Myeongga Daejeon Yuseong Main Branch: hours and parking

Worang Myeongga is open daily 11:00–22:30, with a break from 14:30 to 17:00 (15:00–17:00 on weekends). There's a big private parking lot in front of the building that fits about 15 cars, and groups are welcome.

The whole two-story building is the restaurant! It was much bigger than I expected 🫢

Dunsan-dong is a super-duper famous parking hell, but with this big lot right in front of the building, we parked and walked in with no stress ^_^

Does Worang Myeongga have rooms for family gatherings and group dinners?

The ceilings are high, so it never feels stuffy, and the whole place feels upscale and clean. Even the big hall is fully partitioned, so you can eat in private, and with private and semi-private rooms too, it's perfect for company dinners and family gatherings!!

Hanwoo mixed platter picked at the butcher counter

At Worang Myeongga you pick your meat first at the butcher counter on the left side of the dining space. It looked fresh at a glance, and it turns out this is a special hanwoo restaurant that only handles 1++ ("two-plus" in Korean slang) grade hanwoo cows aged 30 to 40 months?? The meat comes by individual cut or as assorted sets, so you can choose to your taste! We eat ribeye all the time, so we went for the mixed platter of tenderloin, skirt meat and more, haha

What comes with the ₩4,000-per-person table setting?

The table setting fee at Worang Myeongga is ₩4,000 per person. We had reserved, so the table was already set when we arrived.

• Steamed egg custard (chawan-mushi)
• Seasoned chamnamul and water dropwort
• Marinated raw crab (yangnyeom gejang)
• Balsamic salad
• Japchae (glass noodle stir-fry)
• White kimchi
• Tomato caprese
• Pickled wild garlic leaves (myeongi-namul)
• Hanwoo gukbap (beef and rice soup)
• Yukhoe (beef tartare)
• Pollock roe and beef tripe

All this for ₩4,000,,,? I've never seen such a fancy, varied spread, and every single dish was delicious 👍 Especially the seasoned chamnamul and water dropwort!!! The fragrance of the water dropwort and the slight bitterness of the chamnamul blend into a strange, wonderful flavor! And Dad's pick was the hanwoo gukbap ✨ He said it was so good he wants to come back and put rice in that soup next time.

The self-serve bar has lettuce, chili peppers and mushrooms you can take as much as you like, and there are even pineapple and oranges ready for dessert.

Does Worang Myeongga's 1++ hanwoo stay tender when well done?

We grilled the mixed platter we picked right over charcoal. Look at the beef we chose! Isn't the color gorgeous?😭 You can feel how fresh it is just by looking 🥰

My parents ate the beef as soon as the red was gone, and they said it was so tender you could swallow it without chewing!! I'm immunocompromised, so I waited and cooked mine a bit longer before taking a bite..! Juicy and seriously delicious 😭 Beef gets tough when it's fully cooked, right?! But there was no toughness at all, it really melts in your mouth 🥹 I expected it to be chewy and it just went down, so I was a little flustered..? hehe

It's good with the pickled garlic and onion, good with the pollock roe, and just JMT (insanely delicious) any way you eat it ❤️ We have a beef place we usually go to, but my parents said Worang Myeongga is waaay better and we should come here from now on. A Daejeon hanwoo spot approved even by my picky parents 👍👍👍

Worang Myeongga marinated galbi at ₩38,000 per portion: portion size and taste

Besides grilled beef, Worang Myeongga has plenty of other mains and meals, and I wanted to try the marinated galbi (short ribs), so I ordered one portion.

Huh…? It's ₩38,000 for one portion, is this really the amount? I wondered as I started grilling.

Once spread out it looked like a pretty good amount, hmm,, I thought, and took a bite?! And I literally clapped the moment I ate it, haha. The marinade was a perfect sweet-and-salty balance, and the galbi melted in my mouth.

See how glossy it is??? It's seriously delicious!!! It was in my top 3 galbi of all time. With flavor like this, I can accept the price. Getting a bit tired of grilled beef? Or not enough food? ⭐️Definitely order the marinated galbi⭐️

Naengmyeon, fruit, ice cream and coffee to finish

We finished at Worang Myeongga with naengmyeon (cold noodles). Finishing meat with naengmyeon is the golden rule, right? ^_^ They were the thin noodles I like best, so the naengmyeon passed too.

Then we polished off some fruit for dessert,

and cleared the real dessert, ice cream and coffee, too.

Is Worang Myeongga a good place to take your parents?

I went with my picky parents and was really worried about what I'd do if they didn't like it, but they enjoyed it and said let's come again, so I felt super proud (?) of this restaurant! It's great for taking your parents, and perfect for company dinners and family gatherings too. Worang Myeongga Daejeon Yuseong Main Branch, the Bongmyeong-dong favorite: for hanwoo, it's definitely here~!