Korean restaurant by Banwoldang Station, Daegu: weekend lunch set

A little while back, I took the kids out for an outing to Banwoldang and we needed lunch! We ended up at this Korean restaurant almost by accident, but it turns out it's a real local favorite — both with office workers nearby and with regulars who already know the place well.

It's a spot where you can enjoy neat, well-made side dishes alongside hearty main dishes, all in a healthy Korean-food style. This is Banwoldang Bujasikdang, right in Banwoldang :)

Where is Banwoldang Bujasikdang, and what are its hours and parking?

Banwoldang Bujasikdang is at 13-13 Gwandeokjeong-gil, 1F, Jung-gu, Daegu, South Korea. It's open Monday to Saturday from 11am to 8:45pm, closed every Sunday, with a break time from 3:30 to 5pm.

This Banwoldang-area favorite sits right across from Banwoldang DongA Department Store. There's parking space in front for about three cars! We visited during a weekend lunch and there were even other customers waiting, so it's clearly popular.

Weekend lunch with kids: ordering the stone-plate buja seokgalbi

Ordering was easy through the tablet set up at each table. The fire-grilled jeyuk-bokkeum (spicy pork stir-fry), squid stir-fry, and squid-pork stir-fry all looked delicious, but since I was there for lunch with the kids, I went with the stone-grilled bujaseokgalbi (rib) :)

Side dishes and the self-serve ssam vegetable bar

The basic side dishes were neat, classic Korean banchan — spicy radish salad, seasoned bean sprouts, seaweed stem and fried burdock braise, pickled onion — and every single one had that deep, savory flavor that made them so good.

And the ssam (wrap) vegetables, garlic, and chili peppers to eat with the main dish were available from a self-serve bar, so you could refill them easily :)

Stone-plate short rib for three: how big is the portion and how does it taste?

Ta-da ♡ Here's what I ordered — stone-grilled bujaseokgalbi (rib)!!! I got the portion for three, and I was genuinely surprised at how generous it was :)

The rib, grilled on a hot stone plate, looked just like pork rib and already had my mouth watering :) The portion was hefty and the savory aroma hit my nose in a way that made me think it would work just as well as a drinking snack as a rice side dish.

There was a generous pile of shredded green onion on top of the rib, and when I moved it aside a little, the fully cooked stone-grilled rib underneath revealed itself.

I cut off a nicely sliced piece of rib and tasted it — tender and savory, just excellent! The soy-based marinade had soaked in well, so it tasted like a really good soy-glazed pork rib, and the kids ate it up happily too.

I tried a bite with a little shredded green onion on top, and the aroma of the green onion paired beautifully with the tender rib.

Along with the rib, there was a variety of grilled vegetables on the stone plate too — onion, king oyster... I mean enoki mushroom, and green onion — which made the meal even more satisfying.

Wrapping a piece of rib in the ssam vegetables I'd brought over from the self-serve bar was also the best!

Cheonggukjang soybean stew and choosing bibimbap over rice

The specialty of this Banwoldang lunch spot is the cheonggukjang doenjang stew (fermented soybean stew)! It had that deep, nutty cheonggukjang aroma, was packed with vegetables, and paired perfectly with the rib.

When you order a main dish, you can choose bibimbap instead of plain steamed rice, and the bibimbap toppings included spicy radish salad, bean sprouts, beef, egg garnish, and lettuce — quite a variety.

I dumped in a bowl of rice, added some gochujang (red chili paste), spooned in a scoop of the cheonggukjang doenjang stew, and mixed it all up.

The bibimbap was already so good with the nutty stew and all its toppings that you wouldn't even need other side dishes, but topping a spoonful of bibimbap with a piece of the rib was true happiness :)