Cheongju Korean restaurant for beef rib pot rice: Sorori Sotbap

As a pot rice restaurant representing Chungbuk, Sorori Sotbap says it uses only Oksan Sorori rice, Jincheon rice, and ingredients from Chungbuk, along with pot-rice broth freshly simmered every morning. Here is my visit to Sorori Sotbap Gagyeong Direct Branch, the place I find myself returning to whenever I crave pot rice.

Sorori Sotbap Gagyeong Direct Branch visit information

It is at B105, 16 Seohyeonnam-ro (639-1 Gagyeong-dong), Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju. It is open daily from 11:00 to 20:30, with a weekday break from 15:30 to 17:00 and last orders at 20:00. There is no break time on Saturdays or Sundays.

Group dining, takeout, delivery, reservations, Wi-Fi, separate restrooms, wheelchair access, and high chairs are available. There is a free 200-car parking lot behind the Seohyeon Plaza building.

A spacious parking lot and a restaurant for families

I visited Sorori Gagyeong Direct Branch on an especially clear-sky day. The building is fairly new, so everything was neat, and the parking lot was broad with generously spaced bays—very convenient~

As you enter, there is a parking-validation machine on the left, and they even have dental floss ready.

The neat, quite spacious, pleasant dining room was full of people eating, so I could not capture it all in photos.

The self-service bar has various side dishes, plus tongs and ladles for serving them. Extra plates are also ready to take whenever needed.

Because it is in front of apartment buildings, there were lots of babies and families here. They make a special effort to wash baby tableware, spoons, forks, and cups, then keep them clean in a sterilizer.

Kiosk ordering and how to eat pot rice

You order from the kiosk at your table. There was a nostalgic prize-draw event for Kakao Map and Naver reviews. Under the kiosk were such cute little sauce dishes that I had to take a photo.

• Mix pot rice evenly all the way to the bottom. For beef offal and eel pot rice, do not mix it; scoop it with the vegetables instead.
• Add butter, soy sauce, or furikake, then wrap it in gim (roasted seaweed).
• Have buckwheat gimbap (seaweed rice roll) with pickled ginger.
• Dip salmon buckwheat gimbap in wasabi soy sauce, and shrimp buckwheat gimbap in tartar sauce.

Beef rib pot rice and the basic side dishes

Soft, savory miyeokguk (seaweed soup)—the always-delicious soup seems to come with pot rice every time.

Sorori Sotbap's beef rib pot rice has so much tender meat, perfectly seasoned so it melts away in your mouth! Such a special dish!

The drawer held neatly packaged spoons and chopsticks, as well as tissues and wet wipes, all arranged tidily.

The basic miyeokguk and gim with butter come with the pot rice. Mixing the beef rib pot rice with butter and wrapping it in gim is so delicious, right?

Salted radish, seasoned cucumber, pickles, and salted fermented squid also come out.

The beef rib pot rice is piled with big, tender, well-seasoned beef ribs, kabocha squash, chestnuts, and shishito peppers. At the bottom are moist, seasoned rice and nurungji (scorched rice). First transfer the meat and rice into a bowl, then pour the water from the metal kettle over the scorched rice stuck to the bottom of the pot. By the time you are nearly finished with the rice, it becomes delicious, soft nurungji.

Pour in the water so the nurungji can soften, then enjoy the beef ribs haha.

The tender, generously sized rib meat was delicious with rice and gim, and not overly salty.

I tried unseasoned gim topped with meat, salted seafood, and chestnut, and also made wraps with the gim and rice. The rice grains were springy and delicious either way.

I tried it with the savory shishito peppers too, and Sorori's signature beef rib pot rice was delicious in every combination. Whenever I want pot rice, this beef rib version is what brings me back; with miyeokguk, it feels like a hearty home-cooked meal.

Fresh salmon gimbap wrapped in buckwheat

Fresh salmon gimbap is wrapped with buckwheat rather than rice, along with a thick, delicious rolled omelet, and I enjoyed it so much on my previous visit too. The fresh salmon gimbap at Sorori is wonderfully easy on the stomach, which I really love.

The fresh, thick, truly delicious salmon gimbap was a meal that looked satisfying even before I ate it. Maybe I feel that way because I especially love salmon and buckwheat, but Sorori's menu is generally very satisfying.

As I was leaving, I took a photo of one corner of the restaurant after the guests there had gone. The friendly staff at very busy Sorori Sotbap Gagyeong Direct Branch said you can validate parking yourself as you leave after your meal~ It was a full two hours free. Come to think of it, because the pot rice is cooked after ordering, it takes around 15 minutes.

After the delicious meal, the autumn sky was so clear and blue that I captured it on video once more.