Jung-gu, Daegu gukbap two days running: ttaro-gukbap at Hanwoojang

I took my very first trip to Daegu! Since Daegu is famous as a food city, I went with big expectations, and I found a restaurant I enjoyed so, so much that I have to tell you about it. I searched around for a good gukbap (rice soup) place and ended up at Hanwoojang (한우장) in Jung-gu, Daegu, which is covered in Blue Ribbons, my favorite fail-proof seal of approval.

• The place I tried on day one, fell for, and went back to the next day.
• A Jung-gu, Daegu gukbap restaurant with 12 years in a row of Blue Ribbons
• The ttaro-gukbap is insane.
• The kind of place where I finally said "this one's different" and actually meant it.

I'd never been to Daegu before, and wow, it really is a food city.

Where Hanwoojang is in Daegu and how to get there

Hanwoojang is at 555 Gukchaebosang-ro, Jung-gu, Daegu, South Korea (1st floor), on the Dongseong-ro side, 2–3 minutes from the Gwak Hospital Front 2 (곽병원앞2) bus stop. It's open 24 hours all year round, and there's no parking.

With Daegu's reputation for brutal heat (they call it "Daeprica"), I worried the restaurant would be a long walk from the stop, but it was close. Nice!

What's the atmosphere inside Hanwoojang?

Hanwoojang is open 24/7, so I went around 10 a.m. that day. Seeing local middle-aged guys already having suyuk (boiled pork or beef slices) and gukbap with daytime drinks, I thought, okay, this place is the real deal.

The ladies working there greeted me with big smiles, and my first-day-in-a-new-city nerves just melted away. The restaurant was spacious and cool. Twelve straight years of Blue Ribbons isn't handed out for nothing: with 57 years of history and at least 12 of them in the same spot, the open kitchen was really clean. The ladies seem proud of the place they work in, which made me feel good too.

First opened in 1968. The broth is still simmered for more than 12 hours every single day. The basic side dishes are made and pickled in-house. They take staying true to their roots seriously.

The self-service bar was tidy too! Besides the side dishes, there were chili peppers, ssamjang (seasoned soybean paste) and onions.

There are autographs from celebrities and from players of Daegu's home team, the Samseong Lions.

Hanwoojang menu and prices

The recommended dish at Hanwoojang is the ttaro-gukbap (rice and soup served separately, ₩11,000), and the Korean beef ox head soup I had the next day was ₩14,000.

Here's the menu. The fun part: above the menu board, they've kept the old wooden menu from the old days, with the dishes and prices carved into the wood. It carries all those years of wear, and the prices have gone up a lot. (In Seoul, some places charge over ₩20,000 for a bowl of gukbap...)

How does Hanwoojang's ttaro-gukbap taste?

Hanwoojang's ttaro-gukbap is ₩11,000 with rice included, and my first impression was yukgaejang (spicy beef soup) topped with minced garlic.

"Is this Daegu generosity?" I wondered, because everything in the bowl was big..! Big green onions, big radish, really big seonji (congealed ox blood)... and big chunks of meat too. When friends recommend a restaurant and say "this place is really different," I usually let it go in one ear and out the other, but the seonji at Hanwoojang in Jung-gu, Daegu really was different. Even compared with the well-known seonji places in Gyeonggi-do and Seoul.

Hanwoojang's seonji is bouncy and chewy, with a texture that's a real treat. 🤤 You can taste how fresh it is.

I wolfed down the whole bowl in a daze.. The garlic on top looked like very little at first (by Korean standards), but the sweetness from the radish and green onions and the flavor drawn out of the garlic lingered in my mouth even after I finished..

Back to Hanwoojang the next day, this time with ox head soup

I came to Hanwoojang again the next day.. My girlfriend ordered the ttaro-gukbap (₩11,000) that moved me so much, and I ordered the Korean beef ox head soup (₩14,000).

She rushed over to join me after work, we ate lots of good things, and then the next day I brought her to Hanwoojang,, The Korean beef ox head soup won me over with its broth simmered for over 12 hours and the chewy head meat.

If you're planning a trip to Daegu, I recommend Hanwoojang in Jung-gu, Daegu for gukbap! Awesome!