Squid minari pancake and hot pots for a family meal: Okdengjang

Okdengjang Seohyeon Branch Address: 1F 106, 261-5 Seohyeon-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

We were out with family playing Pokémon Go over the weekend, getting our steps in haha. After walking around, everyone said they wanted warm doenjang stew, so we headed to Okdengjang Seohyeon Branch :)

Crowded even late on a weekend

Here's what the Okdengjang Seohyeon Branch storefront looks like :) We visited pretty late after playing around, but there were still tons of people~ If we'd gone a little earlier we probably would've had to wait~

What we ordered

Here's the Okdengjang Seohyeon Branch menu :) We ordered squid minari pancake, beef pork belly doenjang hot pot, and a small mixed boiled pork hot pot haha.

Basic side dishes

And here are the basic side dishes :) The stir-fried kimchi was delicious, and the green onion kimchi was really good too haha. These came out first with the rice, so we dug into the sides and rice while we waited hahaha.

The dishes we ordered came out really fast~ Ordering a variety and sharing made it feel like a proper full spread~ They set the doenjang stew and the boiled pork hot pot on either side, so it looked seriously generous lol.

Mixed boiled pork hot pot, small

Here's what the meat doenjang stew looked like before it started boiling :) The meat looked so fresh~ :)

They sprinkled a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper over the hot pot :) I think that's why the flavor was so good!

With the small mixed boiled pork hot pot, it was nice that we could keep it simmering warm the whole time haha. Just a few minutes after it was set down, it was already bubbling away nicely :)

The beef tendon looked so good too ㅠㅠ I personally love beef tendon so much that I tell my butcher to call me whenever they get some in, and I go running the moment I get the call~ Cooking beef tendon into doenjang stew at home is so delicious haha.

The boiled pork was tender and the broth was clean yet the meat flavor came through so well — it looked like a light, clear broth but tasted incredibly rich, so I ate it completely satisfied!

How does the beef pork belly doenjang hot pot taste?

The beef pork belly doenjang hot pot tastes exactly like something that makes you crave rice haha.

The savory flavor of the doenjang combined with the nutty richness from the beef made the broth thick and hearty :) It wasn't overly salty or sharp in that strong doenjang way, so I kept spooning it up without any hesitation.

And now, the star: squid minari pancake

And now, the one I'd been most excited about from the start — the squid minari pancake.. and it really was delicious :)

First off, the squid pieces are really big lol. Squid is so expensive these days that making this at home with this much squid would actually cost quite a bit ㅠㅠ

Eating it alongside the minari pancake made all the other dishes go together even better ㅠㅠ The minari (water celery) was piled on generously, so fragrant, and the squid was so chewy haha. My husband cut it up neatly for everyone and as we shared it, I think each of us said 'this is so good~' several times hahaha.

Crispy on the outside and moist and chewy on the inside, so even though it's a pan-fried pancake, it wasn't as greasy as I expected haha. Dipping it in the sauce made it taste even more refreshing, so it never felt heavy all the way through hahaha. Personally, this is the dish I'd tell you to absolutely order if you come here!><

Even as I was eating it, I felt a little sad to finish the last bite of the minari squid pancake lol.

And the boiled pork hot pot also had loads of minari in it — toward the end, scooping up a big pile of minari with the meat was so fragrant and good~ The people at the table behind us kept ordering refills of the minari hahaha.

What kind of day is this good for

Overall, Okdengjang Seohyeon felt like the kind of place that suits craving a warm, hearty Korean spread rather than flashy food :) The doenjang hot pot alone is great, but personally I'd recommend ordering the boiled pork hot pot together with the squid minari pancake haha. It seems like a good spot for a meal with parents near Seohyeon Station, or for any day you're craving hot soup :)!