Omokgyo Chinese restaurant with chili jjajangmyeon: Yugwanjang

Yugwanjang Banjeom Omokgyo Station Branch 256 Mokdong-ro, 2F, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul Open 24 hours Groups, takeout, delivery, free parking available

How to walk to Yugwanjang Banjeom from Omokgyo Station, and where to park

This Omokgyo Chinese restaurant is easy to reach by public transit since it sits right near Omokgyo Station — about a 1-minute walk. It faces Hyundai Department Store, making it a convenient meeting spot too. Free parking is available, but since the restaurant occupies the upper floors of the building, if the lot fills up, use the Mokdong public parking lot across the street~

What we ordered at Yugwanjang Banjeom: fried dumplings, chili jjajangmyeon, eggplant rice bowl

This Omokgyo restaurant specializes in bone-broth-based jjampong soup, and we ordered fried dumplings, chili jjajangmyeon, and eggplant rice bowl! Since the eggplant rice bowl comes with jjampong soup on the side, we got to taste jjajangmyeon, a rice dish, and the soup all at once. Good deal!!!

The basic side dishes here are pickled radish and jjachai — a combo you can't skip at a Chinese restaurant, so naturally my hand reached for them before the food even arrived.

Fried dumplings: crisp outside, juicy inside

The fried dumplings came out first!! Their golden-brown look alone got the appetite going, and biting in, the outside was genuinely crispy. The inside was juicy, with a savory filling that made for a great appetizer to whet the palate. Fried dumplings never fail. A great light bite while waiting for the mains.

Chili jjajangmyeon topped with cheongyang chili and hot chili powder

Next was the chili jjajangmyeon. Unlike regular jjajangmyeon, it comes generously topped with cheongyang chili and hot chili powder, so highly recommended if you like spice!! The black bean sauce was thick and rich, coating the noodles heavily so every bite had deep flavor, and it paired well with the chewy noodles. The sharp heat from the cheongyang chili kept things from getting greasy, so I just kept eating. The combination of rich sauce and spicy topping made this Omokgyo jjajangmyeon really stand out!!

Eggplant rice bowl: eggplant fried separately for texture

The eggplant rice bowl at this Omokgyo restaurant was something I'd been curious about even before ordering, and the portion turned out to be huge!! The rice itself was generous and the stir-fried eggplant was piled on thick, making it a meal on its own. The eggplant was fried separately before being stir-fried in with the spicy vegetables, so it wasn't mushy — crisp outside, soft inside — a rice bowl that nailed the texture too!! Highly recommend if you like eggplant~

The bone-broth jjampong soup that comes with the eggplant rice bowl, refilled twice

The jjampong soup that came with it was the real highlight. Yugwanjang is serious about its bone-broth-based jjampong soup, and one taste and I was hooked!! The deep flavor of the bone broth was layered with a clean savoriness, and the soup was scalding hot, so each spoonful warmed me right up. I liked it so much I refilled the soup alone twice!!

Open 24 hours with a large dining hall: is Yugwanjang Banjeom worth it?

Yugwanjang's prices are reasonable and the portions are generous, making it a great-value Mokdong Chinese restaurant. The fried dumplings, chili jjajangmyeon, and eggplant rice bowl were all satisfying in both taste and quantity, and the wide, comfortable dining hall let us focus on the meal! Best of all, being open 24 hours means you can eat here anytime.

I stumbled onto this place while looking for a good Mokdong Chinese restaurant, but from accessibility to taste and portion size, it was a fully satisfying Omokgyo Chinese restaurant! Comfortable to eat in with its spacious hall, and being a 24-hour Mokdong Chinese restaurant means you can eat here even late at night — highly recommend Yugwanjang!!