Seafood kalguksu with fresh noodles in Dongducheon: Choigang Haemul

There was a day I wanted both a seafood stew loaded with seafood AND kalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup). What I liked about Choigang Haemul Kalguksu is that you can enjoy both at once — first you pull out the seafood, then you finish it off with fresh noodles they knead themselves.

A Gyeonggi-do restaurant to know: seafood kalguksu packed with seafood at Choigang Haemul Kalguksu. Opens 10:00, closed every Monday.

Parking available in front of the restaurant 🚗

Getting to Choigang Haemul Kalguksu and parking

2210 Pyeonghwa-ro, Dongducheon-si, Gyeonggi-do / 595 Songnae-dong, 1st floor, Dongducheon-si, Gyeonggi-do. It's about 8 minutes by car from Dongducheon Jungang Station, roughly 3km, so it's not far from the station at all. It's also easy to reach by bus, so it's fine even if you don't have a car. It's right next to the Jihaeng S-OIL gas station, and there's a spacious parking lot, so I didn't have to worry about parking.

A Dongducheon seafood kalguksu spot worth knowing

Walking into Choigang Haemul Kalguksu, the high ceilings made the interior feel spacious and airy rather than cramped — clean and open.

Weekday evening vibe — okay to bring kids?

The atmosphere was clean and comfortable. I visited on a weekday evening. There were people there for a meal, some enjoying a drink with their food, and some families as well. I noticed a family with young preschool-age kids, which made me think it would work fine for anyone looking for a place to eat with their children.

You can choose clear or spicy broth for the seafood kalguksu, so we went clear — good for eating with kids. They also have mandu, pajeon, and clam kalguksu, so it's good for family outings or meeting up with friends too.

Whether there's a baby chair matters more than you'd think when eating out with kids. This place seemed well suited to family outings or group visits with friends.

Besides regular table seating, there's also floor (platform-style) seating, which is great for families. If you're raising a kid, it's especially nice to be able to lay them down for a nap next to you while the adults eat.

The walkways between tables were easy to move through and everything was tidy, so I could sit down and eat without any hassle.

Cooking seafood stew at home vs. eating at a specialty restaurant

When you try to make seafood stew at home, there's more prep than you'd expect, right?! You need to prepare squid, clean octopus and shellfish, get vegetables like dropwort and bean sprouts ready, and on top of that, you have to be careful to get the broth just right...!!

At Choigang Haemul Kalguksu in Dongducheon, I got to properly enjoy everything from the seafood stew to the fresh, self-kneaded noodle kalguksu — so refreshing! More than anything, seafood can turn fishy if it's not prepped right or is overcooked, which makes it a fussier dish to cook at home. Ever have one of those days where you think, 'I want something hot and refreshing like seafood stew, but I can't be bothered to make it myself?' On days like that, food someone else makes for you is the best!! Especially at a seafood kalguksu specialty restaurant — you get deep flavor and fresh ingredients at once. Perfect for it.

Ordering seafood kalguksu for two — the basic spread

We ordered seafood kalguksu for two! Since you can pick clear or spicy broth, we went with clear. They brought over freshly made salad (tossed that morning) and radish salad, along with dishes and scissors, tongs, and cold water for the table.

"I want kalguksu, but not just a plain one — I want one loaded with seafood." That's exactly what Choigang Haemul Kalguksu in Dongducheon delivers: fresh squid, octopus and shellfish, bean sprouts and dropwort together, and noodles kneaded fresh every day. While waiting for the seafood kalguksu, I read through the instructions on how to enjoy it best, which were written out in detail, so I got to enjoy it even more. The self-serve corner was also available to use.

Self-serve corner

Take as much kimchi and radish salad as you like!! Spicy yet savory kimchi and radish salad. Staff brought the first serving, and after that refills were self-serve. Bean sprout refills for the seafood kalguksu were also available at the self-serve corner.

Seafood kalguksu is ₩15,000 per person

A Gyeonggi-do restaurant to know: seafood kalguksu packed with seafood at Choigang Haemul Kalguksu. What we ordered was the seafood kalguksu!! It's ₩15,000 per person. Seafood kalguksu can only be ordered for 2 or more, and since there were two of us, we ordered two servings.

Given how much dining out costs these days, being able to enjoy a dish loaded with several kinds of seafood for ₩15,000 per person felt like pretty good value. On top of that, the portion was generous.

Round one: eating the seafood out like a stew

There was a generous amount of fresh seafood! Once it starts bubbling, seafood first! At first you eat it like a seafood stew — pulling out the seafood, shellfish, and vegetables — then finish by adding house-made fresh noodles into that broth to turn it into kalguksu. It feels like getting two dishes out of one menu item!! Perfect for anyone who loves seafood stew.

It's loaded with all kinds of seafood — squid, octopus, clams, mussels, oysters, sea squirt (mideodeok) — along with dropwort and bean sprouts. We cut the squid and octopus into bite-sized pieces and dipped them in vinegared red pepper paste (chogochujang). The squid had just the right chewy texture without being overcooked, and the octopus got more satisfying to chew the more you chewed it. The sweet-and-tangy flavor of the chogochujang paired so well with the seafood that I kept reaching for more.

The big pot was packed with seafood, and the smell of it rising off the broth really got my appetite going.

It's not easy to prepare so many kinds of seafood at once, so it was nice just sitting and waiting for it here. No need to buy each ingredient, wash and prep it, put it in a pot, and season it — plus you get to taste a wide variety of seafood all at once!! And thinking about not having to do the dishes afterward makes eating out even more satisfying.

A Gyeonggi-do restaurant to know: seafood kalguksu packed with seafood at Choigang Haemul Kalguksu. The shellfish did their job of adding a refreshing depth to the broth, and every spoonful of soup carried a subtle savoriness from the seafood.

Dropwort and bean sprouts, refilled at the self-serve bar

Personally I love vegetables as much as seafood in a seafood kalguksu, so the dropwort and bean sprouts!! The crisp, fragrant vegetables were a great accent among all the seafood. The distinctive fragrance of the dropwort in particular paired beautifully with the seafood. The bean sprouts kept their crunch, so I kept picking at them. We ended up adding another round of bean sprouts from the self-serve bar.

Being able to refill bean sprouts, salad, and radish salad at the self-serve bar and take as much as you need was great too. Dipping seafood in wasabi-mixed sauce — the springy texture and crunchy bean sprouts got more flavorful the more you chewed.

Clear broth or spicy — which to choose?

A Gyeonggi-do restaurant to know: seafood kalguksu packed with seafood at Choigang Haemul Kalguksu. For the broth, you can choose between spicy and clear. If you like a spicy, punchy broth, go for the spicy option; if you're visiting with kids or prefer a milder broth, go with the clear one. We went with the clear broth. Since the kimchi and radish salad were spicy on their own, pairing them with the broth added savoriness and made it even tastier.

The pile of shellfish shells we pulled out of the seafood kalguksu was massive! It's loaded with fresh squid, octopus, shellfish, sea squirt and more, plus dropwort and bean sprouts on top, so it was genuinely fun fishing everything out.

Round two: fresh noodles kneaded fresh every day

Seafood kalguksu with noodles kneaded fresh daily

A Gyeonggi-do restaurant to know: seafood kalguksu packed with seafood at Choigang Haemul Kalguksu. Time to enjoy kalguksu with noodles kneaded fresh daily — the house-made fresh noodles finally make their appearance! Once you've eaten enough of the seafood, round two begins.

When you order the seafood kalguksu, fresh noodles kneaded and cut in-house come out on a plate. Hearing that they're kneaded fresh daily got me excited, being someone who loves noodles.

Honestly, the noodles are everything in kalguksu. It's disappointing when the broth is great but the noodles turn out mushy or bland — but since these are fresh noodles, I was already looking forward to the whole process of adding them and boiling them. They added the noodles into the remaining seafood broth and cooked them.

They also added the bean sprouts we brought from the self-serve corner and boiled it all together, and while we waited we snacked on the seafood, dropwort, and bean sprouts we'd set aside. One tip here: if, like me, you don't usually eat huge portions, it might be worth asking them to adjust the noodle amount. When you order seafood kalguksu for two, the noodles come out portioned for two as well, and it's not a small amount for the average adult. We didn't order rice on the side either, and we still left feeling completely full and satisfied.

Once the noodles go in, the broth thickens

At first the seafood broth was clear and refreshing, but once the noodles go in and time passes, the whole character changes completely. The starch from the noodles mixes with the rich seafood broth and the soup gradually thickens. And when you take a spoonful of the finished broth, it tastes noticeably different from the seafood stew you had at the start — you get to enjoy a wide range of rich flavors along the way.

It felt refreshing yet rich, with a slight thickness — almost like the seafood broth had picked up the deep body of an eojuk (fish porridge). The fun of eating seafood stew and kalguksu in one!! You're not eating the same flavor from start to finish — the taste keeps changing as you eat. At first you dip squid, octopus, and shellfish in chogochujang, then in the middle you add dropwort and bean sprouts, and finally you finish with fresh noodles in that rich seafood broth.

At first I thought, 'There's so much seafood, this is already a lot,' but once the kalguksu comes in I understood — 'ah, this is why you're supposed to save room.' So we skipped ordering rice on the side. In fact, we were already pretty full before the kalguksu even arrived, but once it was ready, our chopsticks kept going for it anyway.

I said, 'I'm full, I'll just have a little kalguksu'... but once the noodles were cooked and I tried them with the spicy kimchi and radish salad, I kept eating. Fresh seafood, a refreshing broth, and house-made fresh noodles for the seafood kalguksu! The spicy kimchi and radish salad went really well with it.

Who should visit

• Anyone who wants seafood stew but finds it too much of a hassle to make at home
• Anyone who loves squid, octopus, clams, and other seafood
• Anyone craving a refreshing, warm soup dish
• Anyone who wants to enjoy seafood stew and kalguksu in one meal
• Anyone who loves fresh, self-kneaded kalguksu noodles

A Gyeonggi-do restaurant to know: seafood kalguksu packed with seafood at Choigang Haemul Kalguksu.