Gasan-dong Korean restaurant, ₩2,000 pot rice for four: Gim Myeongtae

Today's post is an honest review of Gim Myeongtae Spicy Braised Short Ribs, a lunch spot in Gasan that offers a lunch special with ₩2,000 hotpot rice per person for anyone visiting before 3pm, weekday or weekend. It's a pollock specialty restaurant that also nails spicy braised short ribs — you can enjoy hotpot rice, spicy pollock, and braised ribs all in one visit.

Even though I visited in the evening, the place was already pretty full, which told me this spot is popular with office workers around Gasan Digital Complex Station too.

Where to park at Gim Myeongtae Spicy Braised Short Ribs Gasan Branch

Facing the restaurant, there's a small lot on the right side with 3 spots — just park there if one's free. If you park at the public lot across the street instead, you get a ₩1,000 discount.

Gim Myeongtae Spicy Braised Short Ribs Gasan Branch is a Korean restaurant specializing in pollock dishes. From braised pollock to spicy braised short ribs, cuttlefish, and cockle salad, there's a good variety of menu items to pick and choose from.

What four of us ordered at Gim Myeongtae, and what it cost

You can choose the spice level for the spicy braised short ribs — mild, regular, spicy, or extra spicy — so it's great to bring along someone who can't handle spicy food. There were four of us this time. We ordered the small spicy braised short ribs for ₩33,000 and the siraegi braised pollock for two people at ₩24,000.

Since we visited in the evening, we added the hotpot rice separately for ₩2,000 per person. I heard that if you visit for lunch, weekday or weekend, the hotpot rice comes included, so I'd highly recommend this place to anyone looking for lunch spots around Gasan Digital Complex.

The owner mentioned this pollock specialty restaurant, Gim Myeongtae, had even been featured on SBS's Live Today show, which made me look forward to it even more.

The side dishes: bean sprouts, seaweed and more

Corn, radish wrap, fish cake, and pickled onion came out as standard sides, along with bean sprouts and seaweed.

The bean sprouts and seaweed especially went well with the spicy braised ribs and braised pollock, so we were already mixing and matching combinations before the main dishes even arrived.

Crunchy bean sprouts really do pair well with spicy food.

Spicy braised short ribs with a sauce that delivers

Just looking at it, you could tell it was going to be spicy, but taking a bite, the sauce was even tastier than I expected.

It had that spicy-yet-keep-coming-back-for-more flavor that goes perfectly with rice. Eating the bean sprouts together with the spicy braised ribs was a especially great combo.

It's the kind of combo that blows away stress while you eat spicy food. Whenever I'm craving something spicy near Gasan Digital Complex Station from now on, I think Gim Myeongtae Spicy Braised Short Ribs will be the first thing that comes to mind.

I also liked that glass noodles were included as a default part of the dish.

Once the spicy sauce fully soaked into the noodles, adding that chewy texture, they were delicious enough to eat on their own.

As time passed and the ingredients cooked further in the sauce, the flavor seemed to deepen a little more compared to when it first arrived.

The rib meat was really tender — a light touch with chopsticks was enough to pull it apart, and it melted in your mouth. The combination of spicy sauce and tender meat was really great.

Siraegi braised pollock with no fishy taste

Honestly, I don't usually eat pollock much. Because of that distinct fishy taste, I never went out of my way to order it, but Gim Myeongtae's siraegi braised pollock had absolutely no fishy taste.

It was spicy with a savory depth, the sauce had soaked well into the pollock flesh, and it paired really well with the siraegi (dried radish greens).

The pollock meat also came apart more easily than I expected, making it easy to eat.

Braised pollock can easily end up tasting strongly fishy, but here the seasoning blended so well that even I, who doesn't usually eat pollock, enjoyed it.

The softly cooked siraegi had soaked up plenty of the spicy seasoning, and it went really well piled on top of the hotpot rice.

Lunch near Gasan Digital Complex? Get the pot rice

What surprised me most this visit was how satisfying the hotpot rice turned out to be. Since we came for dinner, we added it separately, but at ₩2,000 per person it wasn't a burden at all.

Scooping freshly cooked rice straight out of the pot felt noticeably different from regular steamed rice in a bowl. Piling the spicy braised pollock on top especially felt like properly enjoying Korean food.

Piling on siraegi and pollock flesh and wrapping it in seaweed was delicious, and adding a bit of the spicy braised ribs sauce worked well too.

If you're looking for a lunch spot in Gasan Digital Complex, I'd recommend pairing your meal with the hotpot rice.

At the end, we finished off the leftover rice in the pot as nurungji (scorched rice tea). Wrapping up a spicy meal with warm nurungji left me feeling full and satisfied all the way through.

Is Gim Myeongtae worth it for a group of four?

The biggest strength of Gim Myeongtae Spicy Braised Short Ribs Gasan Branch is that you're not stuck with just one dish — you get to enjoy a variety of Korean menu items together. We ate bean sprouts with the braised ribs, piled pollock flesh and siraegi onto rice, and tried all kinds of combinations along the way. The spicy braised ribs had tender meat and delicious seasoning, and the braised pollock had no fishy taste, with a great balance between seasoning and siraegi.

Both dishes go well with rice, so they work great for lunch, and would also be nice with a simple drink in the evening. If you're craving spicy Korean food near Gasan Digital Complex Station, or just want a hearty lunch, I'd highly recommend Gim Myeongtae Spicy Braised Short Ribs Gasan Branch.