Namdong Korean restaurant with spicy and mild pork bone stew

I’ve always loved spicy food, but lately I’ve been craving it even more ♡ Especially gamjatang (pork bone soup), ppyeo haejangguk (pork bone hangover soup), and ppeojjim (braised pork bones)—I love them all -

It is SO hard choosing something to eat out with my elementary-schooler who can’t handle spice ㅠㅠ I’m firmly on team spicy, while my daughter is a total spice wimp—there really aren’t many things, apart from grilled meat, that make us both happy.

But Cheongchun Bulppyeojjim Gamjatang Incheon Nonhyeon Branch has spicy bul ppeojjim (spicy braised pork backbone) and non-spicy gungjung ppeojjim (soy-braised pork backbone), so Dad, Mom, and daughter were all super happy! I really want to recommend this spot to anyone looking for deeply flavorful Korean food 😄

Cheongchun Bulppyeojjim Gamjatang Incheon Nonhyeon Branch: location and info

It’s on the first floor at 8 Nonhyeonnam-ro 14beon-gil, Namdong-gu, Incheon, a short walk from Exit 3 of Incheon Nonhyeon Station. Hours are 9:00–22:30 daily, and it is regularly closed every Wednesday.

What about parking and the atmosphere?

Parking is always a concern when you’re eating out near a subway station. Since it isn’t in a huge building, I hesitated over whether to go, but there are a few spaces behind the building and public roadside parking in front, so parking is relatively easy.

With gamjatang and ppyeo haejangguk places, it’s easy to picture somewhere sticky or noisy~ But this one was neat and clean, with bright lighting, so my first impression was great. It isn’t a huge restaurant, with six or seven tables spaced a little closely together, but the ppeojjim was delicious enough to overcome all of that. Haha.

It’s great for a family meal, but it would also be perfect for unwinding after work with some pleasantly spicy ppeojjim and a drink!!

There are lots of solo diners these days, right? I sometimes go out to eat alone too, haha. Pork bone soup places are easy enough for that~ but nowhere sells braised pork bones in a single serving!

At Cheongchun Bulppyeojjim Gamjatang Incheon Nonhyeon Branch, you can get a single serving of ppeojjim too ♡ And it’s reasonably priced, even! ^.^/ At first we were going to order one serving each of pork bone soup, bul ppeojjim, and gungjung ppeojjim, but my husband changed it to the small bul ppeojjim so I could eat lots, hehe.

• Cheongchun Bulppyeojjim, small / level 1 spice
• One serving of Gungjung Ppeojjim / regular flavor / for our third-grade daughter
• Steamed egg with a Naver reservation coupon

Level 1 spicy bul ppeojjim that makes you dig right in

The bul ppeojjim arrived generously piled onto an iron plate. They subtly turned on the heat underneath, too, so we could enjoy it warm until the end—GOOD.

You know how, when you eat braised pork bones or pork bone soup, the meat sometimes doesn’t come off the bone easily and it’s awkward to eat?

Here, the bones just slipped right out!! The meat was so tender that, the moment I touched it with my chopsticks, the thick meat slid gently away from the bone. I kept being amazed, haha. The soft meat had no odor at all, and the seasoning had soaked deeply into it—wonderfully, deliciously spicy.

It’s level 1 spicy, but a little hotter than Shin Ramyun! It may be tough for spice wimps, but for me, it gave my stomach a slight tingle~ It was deliciously spicy and so addictive that I couldn’t stop using my chopsticks. Hehe.

They simmer the pork backbones in-house for ages, which is why they were so tender...! Unlike other places, they use only taeyangcho red pepper powder and Cheongyang chili peppers for the flavor, so the seasoning itself felt truly high quality!! I couldn’t taste any capsaicin at all. Hehe.

I picked all the meat off the bones, gathered it up, and spooned it with the sauce. Ah. Happiness really isn’t anything complicated, you know? Hahaha.

It was also fun picking through the sweet potato, chewy rice cakes, and glass noodles that had completely absorbed the sauce~ There was secretly quite a lot, too, so my husband and I barely managed to finish it, haha >.< I thought fried rice afterward would be seriously delicious, but my stomach was already full.

Gungjung ppeojjim for a child who can’t eat spicy food

The gungjung ppeojjim we ordered for our third-grade daughter, who can’t eat spicy food, was the definition of that sweet-and-salty balance!! The flavorful soy-sauce-based seasoning clung beautifully to the meat and glass noodles, making it absolutely perfect for kids’ tastes~

My husband said this dish was delicious too, haha—he kept switching to the gungjung ppeojjim whenever the spicy one got too hot. The single serving was quite generous, but our daughter, whose appetite has grown lately, cleared every last bit. Haha.

Soft steamed egg that soothed the heat

Because we visited through a Naver reservation, we got to use a service coupon for wonderfully bouncy steamed egg! Even if you didn’t make a reservation, you can get steamed egg by leaving a review, so be sure to try it, hehe!

It tones down the spice, and it goes down so easily even on its own. It was seriously so good that, even while paying, I was saying, “I wish we had one in our neighborhood!” We stopped by on the way home after hanging out in Songdo, hehe. Anyway, lucky locals. We’ll still come often!!