Yeonsan-dong kalguksu restaurant for dinner with mom: Sinseon Myeonga

It had been a while since my mom and I got off work together and went out for dinner in Yeonsan-dong! I usually like noodles more than rice dishes anyway, so when I heard about a place where you can have both kalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup) and bossam (boiled pork wrap) in one generous meal, I headed straight to Sinseon Myeonga, known as one of the go-to kalguksu spots in Yeonsan-dong 🤍

Sinseon Myeonga

Where is Sinseon Myeonga, and is there parking?

Sinseon Myeonga sits right at the entrance to Yeollan-gil near Yeonsan Station, just a 5-minute walk from Exit 14 — so easy to reach by public transit — and there's also free parking behind the building!

The interior overall felt clean and tidy, with tables set generously apart. I saw a few people dining solo, so it looked comfortable for solo diners, and equally comfortable for a family dinner like ours.

Sinseon Myeonga's menu: kalguksu, bossam and drinking snacks

Once we sat down and looked at the menu, I was a bit surprised at how varied it was, haha. Besides kalguksu, there's pork cutlet, bibimbap, octopus dishes, and bossam — plenty of meal options — plus good-value set menus that would make for a satisfying lunch. And there are drinking snacks too, so coming in the evening for bossam and a soju-beer, like we did, works just as well!

Since Sinseon Myeonga makes its own fresh noodles in-house, I got even more excited about the kalguksu. After browsing the menu for a while, we ordered the small bossam set and the perilla oil kalguksu!

The side dishes at Sinseon Myeonga: sundae and refillable fresh-cut kimchi

The side dishes at Sinseon Myeonga were sundae (Korean blood sausage) and fresh kimchi. They came out first while we waited a bit, and honestly the kimchi here was really good... even before the bossam arrived, I kept going back for the kimchi and ended up refilling it several times — it was exactly to my taste!

Is the small bossam set enough for two people?

While we were chatting over the kimchi, the bossam set we'd been waiting for finally showed up!

Even as the small size, it came out as a full spread, so I loved the look of it right away. It was more than enough for two people, and it arrived warm, so it was great to dig into right away.

There was also a small broth served alongside the bossam, nice for taking a spoonful here and there in between bites.

Since it was a rare night out for dinner with my mom, we clinked a glass of soju-beer too!

Once we really dug into the bossam, the meat had no gamey smell at all and was soft and moist, tasty even on its own! But bossam really needs to be eaten with the pickled radish strips, right? Piling a piece of meat with radish strips and wrapping it all up neatly added a nice crunch, and I couldn't stop reaching for more. The kimchi was delicious, the meat was tender, and between chatting with my mom, we finished the bossam before we knew it.

How was the perilla oil kalguksu?

Sinseon Myeonga's perilla oil kalguksu showed up with perfect timing, right as we'd made good progress on the bossam! As soon as it arrived, the nutty aroma of perilla oil rose up strongly — just looking at it made me hungry all over again.

One bite in, the distinctive nutty flavor of perilla oil came through richly, and the noodles were chewy too — it was even better than I expected! Having bossam and kalguksu together made for a truly filling meal, and splitting dishes between the two of us meant we got to try a bit of everything, which I loved even more. The kalguksu itself is reasonably priced too, so it works well alongside bossam for two, and ordering the set menu would probably be even better value.

Worth it for kalguksu and bossam in one meal in Yeonsan-dong?

It had been a while since my mom and I went out for dinner together, and the food turned out to be even tastier than expected — it just felt good to enjoy a good meal together again after so long! The bossam was great, but the fresh kimchi and the perilla oil kalguksu especially won me over, and I'd definitely want them again next time, haha.

Sinseon Myeonga is a great pick in Yeonsan-dong when you want kalguksu and bossam together, and with basic kalguksu starting at ₩7,000, it feels like an easy, low-pressure meal given today's prices — a solid Yeonsan-dong restaurant. It's good for a solo bowl of kalguksu, and just as good for a hearty family meal with bossam like we had, so if you're looking for a well-known kalguksu spot in Yeonsan-dong, Sinseon Myeonga is worth a visit 🤍