Yongin Korean restaurant for a five-stage noodle tasting: Jangwongap

If you're looking for a slightly different kind of kalguksu in Yongin, I've got a place I really wanted to share! It's Jangwongap Kalguksu Yongin Giheung Branch.

Rather than serving broth and noodles together like an ordinary kalguksu place, Jangwongap Kalguksu is set up so you can enjoy one bowl of kalguksu like a course meal!

At Jangwongap, the star of kalguksu is the noodles themselves rather than the broth. They say you can cook their fresh noodles, made using a noodle-making method with 60 years of tradition, for different lengths of time and taste the texture changing for yourself.

The noodles are patented too!! That made me trust they would be even tastier, haha. This time, I ordered the brisket and minari wrap shabu kalguksu in clear broth, plus seafood pajeon.

How do you eat the brisket and minari wraps?

Before the kalguksu, enjoy premium wagyu brisket and minari (water parsley) together!

Simply cook the thinly sliced brisket briefly in the broth and eat it with fresh minari.

The brisket was rich and had quite a deep beefy flavor, but the minari kept it from feeling heavy. Tucking the minari between the meat cut through the brisket's fatty taste with its fragrant freshness, so I kept reaching for more.

They said the sesame oil is pressed in-house too, and its nutty flavor was incredible—it brought out the scent of the minari even more!! It was delicious before the main course had even started, so I was excited for what came next, haha.

You can eat it like a wrap with galchi sokjeot (salted fermented hairtail innards) too, for a different flavor! It was more savory than the sesame-oil version.

After the brisket and minari wraps, you can blanch mushrooms and assorted vegetables in the broth, then dip them in soy sauce.

The mushrooms and vegetables softened nicely after a quick dip in the warm broth, and the soy sauce added a salty note to their clean flavor. The sauce seemed extra special too—it was katsuobushi soy sauce!

Jangwongap cheese noodles that change over time

Jangwongap's cheese noodles, kneaded a thousand times

Once you've eaten a good amount of the brisket and minari wraps, add the fresh noodles and enjoy your kalguksu.

The fun part is that the noodles change through five texture stages over time! At first, the fresh noodles stretch out just like cheese.

Once boiled and in your mouth, they begin chewy; the more you chew, the bounciness grows stronger, then they gradually become springy and fluffy, ending up soft. I'd never had kalguksu noodles like this before, so I was fascinated and just inhaled them, haha ☺️

Unlike kalguksu that you boil all at once until soft, it's fun to lift out small portions of noodles and compare how they change.

Jangwongap Kalguksu also recommends pairing them with sesame oil. Dip the kalguksu noodles lightly in it, and the nutty aroma suddenly rises up, taking the flavor in a slightly different direction from the kalguksu you usually eat.

The deep nuttiness unique to sesame oil clings to the noodles, making the mild fresh noodles taste richer. It made me realize, wow, this is delicious too!!

Uiseong garlic kimchi is also great alongside it. Eat kimchi with a bite of kalguksu and its distinctive sharp garlic flavor wakes your appetite right back up.

They make the kimchi fresh every day too! Truly made with so much care.. 💓

Crispy whole-shrimp seafood pajeon

A side dish I recommend!

The whole-shrimp seafood pajeon I ordered with the kalguksu was not to be missed either. It was full of whole shrimp and squid, so every slice had that fun seafood bite.

Can you see the cross-section?? Jangwongap Kalguksu's seafood pajeon is notably thin, which made it super crispy and so delicious!

Seafood pancakes can sometimes get a little soggy, but this one was nothing like that—just beautifully golden and tasty, haha.

Pajeon is best while it's hot, so I recommend alternating it with the kalguksu. After mild noodles, one crispy, nutty bite of pajeon completely changes the mood in your mouth.

Finish with perilla-oil kkakdugi fried rice

Koreans' dessert: ending with fried rice.

Jangwongap Kalguksu's fried rice is made with perilla oil and kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi), so you can finish the meal with a nutty, salty flavor completely different from the kalguksu.

The fragrance of perilla oil gently came through, with bites of kkakdugi here and there, so it never became boring until the end. Starting with brisket and minari, then kalguksu, seafood pajeon, and finally fried rice made it feel like a really satisfying, substantial meal.

Puffed rice snacks and misutgaru after the meal

Dessert is provided on your way out.

After your meal, you can have puffed rice snacks and misutgaru (multigrain powder drink) for dessert on the way out.

After filling up on warm food, ending with a nutty cup of misutgaru and crispy puffed rice snacks felt absolutely perfect, haha. The misutgaru was especially nice for freshening up after the meal!!

There are lots of tables and truly pleeenty of parking, so I think it would be great for a big family meal.

Kalguksu eaten like a course in Gomae-dong, Yongin

The most interesting thing about Jangwongap Kalguksu is that even with one kalguksu meal, you get to experience lots of flavors in sequence. Eat brisket and minari first, compare the fresh noodles as they cook over time, try them with sesame oil or kimchi, then continue with seafood pajeon and fried rice!!! It definitely feels different from an ordinary bowl of kalguksu.

If you're looking for a family dinner spot or a hearty meal in Yongin, I think it would be lovely to enjoy Jangwongap Kalguksu's brisket and minari wrap shabu kalguksu together with the seafood pajeon.