Seomyeon pub, first in at 5:30 for stew and gizzards: Yetnal Tongdak

A good-value Seomyeon pub where you can have chicken stew and old-style fried chicken for around ₩30,000

I wanted dakdoritang (spicy braised chicken stew), and my husband wanted fried chicken. In one Seomyeon alley, we found a place that serves both.

Yetnal Tongdak & Tang Seomyeon Branch: Location and Hours

Yetnal Tongdak & Tang Seomyeon Branch (옛날통닭앤탕) is open Tuesday to Sunday, 17:30 to 05:30, and closed every Monday. The address is 73-1 Jungang-daero 680beonga-gil, Busanjin-gu, Busan, South Korea (1st floor; Bujeon-dong 168-32).

Walk about 200 m from Exits 2, 4, 6 and 8 of Seomyeon Station and you reach the food alley. Yetnal Tongdak & Tang sits deeper inside that alley.

Chicken and Dakdoritang Set for ₩30,000-Something in Seomyeon?

The old-style chicken and dakdoritang set is ₩32,000. The main branch is in Yeonsan-dong, and the Seomyeon branch opened relatively recently. With one fried chicken costing ₩20,000–30,000 in this era of high prices, being able to enjoy chicken and beer at a good price is the biggest strength of this Seomyeon pub's dakdoritang.

Opening at 5:30, the Interior as First Customers

We were the first customers at the 5:30 opening, so I could take photos of the interior at ease. From around 6 o'clock it gets quite crowded.

They even hang a marker on the wall, kindly inviting you to leave your mark.

What We Ordered, Plus Discounts and Events

We ordered the dakdoritang and fried gizzard set. The stew comes bone-in by default, and switching to boneless costs +₩2,000. You get a fried gizzard coupon if you book through Naver, so book on Naver before you visit.

Write a Naver receipt review or a Google visitor review and you get fries or a drink, and you can also try the nostalgic dalgona (honeycomb candy) game. Succeed at dalgona and you get a small order of fried gizzards free!

Basic Side Dishes with the Set Menu

Cabbage salad and pickled radish are the golden rule at any chicken place. Yetnal Tongdak & Tang adds shrimp chips, which make a light snack to go with drinks.

How Were the Amount and Taste of the Fried Gizzards?

The fried gizzards came out first. Since it's a set menu the portion isn't huge, but with the stew coming too, it's plenty for two. (From experience... if you eat a big pile of fried gizzards, your jaw hurts later.)

The crispy fried gizzards are crunchy outside and chewy and bouncy inside, so chewing them is a real pleasure. Dip them in the sauce. It's this chew that keeps me from ever quitting gizzards.

The Broth of the Dakdoritang

Then came the star of this Seomyeon pub's dakdoritang, the stew. You can eat it right away, but letting it come to a boil first makes the flavor deeper. The broth has a spiciness from chili powder with a sharp kick, but it doesn't hurt your stomach, which I liked.

Chicken and stew for ₩32,000. The fried gizzards call for beer and the stew calls for soju. So my husband drank soju and I drank beer, and it felt like a proper first round at a Seomyeon pub.

What Chicken Do They Use If You Switch to Boneless?

For +₩2,000, Yetnal Tongdak & Tang switches the stew to boneless, and the boneless meat is Korean Harim chicken thigh. It isn't dry, gamey Brazilian chicken, so there's no off smell and it's tender. It's even better with the spicy broth. This is a good-value Seomyeon pub dakdoritang, and I like that the ingredients are domestic too.

Is It Enough for Two, and for Three?

The stew and fried gizzard set filled the two of us up. The stew, with a shallow pool of broth, also has wheat rice cakes, quail eggs and glass noodles, so there's variety. Extra add-ins and fried rice are available.

For three people, you could add extra stew ingredients or fried rice to this set.

We started with a first-round Seomyeon pub dakdoritang and drank soju and beer happily with fried gizzards at Yetnal Tongdak & Tang. It's a good place for anyone looking for a good-value Seomyeon pub.