Sillim home-style Korean set: pollack and radish greens at Yeseoban

What kind of restaurant is Yeseoban?

Yeseoban is a Korean restaurant on Munseong-ro 225 in Gwanak, Seoul, near Seowon Station. It's known for its direct-sourced braised pollack with dried radish greens and its stir-fried baby octopus.

Having lived in Sillim for a long time, I think finding a genuinely good neighborhood restaurant is actually the hardest thing. There are plenty of new trendy spots, but when you're looking for somewhere you can eat often without it feeling like a burden — somewhere as hearty as home cooking — the options shrink fast. Especially with dining prices going up so much lately, it's gotten harder to find a Korean restaurant that serves everything properly, from the side dishes to the main course. So today I want to introduce a place worth visiting if you like Korean food in Sillim: Yeseoban.

Yeseoban's menu and what we ordered

Yeseoban's menu ranges from braised pollack to stir-fried baby octopus, budae-jjigae, hot pot beef bulgogi, and kongguksu. We ordered the direct-sourced braised pollack with dried radish greens for two, with tofu added.

Personally, I think this is the kind of place that should be the one to survive long-term among Korean restaurants in Sillim — not flashy trending food, but a place that properly makes dishes you never get tired of eating every day. The menu was also more varied than I expected, so there was fun in choosing what to order. Apparently the most popular items at Yeseoban are the stir-fried baby octopus and the braised pollack. I'm honestly not someone who seeks out fish dishes on purpose, but after trying the braised pollack that day, my thinking changed a little.

How many side dishes does Yeseoban serve?

At Yeseoban, a full spread of side dishes is laid out from the very start. Bean sprouts, lotus root salad, radish pickle, seaweed and more all come out in variety, so you end up picking at this and that even before the main dish arrives.

These days a lot of Korean restaurants serve just a few side dishes and one main, but here it didn't feel like they just padded out the number — these were dishes that genuinely went well with rice. Side dishes like these actually take a surprising amount of effort to make at home, one by one. For people living alone especially, it's not easy to keep a variety of vegetable side dishes on hand, so it was nice that at Yeseoban you naturally get to eat several kinds in one meal. So I'd especially recommend this to anyone looking for Korean food in Sillim who wants a proper, wholesome meal rather than something heavily seasoned.

Pot rice and nurungji at Yeseoban

Personally, my favorite part of Yeseoban was the pot rice. The portion is quite generous compared to what you'd normally expect from pot rice.

Pot rice

Some restaurants that serve pot rice use such small pots that you're left wanting more even after finishing. Here, the portion was generous, which I liked. You scoop the rice out into a bowl first, then pour hot water into the pot to make scorched rice — and of course, as a Korean, you have to finish with scorched rice for the meal to feel complete.

Finishing off the rice with warm scorched rice made the whole meal feel properly satisfying.

Braised pollack with dried radish greens for two: portion and taste

Yeseoban's braised pollack with dried radish greens comes in a generous portion even for two people. The two of us eat quite a lot, and we were still full afterward — for people who don't usually eat much, it would probably work fine split three ways.

We also added tofu, which I'd personally recommend doing. The pollack sauce paired really well with the tofu.

The pollack meat itself was much heartier than expected — not flaky or dry, but plump and pale, which made it easy to eat with rice. The reason I really want to tell you to order this as the braised pollack with dried radish greens rather than just plain braised pollack is the dried radish greens themselves. The pollack is tasty, but eating the greens soaked in the properly seasoned sauce together with rice was a real delicacy on its own.

The best bite: pollack wrapped in seaweed

The dried radish greens are tender and soaked in the sauce, so they're good eaten with the pollack meat, good with tofu, and also delicious wrapped in seaweed.

• Putting a little pollack meat on seaweed along with the dried radish greens and tofu (the best combination)
• Adding a bit of rice to the bean sprouts and mixing in a little of the pollack sauce

Even though we ordered just one dish, the way you eat it kept giving different sensations, so it never got boring until the end.

I also liked that the seasoning wasn't too overpowering. When you hear braised pollack, you tend to picture something spicy, salty and sweet, but here it was seasoned just right for eating with rice, so I kept reaching for more. Even people like me who don't usually like heavily seasoned or artificial-tasting food could eat it comfortably. Rather than covering up the fish's own flavor, the sauce felt like it was added in just the right amount, which I really liked.

Who is Yeseoban a good fit for?

Yeseoban's braised pollack is a dish worth trying even for people who usually avoid fish dishes because of the fishy taste. It would also be a good spot for a meal with parents.

I don't particularly love fish, and I still enjoyed it. What I liked most was that eating the pollack, dried radish greens, tofu, bean sprouts and seaweed together felt like getting protein and vegetables in one sitting. These days there's plenty of delicious food around, but places where you can eat rice and side dishes in a balanced way have actually become harder to find. So I'd recommend Yeseoban to anyone looking for Korean food in Sillim.

There are plenty of dishes that older family members would like, and the food itself isn't too intensely seasoned, so it would be comfortable for a family meal too. It would suit fans of braised pollack, of course, but also anyone who likes home-style Korean food in general. Having a wide range of menu options is also a plus.

Parking at Yeseoban and a next visit

Yeseoban offers 1 hour of free parking before 6pm. That's a decent condition for anyone visiting Sillim by car.

Today we had the braised pollack, but next time I want to try the stir-fried baby octopus, and the budae-jjigae and hot pot beef bulgogi other tables were eating looked pretty good too, so I'm already thinking about what to order on my next visit. Depending on the season, kongguksu is also available, so it might be worth visiting in summer for something cool. If you're looking for a place in Sillim you can keep eating at for a long time, a spot like this is even more welcome.