Bucheon Korean restaurant with 3,000-won kids' pot rice: Gim Myeongju

A while back I went looking for a good Korean restaurant in Jung-dong, Bucheon to visit with my family, and ended up at Gim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang Sinjung-dong Branch. When picking a Korean restaurant, the food matters, but if you're going with parents or family, you also quietly care about whether parking is easy, whether the dining space is spacious, and whether you can eat quietly. On that front, Gim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang Sinjung-dong Branch seemed like a solid spot for a family meal out, a meal with parents, or a Bucheon gathering with several people.

• Gim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang Jung-dong Branch
• 70 Jung-dong-ro 254beon-gil, Wonmi-gu, Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea (part of 1st floor, 2nd and 3rd floors)
• Daily 10:30 - 21:30 (last order 20:50)
• Parking available

How far is Gim Myeongju from Sinjungdong Station, and is parking easy?

Gim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang Sinjung-dong Branch, a good Korean restaurant in Jung-dong, Bucheon, is about 385m from Sinjungdong Station Exit 3, roughly a 3-4 minute walk.

Above all, it's a standalone building, so it looked quite large the moment I saw it. A luxurious, formal atmosphere hits you right from the entrance.

The 1st floor is a parking lot, and the parking attendant was a veteran, so I didn't have much trouble parking. Parking near Sinjungdong Station looked complicated, so this kind of convenience seemed great for a family gathering spot.

Going inside, there's a café-like space on the 1st floor, and dining is arranged from the 2nd floor up. It's nice to have coffee and chat on the 1st floor after eating, which is another point I'd recommend for a gathering venue.

Inside Gim Myeongju in Jung-dong: floors and seating

Once inside, it was much bigger than expected, and clean and pleasant through and through!!! There were window seats, group seating for several people, and even group rooms.

It felt like it would suit dining with parents, a family gathering, an elder's birthday, or an important meal even better.

They were using CatchTable for the waitlist, and looking at the reservation board out front, there were already tons of reservations by time slot for just that day alone. Proof this Jung-dong, Bucheon Korean restaurant is popular :)

What's on the menu in Bucheon, and how much does the set table cost?

The menu at Gim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang Sinjung-dong Branch is split into Tteuranchae set courses and bapsang (table meals). If you want individual dishes instead of a set course, you can order your desired single dish added to the bapsang. There's a wide range of à la carte options like barley-marinated corvina, soy sauce marinated crab, charcoal-grilled pork, baby octopus, cockle salad, and grilled mackerel — a set course if you want to enjoy a lot of dishes generously, a bapsang if you just want to add a single dish to the basic table, good for choosing based on your party size and what you feel like eating.

We added grilled mackerel to the basic bapsang instead of a set course that day. Ordering was easy via the tablet on the table. Bapsang ₩13,000, grilled mackerel ₩15,000. Preschoolers could add a kids' pot rice for ₩3,000, which made it fine to visit with kids too.

What can you refill at the self-bar?

And the self-bar at Gim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang Sinjung-dong Branch is really something! Besides the basic side dishes, there are extras you can help yourself to like ssam vegetables (wrap greens), fried lotus root or salad, and yeolmu kimchi (young radish kimchi), plus hwangmi rice (golden polished rice) and barley rice, omija tea (schisandra berry tea), and maesil tea (plum tea).

With such a variety of side dishes and free refills, it was easy to eat plenty and feel full.

Grilled mackerel, cheonggukjang and hwangmi pot rice on one table

The food came out faster than expected after ordering. Once it was all laid out, there were way more side dishes than I thought. From namul (seasoned vegetables) to various banchan (side dishes), plus grilled mackerel and cheonggukjang (fermented soybean stew), the table was completely full.

Basically 12 side dishes come out, and other than the main dish, you can go get more from the self-bar. Rather than piling your plate high from the start, it seemed better to taste things first and then add whichever side dishes you liked from the self-bar.

I have to mention the rice here. There's a rice-polishing machine right at the entrance that caught my eye from the start. Apparently they polish the rice fresh every morning to make the hwangmi, and you could really see the shine and stickiness.

The grilled mackerel we added had thick, plain-tasting flesh that went well with rice, and it was savory and salty in a way that anchored the whole spread among the other side dishes.

What surprisingly stuck with me was the cheonggukjang. This isn't at the self-bar — you have to ask the staff for a refill. It was earthy without being too strong, so it was great mixed straight into rice. Hwangmi rice + grilled mackerel + cheonggukjang, this combo felt like comforting home cooking but also like being properly treated, so the whole meal tasted good and felt good the entire time.

Turning leftover namul into bibimbap, then sungnyung and omija tea

After eating a bit of each side dish, I didn't let the leftover namul go to waste — added sesame oil and mixed it right into the rice, and~~ it was genuinely delicious! Since there were so many kinds of namul, it naturally wrapped up as namul bibimbap (seasoned vegetable rice) at the end ^^

After finishing the pot rice, of course sungnyung (scorched rice tea) comes last! Warming up with that and then having omija tea for dessert made it feel like a proper full meal. Overall the food was less about flashy, strong flavors and more about the comfortable feel of home cooking, pairing rice with side dishes one by one, which made it all the more satisfying :)

The restroom is inside and kept clean, so the overall atmosphere was comfortable for dining.

Is Gim Myeongju a good family gathering spot in Bucheon?

If you're looking for a family gathering spot in Bucheon, Gim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang Sinjung-dong Branch is less about flashy, strong flavors and more satisfying for its comfortable, home-cooked feel — thoughtfully made rice paired one by one with a variety of side dishes. If you're looking for a good place to bring your parents in Bucheon, or a spacious, pleasant family gathering spot, I'd recommend Gim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang Sinjung-dong Branch :)