Nowon jokbal restaurant, free soup and noodles for two: Gwihan Jokbal

My husband and I basically live and breathe hunting for good jokbal (pig's trotter) restaurants haha, and this time we're posting about a spot in our own neighborhood near Nowon Station! We had a genuinely delicious meal at Gwihan Jokbal Nowon Branch, so let me write it up in detail.

What kind of place is Gwihan Jokbal Nowon Branch, the jokbal spot near Nowon Station?

Gwihan Jokbal Nowon Branch is a jokbal franchise restaurant on Nohae-ro 83-gil near Nowon Station. It's surprisingly hard to find a good jokbal restaurant in our neighborhood, Nowon — there are only a handful near the station compared to all the grilled meat places.

On top of that, the charcoal-grilled jokbal place we used to visit near Nowon Station had closed down, which was such a shame — right when we were missing it, we found a satisfying jokbal restaurant near Nowon Station! Gwihan Jokbal is a franchise, and my husband said he often went to other branches for work dinners. Being a chain, it clears the baseline in most respects, and apparently all his coworkers love it as a go-to dinner spot too.

Gwihan Jokbal Nowon Branch hours and parking

• Daily, 11am to 2am the next day
• No closed days, no break time
• No parking available

Why Gwihan Jokbal works for group dinners in Nowon

Gwihan Jokbal Nowon Branch has a fairly spacious hall with wide gaps between tables, so it's great for group dinners in Nowon too. Honestly, is there anything better than a jokbal restaurant for a group dinner with lots of people? Grilled meat places are no good for that — everyone's too busy grilling to actually talk.

And here, the entrance is completely open, giving it that wide-open feel — it genuinely feels like one of those outdoor pojangmacha (street tent bar) spots near Nowon Station! You can enjoy a cool breeze while eating jokbal with a shot of soju, outdoor-tent-style.

The side dish spread and the free dried pollack and bean sprout soup

True to being a solid jokbal restaurant near Nowon Station, Gwihan Jokbal Nowon Branch serves a neat, well-composed table setting. First off, the mu saengchae (spicy radish salad) was rich and really tasty, giving off that trendy ogeurak-ji (aged radish kimchi) vibe. And Gwihan Jokbal gives you a full bowl of cool hwangtae kongnamul-guk (dried pollack and bean sprout soup) on the house. It's the kind of coolness that rises up from your very core!!! It felt like it washed away even a month-old hangover haha.

Unlike other jokbal places, Gwihan Jokbal's neat, clean table setting is a real plus. In particular, the sauces are given out individually per person, which felt more hygienic and convenient to eat.

Medium jokbal: is it enough for two people?

Since there were two of us, we ordered the medium-size jokbal, and the portion was much bigger than the medium size at typical jokbal restaurants. The bones and meat were piled up like a mountain, overflowing!

But above all, the taste was seriously... I consider myself something of a jokbal connoisseur... and by my standard, this is the No. 1 jokbal restaurant in Nowon Station!!!! I'm not a fan of the kind of texture that's so tender it turns mushy, but here, even though it's served warm, the jokbal had just the right amount of chewiness alongside a soft, tender texture — and I loved that. The seasoning was spot on with great umami, and of course there was zero gamey smell. Personally I'm not into jokbal with too much of that medicinal-herb taste, but here every flavor was in perfect balance. I hadn't settled on a go-to jokbal spot near Nowon Station until now — Gwihan Jokbal really is 'precious' (gwihan means 'precious' in Korean) haha...

The ratio of skin to fat to meat was a work of art! It's well-seasoned enough to eat plain, and it's also delicious with the mu saengchae or the chive salad.

The ratio of skin, fat, and meat — everything was just right... haha

First bite: plain jokbal, no wrap, just to taste it straight. Then you wrap it in perilla leaves and dig in. It'd been a while since I had jokbal wrapped in perilla leaves — pure honey-sweet bliss ♡

How good is the free bibim makguksu?

We were digging into the jokbal when, ta-da, out came the free makguksu (spicy buckwheat noodles)!!!!! But this is not the kind of free makguksu you get with delivery jokbal. It's genuinely served in what looks like a basin — a huge, overflowing bowl of bibim makguksu — and the quality is no joke. This wasn't 'complimentary side dish' level, it was the kind of makguksu you'd normally pay ₩10,000 for separately.

And the seasoning on the makguksu is seriously incredible. The free makguksu you get at typical jokbal places usually uses store-bought sauce, giving it that sharp, sweet-and-sour, MSG-heavy, one-note flavor. But here, the seasoning had a refined, savory depth. It wasn't overwhelmingly sweet or sour — just a gentle sweetness with a hint of tang. That said, it wasn't bland either. It really had that upscale sweet-and-sour balance, almost like the sweetness came from fruit haha.

Have you ever seen such a generous jokbal spread? The table setting was so neat that even the photos turned out pretty.

Why Gwihan Jokbal is now our regular jokbal spot in Nowon

What goes with jokbal? Soju, obviously! Haha. I wasn't feeling too great that day, but the jokbal was so delicious that even the soju tasted sweet. It was such a satisfying day, finally finding a great jokbal restaurant near Nowon Station! If you're looking for a good jokbal restaurant in Nowon too, definitely give Gwihan Jokbal a try.