Jecheon Korean restaurant for three makguksu types: Seomin Makguksu

First meal of my Jecheon trip: Seomin Makguksu Jecheon Main Branch

It was day one of my trip to Jecheon, Chungcheongbuk-do. I think two things matter when traveling: good restaurants and accommodation. I had my first Jecheon meal at Seomin Makguksu Jecheon Main Branch (서민막국수 제천본점), and I left reallyyyy full. With generous beef yukjeon and a variety of buckwheat makguksu, it was seriously satisfying!

You can use the building parking, and Wi-Fi is available. There are high chairs and children's tableware, and the restrooms are separate for men and women inside the building.

Seomin Makguksu, a good restaurant near Jecheon's Uirimji, has a spacious dedicated parking lot. There seemed to be quite a lot of seating inside too, matching the size of the lot.

Seating for solo meals through group gatherings

When I walked in, it was lunchtime, so there were lots of diners. I was hungry too, so I hurried to sit down!

There are single-person tables that are great even if you come alone. Cool buckwheat makguksu is so nice when you have no appetite, right?

At the back of the restaurant, there is a room that can comfortably accommodate group gatherings. It holds 20-plus people. If you are traveling with a large family, this seems like a good place to eat. There is buckwheat on display in the restaurant, and the restrooms are inside and separated by gender.

They were even featured on VJ Teukgongdae. I do not know when, but they have 20 years of experience at a buckwheat factory and handle everything from ingredients to the finished product—wonderful on that alone. You need to know ingredients well to make food taste good, after all.

This is the self-service bar. I only used the children's tableware. They gave us plenty of the basic side dishes, so we did not need any refills!

What is the difference between pure and regular buckwheat makguksu?

Here is the menu at Seomin Makguksu, a Jecheon travel restaurant. There are two basic kinds of makguksu: pure buckwheat makguksu and buckwheat makguksu. I already thought that was excellent.

Pure buckwheat makguksu is 90% buckwheat, while buckwheat makguksu is 30% buckwheat.

You can check the menu on a tablet. There are so many makguksu varieties: water, bibim, pollack, perilla oil, Cheongyang-chili perilla oil, and pollack roe perilla oil. The sides were varied too, with boiled pork and yukjeon as the two stars, plus buckwheat jeonbyeong and dumplings.

Ordering three makguksu dishes and beef yukjeon

Take a look at the benefits of buckwheat noodles before you eat. Today, we ordered pure buckwheat perilla-oil makguksu with aged kimchi, pure buckwheat water makguksu, buckwheat pollack bibim makguksu, beef yukjeon, and buckwheat jeonbyeong.

The basic side dishes were white kimchi, radish, and puffed buckwheat snacks. It may be best to make sure children do not eat too many of the puffed buckwheat snacks before the meal.

Beef yukjeon ₩20,000

Wow, I was surprised as soon as the yukjeon arrived. The most recent yukjeon I had eaten was Jeonju-style pork yukjeon, but how could beef yukjeon come out this generously!? I picked it up with my chopsticks, then put it back down with only a pleased feeling—because it needed to be cut first!

My wife snip-snip cut it with scissors. Beef, which I love! I was excited to have beef yukjeon with makguksu. First, I ate it with the chives that came alongside. Beef yukjeon can be a little rich, but it goes well with chives. I am not usually a fan of jeon (Korean savory pancakes), but I do eat meat jeon well!

I also dipped it in the basic soy sauce. Wow, the yukjeon pieces were so big that even after cutting them, it was really a lot of food.

Here is the difference between pure buckwheat noodles and regular buckwheat makguksu. Pure buckwheat is on the left, and regular buckwheat is on the right. Think of the regular buckwheat noodles as the makguksu style served at jokbal restaurants! The pure buckwheat noodles are lighter in color.

Three kinds of makguksu I ate in Jecheon

Let us get into the three kinds of makguksu I enjoyed on my Jecheon trip.

Pure buckwheat perilla-oil makguksu with aged kimchi ₩12,000

It is a combination of aged kimchi and perilla oil. I recommend it if you do not prefer broth or want to deeply taste just the buckwheat and perilla-oil aroma. The pure buckwheat perilla-oil makguksu with aged kimchi is mild, so it tastes good with the slightly more strongly seasoned buckwheat jeonbyeong.

As soon as the buckwheat jeonbyeong arrived, I thought, “Wow, isn't this pork cutlet?” They had fried the jeonbyeong too. Wow, I liked that different touch.

Buckwheat pollack bibim makguksu ₩11,000

This is pollack bibim makguksu. It was my wife's pick because she likes pollack. Mix, mix! The regular buckwheat makguksu has slightly springy noodles, while the pure buckwheat noodles have a slight break-apart texture!? The pollack bibim makguksu is spicy and sweet from the pollack and bibim sauce. It might feel plain if you ate only the noodles, but with the pollack, every chopstickful feels generous, you know?

Pure buckwheat water makguksu ₩12,000

Since it was water makguksu, I thought there would not be sauce, but there was a seasoned sauce. It was not spicy, though. Wow, rather than simply buckwheat makguksu, it had the cool, unmistakable feel of naengmyeon (cold noodles). There were also little sprouts, which made it especially refreshing—a clean flavor that went perfectly with the pure buckwheat noodles.

I thought I should skip dinner, but the buckwheat noodle bowls are really huge. A daejeop, or large bowl, as they say. I was generously served in a big bowl. It is not a plate, but a giant naengmyeon bowl.

A Jecheon travel meal where I loved the clean taste of pure buckwheat

Personally, I preferred the pure buckwheat. It has a slightly break-apart texture, but I loved its clean quality. It also seems like it would digest well. True to the restaurant name Seomin Makguksu—meaning “common people's makguksu”—I liked the generous portions for ordinary people…

If noodles alone will leave you wanting more, I think it is good to add a set meal, beef yukjeon, or boiled pork. We need to get our protein too. This was already my third consecutive year visiting Jecheon on a trip, and I think I can approve it as a great makguksu restaurant.