Ara Station clam hot pot restaurant with a timer lid: Taegine

I was looking for a place to have a hearty dinner with friends, and I finally visited Taegine Jogae Jeongol Geomdan Ara Branch (택이네조개전골), a Geomdan New Town restaurant I'd had my eye on.

Taegine serves a huge pot with several kinds of clams, and you can add makguksu (cold buckwheat noodles) and kalguksu (knife-cut noodles) too. What impressed me most was the lid that only opens once a timer goes off! Here's my honest review, from menu prices and waiting to the self-bar.

Location, parking and waiting at Taegine Geomdan Ara Branch

Taegine Geomdan Ara Branch is a 5-minute walk from Exit 8 of Ara Station, on the first floor of Three M Tower, and it's open until 10 p.m. It's right on the ground floor, so it was easy to spot.

• Address: 24 Ieum 5-ro, 1st floor, Incheon
• Hours: until 10 p.m.

We came a bit late, around 8 p.m., so luckily we got in with no wait. We didn't have to queue, but peak mealtimes might be different, right?

You can park in the building's underground car park, with 2 hours free! Lots of car parks in Geomdan are cramped, but Three M Tower has separate entrances and it's spacious, so even beginner drivers should be comfortable!

At the entrance, what caught my eye was a notice that the restaurant appeared on the TV show Matdoin 211. It said this is the clam hot pot recommended by Chef Lee Won-il.

A place that's been on TV? That made me even more curious which clams would be in that big pot!

Clam hot pot menu and prices in Geomdan

The clam hot pot (jogae jeongol) price depends on the number of people: ₩52,000 for 2, ₩70,000 for 3 and ₩88,000 for 4. We ordered the clam hot pot and makguksu.

• Clam hot pot for 2: ₩52,000
• Clam hot pot for 3: ₩70,000
• Clam hot pot for 4: ₩88,000
• Spicy seafood hot pot: same prices
• Makguksu: ₩8,000

What I liked here is that the menu says kalguksu noodles, ramen noodles and steamed rice are free! We finished our clam hot pot with kalguksu too.

When the timer rings, the clam hot pot opens!

When you order the clam hot pot at Taegine, a big lidded pot comes out together with a timer. While we waited, we were also given fried squid and fried dumplings.

Cut into bite-size pieces and dipped in chojang (sweet-spicy vinegared gochujang), the fried bites were tasty already! Munching on them while waiting, the timer finally rang, and with a thump-thump of excitement, lid off!

The pot was packed with different kinds of clams, and it looked delicious just to look at.

I picked through the clams, starting with the scallops, and the meat was chewy yet tender, with a faint taste of the sea the more I chewed.

Best of all was the refreshing broth the clams gave off! It wasn't sharply spicy or salty, just the clams' own savory depth, so I kept going back for spoonfuls.

Chatting with friends while shelling clams one by one, the drinks went down easily too~ It's a good spot in Geomdan New Town for dinner and a drink.

The cheese pot in the clam hot pot, and how to eat it

Inside the clam hot pot there's a small earthenware pot with cheese in it! Roll the cheese around a well-cooked clam, then dip it in chojang.

Chewy, springy clam, creamy cheese, and spicy-sour chojang! Chewy, springy, nutty, spicy! The combo works better than you'd expect, so I kept reaching for more.

Clam hot pot plus makguksu? Highly recommended combo!

We ordered the makguksu (₩8,000) separately, and it went really well with the clam hot pot.

After sipping hot clam broth, a bite of sweet-sour makguksu totally changes the feel. I'd want to order the clam hot pot and makguksu together again next time.

And of course the finale is kalguksu! Adding the free kalguksu noodles to the leftover clam broth let me enjoy the flavor right to the end.

Tips for the self-bar barley rice

Another thing you can't skip at Taegine is the self-bar barley rice.

Put young radish kimchi (yeolmu kimchi) on the barley rice, drizzle on seasoned sauce and sesame oil, and mix it up.

One small tip! If you put in lots of kimchi and sauce from the start, it can get too salty. Add a little at a time and mix to your taste.

You can also grab more side dishes from the self-bar. Take only what you can eat and don't leave food behind, okay?

The day the ice cream made me burst out laughing

At Taegine Geomdan Ara Branch you can also have ice cream after your meal, but it closes at 9 p.m., so watch the time!

I swirled my ice cream so beautifully, you know? But the ones my friends brought back were all shaped so differently, haha! We looked at each other's ice cream and laughed for ages. Clearly I'm the ice cream swirl champ? Hmph :)

Next time I'll try the Taegi set

The set menus at Taegine are the Tang-bossam set at ₩14,000 and the Taegi set at ₩58,000. I was busy with the clam hot pot and didn't notice, but when I looked at the menu again after eating, the sets caught my eye.

• Tang-bossam set ₩14,000: clam or spicy seafood soup of your choice + mini bossam (boiled pork wraps)
• Taegi set ₩58,000: clam or spicy seafood soup + bossam + small spicy webfoot octopus stir-fry + makguksu

They look good since you get to try several dishes together. I had the clam hot pot this time, so next time I want to try the Taegi set with its many dishes.

Overall verdict on Taegine, a Geomdan New Town restaurant

Taegine Geomdan Ara Branch is all about the clam hot pot, but there was plenty more to enjoy.

The fried bites while waiting for the timer, the makguksu that matched more than I expected, the self-bar young radish barley rice! The moment the clam hot pot lid opened and laughing with friends over the ice cream are what I'll remember for a long time.

If you're looking for a place in Geomdan New Town for a hearty dinner with friends, give it a look. I'll have to go back for the Taegi set :)