Incheon gopchang restaurant's 39,900 won assorted set: Yeonsu Gopchang

Why Yeonsu Gopchang has a wait even on a weekday evening

Yeonsu-dong's food alley is packed with good places, and Yeonsu Gopchang Yeonsu Main Branch — the #1 gopchang spot near Yeonsu Station — is one of them. I'd tried to get in a few times before but the wait was always too long, so I never made it.

It felt like all of Incheon comes here for gopchang;; way too many people ㅠㅠㅠ I showed up on a Wednesday at 7pm and luckily there were exactly 4 tables left haha 🍀 what a lucky break

Yeonsu Gopchang Yeonsu Main Branch

Yeonsu Gopchang location, parking and opening hours

📍 13-5 Saemmal-ro 21beon-gil, 1st floor, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, South Korea 🚗 3 parking spots in front of the store 2 hours free at Matgol-gil public lot (next to Dongchun Church) and Neulbom underground public lot 🚇 648m / about 10–15 min walk from Yeonsu Station Exit 1

⏰️ Mon–Sun 16:00–01:00 (next day) Closed the last Sunday of every month (they give up a day of sales just to do a big clean!!)

When you think 'gopchang restaurant' you picture greasy smells and oily tables and floors, but Yeonsu Gopchang Yeonsu Main Branch was really clean. Not sticky or slippery at all! They close on the last Sunday of every month, sacrificing revenue, just to deep-clean the place 👍 The tables were also spaced generously so there was no worry about bumping into other guests.

Yeonsu Gopchang menu and prices

< Foolproof all-in-one sets > Yeonsu Assorted Set (2+) 39,900 won My-Choice Assorted Set (2+) 39,900 won Yeonsu Special Set (4+) 74,900 won My-Choice Special Set (4+) 74,900 won

< Charcoal-grilled stir-fried gopchang > 🌶Vegetable gopchang stir-fry 13,000 won 🌶Sundae gopchang stir-fry 13,000 won 🌶🌶🌶Spicy pepper gopchang stir-fry 14,000 won White sundae stir-fry (white gopchang) 13,000 won

< Handmade aged makchang, grilled > Salt-grilled makchang 14,000 won Seasoned grilled makchang 15,000 won Teriyaki makchang 15,000 won 🌶🌶🌶Fire makchang 15,000 won < Hot pot > Yeonsu gopchang hot pot 27,000 won

The aging fridge and the self-serve side dish bar

One thing that stands out inside the restaurant is the aging fridge! Part of why Yeonsu Gopchang draws waits as a pork gopchang specialist is that it's 'tasty and you can trust it' — the gopchang stir-fry, grilled makchang, and gopchang hot pot ingredients are all trimmed and aged in-house, which makes for a better meal.

The standard side dishes include domestic kkakdugi (radish kimchi), ssam-mu (pickled radish wraps), pickled onions, perilla leaves, mayonnaise, and a soybean-perilla powder sauce — solid sauces and sides for enjoying the gopchang.

If you need more sides or sauce, just help yourself at the self-serve bar — and with all the Chinese-made kimchi controversy going around these days!! Yeonsu Gopchang Yeonsu Main Branch has you covered with domestic kkakdugi, no worries needed >_<

Free kettle fish cake soup and a taste of sundae

Fish cake soup and sundae, served free to Yeonsu Gopchang guests!! A pojangmacha (street tent bar)-style kettle of fish cake soup 🍢 with skewered fish cakes inside sized to the number of people at the table.

I ate the fish cake from the kettle and drank the broth alongside it — the broth was...genuinely so good 👍 The fish cake works great as an appetizer and the hot broth is just as good haha. With the weather getting chillier, warming up with fish cake broth is the best >_< They also give a taste of sundae and liver 💕 no other organs, just liver and sundae, but honestly I liked that better haha. If the taste is this good, what am I supposed to do!!

What comes on the 39,900 won Yeonsu Assorted Set, cooked for you

Yeonsu Gopchang's signature Assorted Set 💗 Since everything is cooked in the kitchen right after you order, there's no worry about oil splatter or your clothes smelling. It comes out cooked enough that you can just start eating, so there is a bit of a wait. Just munch on the complimentary fish cake soup and sundae in the meantime!

When you want both vegetable gopchang and grilled makchang, nothing beats the well-rounded Yeonsu Gopchang Assorted Set. The grilled makchang defaults to salt-grilled, and for +1,000 won you can switch to seasoned, teriyaki, and more. Since this was my first visit I went with the default salt-grilled.

Salt-grilled makchang: nutty rather than salty

The salt-grilled makchang tasted better eaten while the chives on top were still fresh. Salt-grilled sounds salty, right? Nope!! It had a nutty, mild flavor. The chewy texture of the makchang gave off more nuttiness the more you chewed.

It was even better dipped in the perilla-seed Seoul-style sauce or eaten with pickled onions. (Skip the mayonnaise though.)

Flame-seared vegetable gopchang: spicy and lightly sweet

The charcoal-grilled vegetable gopchang has a striking red color. It comes with glass noodles too, and the seasoning is spicy with a touch of sweetness, I'd say. It wasn't a flavor you'd get tired of, so my chopsticks never stopped moving 👍

That said, it's not entirely mild — it's a bit less spicy than Shin Ramyun spice level. Still, dipping the spicy vegetable gopchang stir-fry in mayonnaise was the best way to eat it haha, along with the ssam-mu 💕

Pork intestines can have a strong funky smell that puts people off, but at Yeonsu Gopchang, even sensitive me couldn't detect any smell at all.

The earthenware gopchang hot pot in the assorted set

Honestly I'd also been wanting gopchang hot pot... and it turns out the assorted set includes gopchang hot pot in a stone pot!!! Between the spicy vegetable gopchang and the mild salt-grilled makchang, things can get a little rich after a while. That's when the deep, spicy-savory broth of the stone-pot gopchang hot pot comes in 👍 If you're a drinker, you'll absolutely love this haha.

4-color fried rice with 100% sesame oil, included too

You can't eat gopchang without fried rice at the end!! This fried rice comes included with the assorted set. You don't pay extra for it — it's already part of the Yeonsu Assorted Set you ordered from the start!!! Talk about great value 👍

100% sesame oil 4-color fried rice

You know how we all have a separate stomach for fried rice? The portion wasn't even small, but... it all went in somehow haha. I genuinely walked out of the restaurant patting my belly haha.

One-line review of Yeonsu Gopchang Yeonsu Main Branch — vegetable gopchang with no funky smell, makchang, and 4-color fried rice all in one great-value set, the #1 gopchang in Yeonsu-dong.