Gyeongju Hwangridan-gil Korean restaurant, three rice bowls: Dongyang

First meal in Gyeongju: Dongyang Baekban on Hwangridan-gil

As soon as we arrived in Gyeongju, we debated where to eat and ended up at Dongyang Baekban (동양백반), a Korean set-meal restaurant on Hwangridan-gil.

We decided to eat a solid meal first before heading out to explore the Gyeongju attractions.

Dongyang Baekban had that warm, familiar baekban (Korean home-style set meal) vibe its name suggests. There are plenty of pretty cafés and restaurants around Hwangridan-gil these days, but this place felt more comfortable and homey — almost like walking into someone's actual home, which made it an easy place to bring a kid.

Where Dongyang Baekban is, and the yard out back

Dongyang Baekban was apparently started by young chefs looking to introduce good Korean food on Gyeongju's Hwangridan-gil.

There's a yard out back too, which was great for us — while waiting for the food, our kid could go out and play for a bit.

You end up walking a lot around the Gyeongju attractions, so it was a good spot to eat before continuing on with sightseeing right from Hwangridan-gil.

Our family ordered the sumi dakbokkeumtang along with egg rice, pollack roe rice, and beef tartare rice. They were also running a review event — participants get strawberry ice-rice-cake and one try at a retro ppopgi draw, so check that out if you visit.

What makes the rice bowls at Dongyang Baekban different

Not long after ordering, each of our rice bowls arrived first.

Our kid picked egg rice, I went with pollack roe rice, and my husband chose beef tartare rice. The bowls were plated so nicely at first it almost felt a shame to mix them up.

Dongyang Baekban says it uses Koshihikari rice, and you could really taste the good bite in each grain. It was also nice being able to add seaweed flakes and hand-pressed sesame oil to the mix-in bowl to your own taste.

Sides of bean sprouts and diced radish kimchi came alongside, and with the seaweed flakes too, everyone could mix their rice however they liked. I mixed our kid's bowl first.

Egg rice: the bowl our child finished on their own

The egg rice wasn't the usual fried-egg-on-rice — it came with soy-braised eggs instead, which was a nice twist.

After mixing in the seaweed flakes and sesame oil, I gave our kid a bite, and it turned out softer and nuttier than expected. Best of all, our kid really ate it up.

Our kid ate more than usual, which surprised me, and ended up finishing almost the whole bowl. If you're looking for kid-friendly Korean food in Gyeongju, this egg rice is worth considering.

Pollack roe rice piled with roe, and the beef tartare rice

What I ordered was the pollack roe rice.

It came generously topped with pollack roe, looking appetizing right away. Mixed with the seaweed flakes and sesame oil, the roe's savory, slightly sharp saltiness paired really well with the nutty sesame oil aroma.

Every bite had this deep umami that kept me going back for more. My husband ordered the beef tartare rice, topped with fresh raw beef.

He mixed the beef into the rice and said he was glad he'd picked that one — he seemed really satisfied.

Since we each ordered a different rice bowl, we got to taste a bit of everyone's, which made it a good way for a family to try a range of menu items at once.

The main dish: boneless sumi dakbokkeumtang

While we were still working on the rice, the sumi dakbokkeumtang (spicy braised chicken stew) we'd been waiting for arrived.

The bubbling stew came topped with a soft-boiled egg, looking pretty appetizing.

Best of all, the chicken was boneless, which made it easy to eat. Picking bones out while eating with a kid is always a bit of a hassle, so being able to eat without worrying about that was great.

After letting it simmer a bit longer, we scooped up chicken and egg with plenty of broth. The broth had a rich but still gentle flavor.

Besides the chicken, there were glass noodles and potatoes to pick through too, which added to the fun. The sumi potatoes in particular were soft and soaked up the broth, great mixed with rice. Dongyang Baekban says it uses roasted salt and sun-dried chili powder to get a natural, deep flavor, and it did feel less about intense spice and more about something easy to eat alongside rice.

A filling meal before touring the Gyeongju sights

We might have eaten a bit too much that day, but there's a lot of walking involved once you start covering Hwangridan-gil and the surrounding Gyeongju attractions.

So starting sightseeing after a solid meal like this actually worked out well. Our kid finished almost a whole bowl of rice, and between us we plowed through the dakbokkeumtang, glass noodles and potatoes until we were completely full.

It's a good spot to stop by when you want real Korean food on Hwangridan-gil instead of just café snacks. If you're traveling Gyeongju with kids and looking for Korean food that's easy to eat together, Dongyang Baekban is worth adding to the list.

You could pair a solid meal here with a slow walk around Hwangridan-gil afterward before hitting the Gyeongju attractions. Dongyang Baekban gave us a satisfying meal on this trip — everyone from kid to adults could pick a rice bowl to their own taste and share the sumi dakbokkeumtang together, which made for a happy family meal.