Gimhae pork bone soup restaurant near Costco: sotbap vs rice bowl

10 minutes by car from Costco Gimhae: where is Ppyeodae Itneun Haejangguk Juchon Branch?

Ppyeodae Itneun Haejangguk Juchon Branch (뼈대있는해장국 주촌점) is a haejangguk and gamjatang spot about a 10-minute drive from Costco Gimhae. We went grocery shopping at Costco and heard there was a great gamjatang place nearby, so we stopped in.

• 📍Ppyeodae Itneun Haejangguk Juchon Branch
• ▪️513-1 Deogam-ri, Juchon-myeon, Gimhae-si, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea
• ▪️Hours 06:00 - 21:00
• ▪️Open every day
• 🚗 Parking space available in front

🚗 There's plenty of parking right in front, so no need to stress about that! And since it opens at 6am, it seemed like the perfect spot for an early breakfast 🍀

Private rooms and baby chairs: fine for groups and families

There are private rooms, so it's also a good place to eat quietly. Recommended for group gatherings or company dinners in the evening!

There's a baby chair too, so it's also great for family meals!

There were a lot of solo diners at Ppyeodae Itneun Haejangguk Juchon Branch too, and most of them felt like regulars 🙂 Seems like once you visit, you're guaranteed to come back ‼️

What we ordered: 3-person gamjatang, self-fried rice and sotbap

We'd been craving gamjatang for a while, so this is what we ordered 📝✔️

• ▪️3-person gamjatang set
• ▪️Self-fried rice
• ▪️1 rice bowl
• ▪️1 sotbap
• ▪️1 drink

Haejangguk comes in two types — bone-in or boneless ➡️ so a boneless option is available too! Great for anyone who finds picking bones tedious or tricky, makes eating so much easier.

Side dishes, self-serve bar and the house dipping sauce

They set the basic side dishes for you, and you can add more from the self-serve bar. Once you order gamjatang, they set up a burner for you!

The kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi) and geotjeori (fresh cabbage kimchi) were especially good. Green chili peppers and raw onion also went perfectly with the gamjatang ✨

The special sauce for the gamjatang was so good 🫢 Most gamjatang places give you a plain mustard sauce with no texture, but this one was clearly homemade with actual bits in it . . . ♡

Sliced boiled pork also comes out!

Here's the self-serve bar ⬆️

Wow, there's even instant noodles to add in ~ Adding noodles while eating gamjatang would be so good! But we skipped it this time since we planned to have fried rice later 🥹

Is the 3-person gamjatang enough for four people?

This is the 3-person gamjatang set from Ppyeodae Itneun Haejangguk Juchon Branch, and the portion is seriously huge ~ ~ ~ Looked like it would be enough even for four people. There's just so much meat in it haha.

It's loaded with ugeoji, glass noodles, mushrooms, potatoes, and more, and the broth is super generous too, so adding instant noodles would be so good . . . 🤍

Sotbap for 2,000 won: how does it compare with a plain rice bowl?

The sotbap (hot stone-pot rice) is ₩2,000. We also ordered a regular rice bowl, and after trying both, the sotbap was clearly different!

It comes with sungnyung (scorched-rice tea) too, so you can scoop the rice out separately and make nurungji (crispy rice) with what's left 🍚 The rice looks fluffy and clearly delicious — freshly cooked rice can't taste bad . . .

If you like ugeoji, you can add more! There was an ugeoji add-on option when ordering. The meat was plentiful too, and all of it was tender and delicious.

Self-fried rice: leave some broth and fry it over high heat

If you order the self-fried rice, this is what you get! Once you're nearly done with the gamjatang, set aside some of the broth and fry it yourself.

I don't like dry fried rice with no broth, so I left some broth in when frying haha. Check the leftover bits for any small bones ✔️ and cut them up small with scissors so they're easier to eat once fried.

There was clearly a lot of broth, so when I first mixed the rice in it looked porridge-like and mushy haha. So I turned the burner up high and the moisture evaporated quickly, turning into delicious fried rice 🔥

The kimchi bits give it a nice chew too ••• Having the burner made it easy to control the heat while frying, and press it down however I wanted.

I was seriously so full I worried about how I'd manage the fried rice? But of course, one bite in and it was so good I ended up eating almost all of it haha.

Free instant coffee machine by the entrance

There's a mix-coffee machine at the entrance too ~ Why are there so many thoughtful restaurants these days? 🍀 A mix-coffee machine on site: exactly the kind of detail parents would love, you know haha.