Myeongji restaurant in Busan for a family meal with kids: Haemullae

One of the foods my husband and I genuinely love is bone-based stew — ppyeojjim, gamjatang, bone soup. If we hear about a good spot, we'll drive an hour just for a bowl of pork bone soup, that's how serious we both are about bones!

This time, the two of us headed to Haemullae in Myeongji. Their signature is a stone-plate seafood pork bone jjim that lets you enjoy seafood jjim and pork bone jjim at once, so if you're looking for a good seafood jjim spot in Myeongji, this one's worth checking out. We ordered the set with seafood pork bone jjim plus crispy neck bone braise.

Bottom line first: the seafood was generous and the bones were tender, so we were happy. Since we visited with our child, here's a review of whether there was anything kid-friendly on the menu.

Is Haemullae in Myeongji okay for a family meal with kids?

Haemullae is a seafood jjim and pork bone jjim specialty restaurant in Myeongji. We visited as part of a review campaign this time, but since my husband and I are such fans of bone-based dishes, we were genuinely excited about the menu itself.

We ordered the seafood pork bone jjim + crispy neck bone braise set! The basic banchan (side dishes) included chive salad, cabbage salad, corn salad, and pickles, along with fried tofu rice balls.

Each table also had a guide explaining how to enjoy Haemullae's food. On a first visit you might not know how to use the sauces or what order to eat things in, so it was nice to have that right at the table. We tried eating according to the guide, and honestly the bang-a herb sauce combo I'll introduce later hit exactly my taste...! When you're dining with a child, ordering a spicy dish makes you immediately think about what they'll actually be able to eat.

Normally the fried squid comes mixed right into the seafood pork bone jjim, but when we asked for it to be served separately for our child, the staff happily did so. Thanks to that, our kid started off happily munching on fried squid.

The restrooms were kept clean, which was great for taking a kid along, and they had kids' tableware ready too! Also, if you visit, check the review event — writing a review gets you a free Excellent ice cream. Finishing off spicy seafood pork bone jjim with something cool and sweet was such a perfect combo haha. Check the table signage when you visit to see if the event is still running.

Stone-plate seafood pork bone jjim at Haemullae: from seafood to neck bones

Now that we'd checked out the how-to-eat guide on the table, it was time to actually dig in :)

The moment the main stone-plate seafood pork bone jjim arrived, it passed the visual test instantly...! On the huge stone plate, bean sprouts, seafood, and neck bones were piled generously, and the whole squid really caught the eye.

The seafood was plump and chewy, the bean sprouts were crisp, and the sauce was spicy in that keeps-you-coming-back way that paired well with the seafood.

And the bones — the thing I care about most! As I mentioned, my husband and I are truly obsessed with bones haha. We'll drive an hour for pork bone soup, and here the neck bone meat fell off soft and tender, which we loved. Scooping the meat off with a spoon, it was soft and moist, perfect eaten together with the sauce.

The bang-a herb, lemon and olive oil sauce at Haemullae

Haemullae also serves a somewhat unique sauce — a combination of bang-a herb, lemon, and olive oil, they told us. You're meant to spoon a little over the seafood.

Putting it on the seafood and meat, the distinctive fragrant scent of bang-a herb really comes through, and it went perfectly...! If you like bang-a, definitely try this combo. Dipping the seafood and meat into the soy sauce mixed with wasabi that came alongside was also delicious.

Crispy neck bone braise and mashed potatoes our child ate happily

The jjim was too spicy for our child, so instead we fed them the crispy neck bone braise with rice. The outside was coated in sauce, and once we picked the meat off the bone, our kid said it was chewy and ate quite a lot of it.

The mashed potatoes that came with it were totally our kid's taste too! Soft and savory — first the neck bone braise, then the mashed potatoes, our kid ate happily and properly.

But the huge whole squid in the seafood pork bone jjim kept catching our kid's eye, and they said they wanted to try it too. Since the sauce was spicy, we rinsed it in water, cut it up, and gave it to them. One bite in, they said,

Mmm~ chewy and soft~

Hahaha, giving a whole taste review and eating it up happily. We worried whether a spicy seafood pork bone jjim as the main dish would work with a kid, but requesting the fried squid separately like we did, or ordering the neck bone braise together, made it easy to share menu items as a family.

After the jjim: fried rice and stone-plate crispy rice

We were already stuffed after the seafood and neck bones. But how can you leave all that sauce behind without having the K-dessert, fried rice...? So we ended up ordering fried rice too. They fry rice and seaweed in the leftover seafood pork bone jjim sauce, then set a timer for exactly 2 minutes before walking away.

When the timer goes off, you turn off the heat and eat, and since it's on a stone plate, the bottom slowly crisps up into savory crispy rice.

At first we ate the moist, sauce-soaked fried rice, and once we'd had some, we asked for the crispy rice — staff came and scraped up the crusted parts stuck to the stone plate. This was seriously a delicacy. With the sauce slightly crisped into the rice grains and seaweed mixed in, we kept reaching for more even though we were full... My husband had even said at first,

I'm too full, I'm not eating fried rice.

But the moment he saw it, he picked his spoon back up haha. In the end we scraped up every last bit of crispy rice for a proper finish. If you love both seafood jjim and pork bone jjim, being able to enjoy both on one stone plate was probably Haemullae's biggest appeal.

Especially for people as serious about bones as we are, there's a real joy in hunting for tender neck bones among the seafood :) We visited with our child, and thanks to the fried squid served separately, our kid ate well too — with the crispy neck bone braise and mashed potatoes, it worked well as a family meal.

And no matter how full you are, the fried rice is a must..! Wait the 2 minutes, eat the fried rice, and scrape up that final stone-pot crispy rice for a proper finish haha. If you visit, read the how-to-eat guide on the table first, and check whether the review event is running. If you're going with a child like we did, ordering something besides the spicy dish makes for a much easier family meal.

If you're searching for a good seafood jjim spot in Myeongji and want plenty of bones along with the seafood rather than just seafood alone, give Haemullae's stone-plate seafood pork bone jjim a try!

Haemullae location, hours and parking in Myeongji, Busan

• Address: 1F 105, 56-2 Myeongji-gukje 1-ro, Gangseo-gu, Busan, South Korea
• Weekdays 16:00–22:00
• Saturday 11:00–22:00
• Closed Sundays
• The underground parking lot is very spacious, easy even for beginner drivers!