Daegu Korean restaurant with a cauldron and barley tea bar: Hyangtaek

Where is Hyangtaek Daebong Branch?

Hyangtaek Daebong Branch is a Korean restaurant at 17 Dalgubeol-daero 440-gil, Jung-gu, Daegu, South Korea. Coming from Exit 3 of Gyeongbuk Uni Hospital Station on Daegu Metro Line 3, toward Bangcheon Market and the wedding-dress street, walk into the alley and go up about 200m — it's right there on your left.

The weather was so nice after a while that I went out on a date with my husband~ and ended up at a restaurant with great vibes >.<.........

"Hyangtaek Daebong Branch" looked like a good-vibe Korean restaurant so we popped in on the spot^.^

You'll find it easily, haha.

Hyangtaek Daebong Branch hours and parking

Hyangtaek Daebong Branch is open from 11:00 to 20:00, with a break time from 15:00 to 17:00, 2 hours!

There's parking for about 2 cars right in front of the restaurant, and you can also use the Kim Kwang-seok Street public parking lot~ it's a bit of a walk, but the neighborhood is pretty so it's not bad to stroll and sightsee, haha.

Lunchtime wait and the dining room

Hyangtaek Daebong Branch takes waiting via Table Order app, and even though we went a liiittle before lunch peak, almost every table was full. Luckily it filled up right after we sat down, so we didn't have to wait, haha.

You can feel the good-Korean-restaurant vibe from outside already! Good restaurants always have a waiting app, haha. Confirmed line-worthy spot~ and since there's a wedding-dress street nearby, it seemed like a lot of Daegu wedding invitation meetups happen here too — the waiting list looked pretty long! ㅎ.ㅎ

Clean interior! The warm lighting paired with the tables suits the Korean menu really well^.^ There were plenty of couples our age, but because of the nearby wedding street, there were also quite a few tables with parents or families with kids!

The big cauldron in the open kitchen

Looking around, a massive cauldron sits right in the middle! Korean food really is all about cauldron rice~ and since it's an open kitchen, you can see exactly how hygienically everything is cooked, which I liked^.^

Barley tea and the self-serve corner

Once we sat down, we got cool barley tea! These days most restaurants just serve bottled water no matter where you go..... so drinking barley tea again after a while, it was nutty and nice..... ㅎ.ㅎ

Isn't this setup just so cute+.+....... Tissues, paper cups, utensils, disposable aprons — anything extra you need is self-serve right here^.^

Hyangtaek Daebong Branch menu and what we ordered

Here's what's on Hyangtaek's menu^.^

• <Signature> Mackerel gondre rice (gondre namul cauldron rice with mackerel)
• <Signature> Eggplant doenjang rice bowl
• Yukhoe bibimbap (mixed rice with raw beef)
• Chamnamul squid rice bowl
• Herring roe bibim noodles
• Pollack yukhoe mulhoe (cold raw pollack soup)
• Grilled deodeok and mushrooms
• Mushroom hanpan (mushroom platter)
• Galbi hanpan (short rib platter)
• Cheongsong-style chicken bulgogi

The pollack yukhoe mulhoe was tempting, but you've got to try the signature dishes wherever you go >.<......... so we ordered the mackerel gondre rice and yukhoe bibimbap!

Side dishes and the sauces served with them

Here's the side dish spread! The banchan (side dishes) and soup were the same for both dishes~ and depending on the menu, the yukhoe bibimbap came with an egg yolk and gochujang (red chili paste).

The mackerel gondre rice came with gim (dried seaweed sheets) and a special soy sauce! But it's no secret that the doenjang (soybean paste) soup was so mild and tasty that I drank it all before the rice even came out, haha.

How did the mackerel gondre rice and yukhoe bibimbap taste?

Both the mackerel gondre rice and the yukhoe bibimbap at Hyangtaek Daebong Branch were incredibly, incredibly delicious. Ta-da~ Korean food really is the answer! The clean, neatly arranged spread looked upscale even in the plating and just so, so appetizing......

The full spread looked so pretty that neither of us touched our rice and just kept taking photos for a while, haha. Good food deserves a big close-up shot~ for reference, both the yukhoe bibimbap and mackerel gondre rice were super, super delicious+.+........

Yukhoe bibimbap (raw beef mixed rice)

For the yukhoe bibimbap, I added the egg yolk and gochujang and mixed it all up~ the raw beef and ingredients were so fresh that it was really good^.^ The flavor was clean and not too intense, yet somehow I kept craving more bite after bite... it was just so, so good!

Samchi gondre bap (mackerel with gondre herb rice)

For the mackerel gondre rice too, the mackerel was torn into bite-sized pieces, seasoned evenly with the special sauce, and mixed all around~

My husband raved about it the moment he took the first bite...... I was wondering how fish and gondre namul would pair together...... but this was genuinely delicious, so much so ㅎㄷㄷ...... he didn't even touch my yukhoe bibimbap......... The gondre was so soft, fragrant and nutty, and the combination with the mackerel was truly perfect!

And wrapping it in the gim that came alongside, with a dab of the soy sauce and a bit of jeotgal (salted seafood) on top, was another delicacy in itself, haha.

Is Hyangtaek Daebong Branch worth going back to?

Honestly, Korean food is tricky because it's the kind of meal we always eat, so it's not easy to make it stand out as especially delicious..... but even so, the clean, neat flavor here was just so good^^ Not overpowering at all, yet the flavor kept pulling me back! The staff were kind too, which made the meal even better~

I truly loved it so much that I ended up wiping the bowl clean down to the last grain of rice and sauce, basically doing the dishes myself..... total clean plate. I'll definitely be back here, haha.