Nurungji-style fried rice at a Mokdong gopchang restaurant: Omokgyo

We're gopchang killers, honestly. We love it so much that we go hunting for good gopchang restaurants. This time we were looking around the Omokgyo area and landed on Omokgyo Gopchang Mokdong Main Branch, which pushes its 30-year-old handmade garlic gopchang. Having tried it, this place came pretty close to what I think of as an original, no-frills gopchang restaurant.

📍 Omokgyo Gopchang Mokdong Main Branch / 226-13 Mokdong-dong-ro, 1st floor, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul

Where to park at Omokgyo Gopchang Mokdong Main Branch

The alley in front of Omokgyo Gopchang Mokdong Main Branch is narrow, so parking right outside is difficult, and there's no parking fee support either. Better to park at the nearby Mokdong Public Parking Lot or E-Mart Mokdong and walk over.

As soon as we got to the door, the rich smell of gopchang hit us — my mouth was watering before we'd even sat down. The inside was bigger than I expected, and the tables were kept clean without any greasy residue. Even though we came during the busy dinner rush, there were plenty of staff on hand, so we didn't have to wait long.

Why we ordered two servings of beef gopchang instead of the garlic gopchang

Before we came, I'd planned on trying the traditional handmade garlic gopchang, but it's limited to 20 servings a day and was already sold out. Instead, we ordered two servings of the beef gopchang, said to be packed with gop (intestinal fat) and full of nutty flavor, plus Omokgyo dongchimi noodles and Omokgyo fried rice.

How were the free sides, sundubu-jjigae and cheonyeop tripe?

Omokgyo Gopchang Mokdong Main Branch serves sundubu-jjigae (soft tofu stew) as a basic side, made spicy with a special chili paste. It's free the first time, and ₩8,900 to add more. When you're eating something as greasy as gopchang, you really want a hot broth in between bites, so having sundubu-jjigae included as standard was great.

I'm not usually a big fan of cheonyeop (beef tripe), but my boyfriend tried it and said it was incredibly fresh. I went in with a bit of hesitation, but it really was so fresh I found myself wondering, wait, is this what cheonyeop is actually supposed to taste like? Along with that came green onion kimchi, chive kimchi, and potato salad — all of it was easy to finish, and even the basic side dishes made it clear this is a place that cares about every detail.

Beef gopchang with a fire show, served with chives, bean sprouts and green onion kimchi

When our order came out, they first gave us a little fire show. It had been a while since I'd seen one, so I was a bit excited even before eating. They told us to eat the yeomtong (beef heart), which seemed to be a complimentary extra, first, and to grill the gopchang a bit more thoroughly before eating.

Once the gopchang was cooked enough, we piled on chives, bean sprouts, and green onion kimchi. Eating them together with the gopchang fat, I thought, ah, this is exactly what gopchang should be. Normally we'd have ordered more gopchang, but this time we wanted to keep it light with a drink and some sides instead.

My boyfriend and I are more wine and vodka people, and we're not huge fans of soju, but soju just goes with gopchang, right? Drinking it after a while, I finally understood what people mean when they say soju tastes sweet. I'm sure the good food and the date-night mood made it taste even sweeter.

Omokgyo dongchimi noodles and fried rice pressed flat like nurungji

The Omokgyo dongchimi mak-guksu (cold buckwheat noodles) and fried rice both came in generous portions, and they felt a bit different from the usual sides you get at a gopchang restaurant. Eating them, I thought if we lived nearby, we'd definitely come back for these again. This is exactly the original gopchang restaurant vibe I look for.

For the fried rice, they poured in beaten egg and told us to stir it once the egg was cooked through. I deliberately pressed it flat against the pan instead, letting it scorch like nurungji (crispy scorched rice), and it turned out delicious. Both my boyfriend and I are gopchang killers, so this visit to Omokgyo Gopchang Mokdong Main Branch really won us over.

Worth noting — if you take part in their Naver or Google review events, you can get a free serving of fried rice. That said, even after a delicious meal, the smell of gopchang lingered on our clothes for quite a while afterward. Still, this was a satisfying meal from the gopchang all the way through the sides.