Seoknam Station Korean restaurant lunch: spicy galbijjim, Haemokjeong

My husband and I finally had matching free time on a weekday, so we went off for a cozy, delicious lunch date together :))!! As the weather turned chilly, I suddenly craved something not too heavy but just a little spicy?! So I finally made it to Haemokjeong, a lunch spot near Seoknam Station I'd been bookmarking for ages! If you're near Seoknam Station wondering where to get a proper, reasonably priced meal, this one's worth a look >.<

Where is Haemokjeong Seoknam, and what are its hours?

• Name: Haemokjeong Seoknam
• Address: 84 Sinseok-ro, 101-ho, Seoknam-dong, Incheon, South Korea
• Hours: Daily 11:00 – 21:50

Parking near Seoknam Station: 2 hours free at Gangnam Market lot

Parking near Seoknam Station is never easy to find, so it's always a stress factor when picking a restaurant to drive to. But Haemokjeong Seoknam offers 2 hours free parking at the nearby Gangnam Market parking lot, so we could enjoy our meal without worry :)

What the dining room at Haemokjeong Seoknam is like

Haemokjeong Seoknam is a Korean restaurant with a very spacious dining room and generous gaps between tables. The moment I walked in, what struck me first was how clean and open the space felt! Every corner looked spotlessly kept, which put me in a good mood right from the entrance. With so much space, the tables are nicely spread out, so we could chat comfortably with my husband over the meal without worrying about other diners nearby.

Since we'd booked ahead via Naver Reservation, our table was already neatly set when we arrived — total time saver! :)

Side dishes and seaweed soup: the cheonsachae salad steals the show

The basic spread at Haemokjeong Seoknam included stir-fried garlic chives, braised potatoes, baek-kimchi (non-spicy kimchi), perilla leaves for wrapping, and cheonsachae naengchae (chilled agar noodle salad). The cheonsachae naengchae was truly the kick of all kicks..! Crunchy and chewy, genuinely a standout side ^,^

And the seaweed soup, which paired so well with the spicy braised pork ribs,!! It was packed with chunks of giant squid, giving it great texture, and it did a solid job of cooling down the spice in between bites. If you're bringing kids, mixing it with rice makes for a dish they'll polish off in no time!

Weekday lunch special menu and prices at Haemokjeong Seoknam

Visit Haemokjeong Seoknam between 11:00 and 15:00 on weekdays and you can enjoy a discounted lunch set. Options included mushroom kalguksu (noodle soup) at ₩6,900, stir-fried garlic chives with baby octopus at ₩8,900, cold kalguksu at ₩9,000, egg roe and mushroom kalguksu at ₩10,900, stir-fried garlic chives with octopus at ₩10,900, and a handmade jumbo pork cutlet at ₩12,000 — quite a variety. With that much choice, you could eat here all week and never get bored.

Spicy braised pork ribs, ordered at the standard spice level

I went back and forth between the lunch set and the dish I really wanted — Haemokjeong's signature spicy braised pork ribs (maecom dwaeji galbijjim) — and ended up ordering that. You can choose your spice level, and we went with the mild option!!!!

My biggest worry with galbijjim is always the chance the meat turns out tough or dry, but Haemokjeong's version was genuinely a work of art,,!! The meat was so tender and soft :) Big, generous chunks of meat, cooked so thoroughly that it practically slid right off the bone with the slightest tug ^,^

Zero gamey smell, and the sauce had soaked all the way into the well-cooked meat.. so good. The spice level wasn't artificially fiery either — it was the kind of tastily spicy that keeps you reaching for more, so even my spice-wimp husband haha could enjoy it without any stress :))

It's delicious on its own, but the cheonsachae naengchae was the real masterstroke..........!!!! Its tang and crunch paired so perfectly with the spicy galbijjim — the owner is a genuine food genius....

We also got squid fritters for taking part in the review event, and dipped in sauce they were absolute honey!! Definitely join the event so you can try the squid fritters too >.< Highly recommend

Why the self-serve fried rice is a must at Haemokjeong Seoknam

After digging into all the meat, vegetables, and rice cakes, we were already full, but skipping fried rice with that sauce felt like cheating, so we ordered 1 self-serve fried rice........... ^^..

The spicy sauce mixed with sesame oil and the toasty smell of gim (roasted seaweed flakes) — I would've deeply regretted leaving without trying this..! Fried rice here isn't optional, it's a must, hahaha!!

It even had flying fish roe in it, giving it that satisfying pop-pop texture, and we chopped up the leftover pork and threw it in too, making the fried rice even more impressive!! So good

Wrapping the fried rice with the leftover meat was another delicacy of its own!! >.< Even though we were already stuffed, we cleaned the plate down to the last spoonful.

A walk through Gangnam Market after lunch: final thoughts

They even sent us off with 4 parking vouchers, so we ended up browsing the market after our meal too :) (still have one left over ^^!!!) If you're looking for a solid spot for a weekday date or weekend meal near Seoknam Station, I'd recommend the neat and delicious Haemokjeong!!