Weekday 6pm braised pollock near Gasan Digital Complex: Gim Myeongtae

This was my 4th visit to Gim Myeongtae Spicy Braised Short Ribs Gasan Branch, a true local favorite near Gasan Digital Complex! It's a place I feel like I need to visit regularly, and I recently got the craving again, so I went with a friend. I've also been here paying with my own money, so I recommend it with full confidence.

Where is Gim Myeongtae Gasan Branch, and what are its hours?

• Address: 132-1 Gasan-ro, 1st floor, Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Hours: Daily 10:00–22:30 (last order 21:50)
• Parking: Available; nearby alternative lots also guided

What Gim Myeongtae feels like at 6pm on a weekday

This is what the inside looked like on a weekday evening at 6pm. True to being a local favorite, it was packed with people — everyone from neighborhood residents to nearby office workers.

What's at the self-serve bar: corn salad and Wando dried laver

How the free refills work at Gim Myeongtae

There's a self-serve bar in one corner of the restaurant where you can refill the basic side dishes. Beyond the default sides, they also had ssammu (pickled radish for wraps) and squid jeotgal (salted fermented squid) on the side, which was a nice touch. I especially liked that there was corn salad, which can tone down the spiciness of the main dish. Eating a bite of the sweet, nutty corn salad every so often meant I just kept eating nonstop. The self-serve bar has corn salad, kimchi, bean sprouts, pickled onions, and more,

plus fish cake and Wando dolgim (dried laver from Wando). Wrapping the soft, spicy-sweet braised pollock in the Wando laver was so good that I refilled it multiple times.

Plain rice or hotpot rice: which to order for dinner

There are two rice options: regular bowl rice and hotpot rice. Hotpot rice kept coming out on one side, but since I hate waiting, I ordered regular bowl rice.

As always, I ordered the siraegi braised pollock for two. During lunch hours (before 3pm), hotpot rice is even included as a free service, but since we came in the evening, we also ordered two bowls of rice.

The bean sprout soup served alongside is also a highlight. It's refreshing, spicy, and clean-tasting — and it's warm too.

The basic side dishes are the same ones from the self-serve bar. Those bean sprouts are also good mixed into the braised pollock.

The portion of rice is substantial too. I always leave some rice — the portion is really, really big.

How did the siraegi braised pollock taste?

After about a 10-minute wait, the gorgeous-looking siraegi braised pollock arrived.

The color is still beautiful. The kick is the sauce — not too spicy, with a subtle sweetness. Typical red sauces often taste too much like tteokbokki (rice cake) sauce or are too sweet, which can get old, but Gim Myeongtae's sauce has a strong sense of balanced umami and sweetness that lets the natural flavor of the ingredients shine through.

Why I always pick the siraegi version

There's a reason I deliberately always order the siraegi braised pollock — this siraegi is essential. Sometimes when eating pork bone soup or gamjatang (pork bone and potato stew), the siraegi can be tough, but Gim Myeongtae's siraegi isn't tough at all.

It's soft, and the distinctive aroma of siraegi soaks up the sauce well, making it excellent eaten together with the pollock. I never knew siraegi and braised pollock could pair this well.

One whole pollock per person

You get one whole pollock per serving. It comes cut into three pieces — head, body, and tail — making it easy to eat. Even with several people eating together, there's no need to fight over it, since everyone's portion is set from the start, which is convenient. It also seems like the number of rice cakes is adjusted to match the number of people ordering.

The pollock meat is soft and the meat-to-bone ratio (?) is great. There's so much fish that you don't need to ration it. You can get a big chunk of meat with every bite of rice! Putting the moist sauce over rice and eating it with the siraegi is pure bliss.

Rice cakes and cheongyang chili peppers in the pot

There are rice cakes in the dish too, and they're another highlight — they taste like tteokbokki and are really delicious. And though it's not in the photo, there are cheongyang chili peppers (Korean hot green chili) mixed in — eating a little bit of chili as you go is really good. I can't handle much spice, but biting into a chili that's soaked up the sauce alongside the moist pollock meat doubles the flavor.

My friend, eating with total focus. Piling pollock meat and siraegi onto dried laver like this is pure bliss. It's not for nothing that I keep coming back again and again and again.