Busan galbitang restaurant with crunchy pickles: Gang Galbitang

The temperature swings have been pretty intense lately, so I keep craving warm soup in the evenings. I’m more of a galbitang person than a gukbap person, so galbitang (beef short-rib soup) is one of the first things that comes to mind at times like this~! I especially love Gang Galbitang Seomyeon and order delivery from there often. This time, I was passing through near Seomyeon and stopped in to eat.

A galbitang spot close to Seomyeon Station

It’s just a short walk from Exit 11 of Seomyeon Station. It’s also close to Bujeon Market, so it would be great to have a hearty bowl of galbitang before grocery shopping.

It’s open from 09:20 to 21:00, with a break from 15:00 to 16:00. The hours work for breakfast, and even for a drink at night!

You can use Blue Parking Lot right next door, and they support 30 minutes of parking when you spend ₩20,000 on a meal.

Gang Galbitang Seomyeon also does lots of meal-kit takeaway, apparently. I often have it delivered, but I haven’t tried the meal kit yet—I’m going to give it a go next time!

The dining room isn’t especially large, but it’s neat and pleasant.

Solo seats and kiosk ordering

There are seats that are great for eating alone, too. I love these solo-dining seats, so I could eat comfortably.

You place your order at the kiosk.

The menu includes Gang Galbitang, Spicy Gang Galbitang, Gang Galbi Gukbap (rice in beef-rib soup), Gang Galbi Noodles, and arongsatae suyuk (boiled beef shank slices). It’s best as a meal, but it’s also a nice place to have a drink with the arongsatae suyuk.

If you love spicy food, you can choose the heat level, too!

Pepper, chili powder, salt, and more are set out on the table.

There’s also a photo-review event: write a Naver receipt review and you can get hand cream~

A galbitang spread with chorogi pickles

A neatly arranged galbitang set arrived. The good assortment made it look even more appetizing. Even the spoon and chopsticks were provided hygienically.

The side dishes were simple but neatly served: chorogi, kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi), sauce for dipping the meat, chili and garlic, and doenjang (fermented soybean paste). They were exactly the kinds of sides that suit galbitang. Honestly, even just rice, broth, and kkakdugi would keep you eating, but at Gang Galbitang Seomyeon, the tastiest side dish is the chorogi. Chorogi may be unfamiliar—it has such a crisp, crunchy bite. Since it’s pickled chorogi, it goes so well with the meat! It looks a little like a silkworm cocoon, but it’s delicious, so please do try it!

You can refill the side dishes at the self-service bar. They even had coffee. A cup after the meal would be just right.

Rich beef-bone broth, ribs, and added wheat noodles

They say they slowly simmer fresh Korean beef bones every morning, and the flavor was truly deep and rich.

There were about three large rib bones in it, which is quite a generous amount. There were plenty of glass noodles, too, so it was really filling. And there was a lot of scallion, which made the broth rich yet refreshing.

My boyfriend added jungmyeon, medium-thick wheat noodles, to his. The noodles are shipped directly from Jeju Island, and their chewy texture was delicious. They went amazingly well with the galbitang broth, too.

If you love noodles, try them! Because they’re medium-thick noodles, they soak up lots of broth and taste even better.

There was ginseng in the galbitang, too, so it felt even more like nourishing food. Such a restorative-meal feeling~ I couldn’t eat things like this when I was younger, but now I can’t get enough of them.

And this house-made seasoned sauce is subtly the kind of flavor that keeps coming back to you. It was tangy and went really well with the meat.

The combination of galbitang’s warm, clean broth, rib meat, and rice is one that can’t go wrong. The portion is generous, the broth is rich, and the sides pair well with it. It’s a galbitang spot that doesn’t feel lacking in any way.

There are so many restaurants in Seomyeon that it can be hard to decide what to eat. On a day with temperature swings like these, or when you want a comforting, filling meal that sits easily, keep Gang Galbitang Seomyeon in mind!