Sinsa Chinese restaurant with galbi-jjim jajangmyeon and rooms: Samsin

A Korean-Chinese-Japanese fusion Chinese restaurant near Sinsa Station

I went to Samsin Garosu-gil (삼신 가로수길점), right at the entrance to Garosu-gil! It's a bit different from your usual Chinese restaurant — the menu blends Korean, Chinese and Japanese elements. From jajangmyeon (black bean noodles) topped with a whole galbi-jjim (braised beef short ribs) to jjamppong (spicy Korean-Chinese noodle soup) with fried chicken wings on top, every single dish was out of the ordinary haha

Exterior and location

Maybe because it's brand new, even the exterior has a great vibe haha. The restaurant takes up both the 2nd and 3rd floors of the building, so it's quite a bit bigger than I expected. It's easy to get to when you're looking for a lunch spot on Garosu-gil or Serosu-gil, and since it's close to Sinsa Station it'd work for a work dinner or a get-together after the office too!

The first thing I felt walking in was: this place is way fancier than I expected?! It's not what you picture as a Chinese restaurant — the interior has an Asian feel done in black and mint. Being new, everything was spotless, which I loved, and there were Asian-style props here and there that gave it a pretty unique atmosphere. It feels less like a place to grab a quick bowl of jajangmyeon or jjamppong and more like somewhere to sit down to a proper meal with dishes to share!

What are the rooms and the main hall like?

I booked ahead before visiting. The 2nd floor has several rooms plus a main hall. The seating itself is really upscale and the tables are big, so it was perfect for ordering several dishes to share.

According to the restaurant's info, there are 7 private rooms across the 2nd and 3rd floors, and groups of up to 80 can be accommodated. The interior really is upscale and the rooms are separate, so it looked like a good fit for a work dinner near Sinsa Station, a family gathering or a business meeting. Garosu-gil has plenty of restaurants, but finding one with rooms where a group can eat quietly is surprisingly tricky, right?! In that sense, it's a solid option for anyone looking for a restaurant with private rooms in Sinsa-dong!

I loved everything — the tableware, the menu, all of it. Being a new Chinese restaurant, it's seriously classy haha. The hall seats have partitions too, so we could eat fairly privately.

A varied menu mixing Korean, Chinese and Japanese elements

The menu is really long and varied. I couldn't even capture it all in photos — from dim sum to meals like jajangmyeon, jjamppong and fried rice, to tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork), dongpo pork, mianbaoxia (shrimp toast), cold platters, seafood and meat dishes, there was a huge range.

Samsin is a fusion Chinese restaurant that blends Korean, Chinese and Japanese, so there are lots of dishes you'd rarely see at an ordinary Chinese restaurant, starting with the names: galbi-jjim jajangmyeon ₩25,000, tebanaka meat jjamppong ₩15,000, crispy mianbaoxia with gat-kimchi (mustard leaf kimchi) ₩19,000, gochujang minari dongpo pork ₩38,000, mapo chawanmushi and so on haha. According to the restaurant, a chef with a Michelin 2-star background and a chef from hotel dining run the kitchen. Mixing elements of the three countries — Korea, China and Japan — in a single bowl is Samsin's concept.

12 kinds of handmade dim sum

And the dim sum here is made in-house too. From xiaolongbao to shrimp har gow, truffle crystal dumplings, wedding shumai and kimchi xiaolongbao — 12 kinds of handmade dim sum in total! You can order them one by one à la carte, and the courses include dim sum as well. We were curious, so we ordered one handmade shrimp har gow for ₩9,000 haha

Lunch and dinner courses

Lunch courses start at ₩25,000. Samsin's Lunch Course A is ₩25,000 per person and comes with Sokcho snow crab soup, a 2-piece handmade dim sum sampler, Tokyo tangsuyuk, a choice of one main and dessert. Lunch Course B is ₩35,000 per person and goes from snow crab soup to a 3-piece dim sum sampler, Tokyo tangsuyuk, katsuobushi chili shrimp, a main and dessert.

That day we skipped the course and picked the dishes we wanted à la carte, but considering the interior and the rooms, going for a course at a lunch gathering looked like a good call too! The lunch course is honestly great value haha. There are separate dinner courses as well, and according to the restaurant's info they range from ₩50,000 to ₩125,000.

Galbi-jjim jajangmyeon, tebanaka meat jjamppong and har gow

What we ordered that day was three things: galbi-jjim jajangmyeon ₩25,000, tebanaka meat jjamppong ₩15,000 and handmade shrimp har gow ₩9,000! Just from the looks, these are definitely not your ordinary jajangmyeon and jjamppong haha. The Korean-Chinese-Japanese fusion concept shows right there on the plate.

Handmade shrimp har gow ₩9,000

First out was the handmade shrimp har gow! It's ₩9,000 for 3 pieces, and they're handmade dim sum folded right in the restaurant. You can see the shrimp packed inside the thin, translucent wrapper — plump and bouncy just from the look of it... hehe

It was the perfect side to order before digging into the jajangmyeon or jjamppong. Samsin has so many kinds of dim sum besides har gow — xiaolongbao, shumai and more — so next time I want to try the dim sum sampler with several kinds in it. It was so delicious I could cry.

All three dishes we ordered arrived. I was surprised by how huge the bowls are. And the presentation was seriously insane!! I think it's great value for the quality. Maybe because it's a Chinese restaurant with private rooms near Sinsa Station, I spotted quite a few people there for work dinners and business meetings.

Tebanaka meat jjamppong ₩15,000

And the one I'd been curious about, the tebanaka meat jjamppong! There's fried chicken sitting right on top!

Galbi-jjim jajangmyeon ₩25,000

Eek, the galbi-jjim jajangmyeon looks insane, right?!? There's actual galbi-jjim, a massive chunk of it, sitting on top of the jajangmyeon hahahaha

I really loved the whole spread. Jjamppong, jajangmyeon, dim sum — all top quality at Samsin Garosu-gil!

If you're looking for jjamppong at a Chinese restaurant in Sinsa-dong and want something unusual rather than the standard seafood jjamppong, this one is worth a look. It's a meat jjamppong flavored with chicken and beef, with fried chicken wings on top hahaha

It was my first time seeing the jjamppong-plus-fried-chicken-wings combo, so it was fascinating haha. The menu describes it as a jjamppong with a deep, smoky wok flavor, and with the tebanaka — that is, fried chicken wings — on top, it definitely looks different from regular jjamppong. There were also lots of thin slices of meat, like usamgyeop (thin-sliced beef belly)? so ₩15,000 felt like really good value.

The noodles were nice and springy, and the broth wasn't super spicy, so even people who can't handle heat should be fine with it hahaha. The portion is really big too — I thought I'd burst~ There's quite a range of noodle dishes, like East Coast seafood jjamppong and dried pollack white jjamppong, so you can pick whatever suits your taste!

The meat was so tender. There's actual galbi-jjim, a massive chunk of it, sitting on top of the jajangmyeon hahahaha. It's one of Samsin's signature dishes: tender galbi-jjim eaten together with jajangmyeon!!!

It's not just a little bit of meat in the jajangmyeon — the galbi-jjim itself is the main topping, so one bowl is seriously filling. They also sell a Taean potato jajangmyeon, and maybe that's why there were potatoes in the jajangmyeon too, which was a nice twist.

It definitely feels more like eating a proper dish than ordinary jajangmyeon, and when you see dishes like this you instantly get why Samsin calls itself a Korean-Chinese-Japanese fusion Chinese restaurant haha. The galbi is so tender it just slides right off the bone. Totally satisfied.. haha

If you're after unusual Chinese dishes and a private room meal

I visited Samsin Garosu-gil because I heard it was new and got curious! Overall, it feels closer to a stylish fusion Chinese restaurant than a typical Chinese joint. There were tons of autographs on the wall too~~

There are lots of dishes that take familiar Chinese menu items like galbi-jjim jajangmyeon or tebanaka meat jjamppong and mix in other elements, so just browsing the menu was fun haha. With handmade dim sum, main dishes, and lunch and dinner courses, there's so much variety that you could come for a quick jajangmyeon or jjamppong at lunch or come with a group and order dishes to share!! Above all, the interior is clean and upscale and there are 7 private rooms, so it'd suit anyone looking for a spot for a work dinner, a get-together or a family meal near Sinsa Station haha. It's close to Sinsa Station and easy to reach from anywhere on Garosu-gil, so if you're looking for a new Chinese restaurant with a great atmosphere, it's worth a visit!!!