Wonju IC restaurant: budae jeongol & camping yukgaejang, Yukdaejang

Wonju Yukdaejang Dangye Musil-jeom

Yukdaejang Dangye Musil-jeom is a place with deep, rich broth made in-house, known for traditional yukgaejang (spicy beef and scallion soup) and a great budae jjigae (army stew) broth. I'd recommend taking it away as camping food, so here's my story about this Wonju gukbap (soup and rice) specialist.

On the way to a camping trip in Gangwon, I got off at Wonju IC for a quick lunch, and the broth blew my mind, so I ate lunch and took some away too. This is not the budae jjigae broth we know...! It's a rich beef-bone broth with budae jjigae seasoning stirred in, truly the real deal of Korean broths. I hadn't even been drinking the night before, and it still felt like a hangover cure. Magic,,

Regular budae jjigae is based on rice-water broth, but Yukdaejang's broth is based on thick, rich beef bone (sagol). It has the deep, soothing quality of seolleongtang (ox bone soup) and the spicy, savory flavor of budae jjigae that sticks to your tongue, all in one: Yukdaejang's budae jeongol.

I figured yukgaejang made on this same broth would be out-of-this-world too, so I also took yukgaejang away for a hangover breakfast the morning after camping.😇 I'll tell you in detail about both the budae jeongol I had for lunch and the yukgaejang I ate the next morning. Let's go~

Yukdaejang Dangye Musil-jeom hours, location and parking

Yukdaejang Dangye Musil-jeom is open 24 hours, with only a night closure from Tuesday 9:30 p.m. to Wednesday 9:30 a.m. Takeout and delivery are both available, and there is parking.

• Open 24 hours
• Night closure from Tuesday 9:30 p.m. to Wednesday 9:30 a.m.
• Takeout and delivery available, parking available

Yukdaejang, a kalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup) and gukbap specialist near Wonju Bus Terminal, is on the 2nd floor of a building on Roanoke-ro, between Wonju City Hall and the bus terminal, at the Bonghwasan intersection in front of Wonju AK Plaza. The road up to the parking lot is steep, as if the shopping building was carved out of Bonghwasan mountain.

The parking lot is tiered, so you can park in front of or beside the shops on both the 1st and 2nd floors.

What's on the menu at Yukdaejang in Wonju?

This 24-hour Wonju restaurant serves a wide range of hangover soups and gukbap such as yukgaejang, yukgaejang kalguksu, dak-gaejang (spicy chicken soup) and seolleongtang, plus bossam (boiled pork wraps), budae jeongol and sundubu jeongol (soft tofu hot pot), which work as both meals and drinking snacks. The menu is varied, and all of it is based on broth made in-house. One sip and you'll get it. Anything made with this broth is delicious, so that's why the menu is so varied..😇

Dining room atmosphere for groups and families

Yukdaejang Dangye Musil-jeom is a Korean restaurant with bright lighting, a spacious dining hall and plenty of customers, a pleasant atmosphere. The single hall is divided by walls, so it's also a good choice for group meals and group lunches in Wonju.

The owner guided us kindly to our seats and we ordered. The owner was so kind: a family had asked for a baby chair, and he even adjusted its position so the baby could eat safely.

How is Yukdaejang's budae jeongol different from regular budae jjigae?

Yukdaejang's budae jeongol is a richer, creamier budae jjigae simmered on a seolleongtang broth base. Like yukgaejang, it's loaded with scallions, so the cooling freshness of the broth is crazy..

True to the name Yukdaejang, the signature dishes are yukgaejang and yukgaejang kalguksu. There's also an unusual budae yukgaejang: the broth base and the heaps of scallions are the same, but because of the seasoning paste that dissolves into the beef bone broth and the ham, budae yukgaejang tastes creamier and heavier.

I'd recently had a delicious budae jjigae and was craving it, so I ordered the budae jeongol. Fair warning: the budae jeongol at Yukdaejang near Wonju City Hall is not an ordinary budae jjigae...! If you like budae jjigae, please try the budae yukgaejang too..🥹 Rice is ordered separately with jeongol dishes, so I added an order of steamed rice.

At the time of my visit, Yukdaejang near Wonju Bus Terminal had an event offering either one plate of royal dumplings, a free drink, or a free extra sari (add-in noodles). Even a basic bowl of yukgaejang is a big portion, so it would work well if you're drinking and need more snacks, or as a drink freebie.

Yukdaejang side dishes and self-serve bar

The basic side dishes at Yukdaejang are three kinds: stir-fried fish cake, seasoned chives and seokbakji (radish kimchi). They're exactly the kind of tasty side dishes you'd expect from a banchan shop. But,, in front of the invincible budae jeongol, the broth wiped them all out😇 After one sip of the budae jeongol broth, I barely reached for the side dishes..haha

All the side dishes can be refilled at the self-serve bar. The seasoned chives are tossed in small batches often to keep them crunchy, and they aren't salty. Adding them to your yukgaejang or seolleongtang to taste would be nice.

How many people does one Yukdaejang budae jeongol feed?

Yukdaejang's budae jeongol isn't sold per person; I ordered one jeongol, and it's not 2 servings but 3.😇 First of all, the pot is huge and deep. It's the size of a pot that holds 4 servings of kalguksu.

The ingredients are generous, and the amount of broth is really large.. This Wonju yukgaejang specialist charges extra for more jeongol broth, but there's no need to add any, since they give you plenty, more than enough, which I liked.

Can you picture the amount of ingredients,,,? It's definitely not 2 servings, it's 3. Budae jjigae restaurants use shallow, wide pots, but Yukdaejang's budae jeongol pot is deep and big, so as a drinking snack it can feed up to 4. For 3 to 4 people having a meal with a few drinks, one budae jeongol plus the royal dumplings from the review event gets you both flavor and value.✌🏻

This is the rice I ordered separately. White rice goes with red broth, of course..

What does Yukdaejang's budae jeongol broth taste like?

The red broth of Yukdaejang's budae jeongol isn't a milky, translucent one even though the base is creamy; it's very rich. The flavor has both the heavy ham aroma of budae jjigae and the thick, rich broth of seolleongtang: a delicious budae jjigae!!!

The broth is more full-bodied than ramen. Honestly top-tier praise among Korean broths. Since ham is the main ingredient of budae jjigae, people who dislike that artificial ham smell may not love budae jjigae, but Yukdaejang's broth combines spicy budae jjigae seasoning with a heavy beef bone broth that ties everything together, so the ham smell isn't off-putting. Seriously delicious,,

It looks a bit like dog food, but this is how we ended up eating it..😇 The owner thoughtfully gave us a bowl each so we could mix rice into the broth.

Don't forget...!! The budae jeongol is 3 servings.😇 We drank the broth from bowls, not spoons, and my boyfriend finished two bowls of rice and the broth still didn't go down..haha I highly recommend this budae jeongol for its value. We ate well and left full!

How does Yukdaejang pack uncooked yukgaejang for takeout?

Yukdaejang's yukgaejang is packed uncooked, with kkakdugi (radish kimchi), rice and dangmyeon (glass noodle) sari packed separately. The yukgaejang goes in a microwave-safe container and is double-wrapped in plastic wrap so it doesn't leak.

I was on my way to a camping trip in Gangwon, so I took one yukgaejang along. I'd packed ramen for a hangover meal the morning after camping, but this was far richer and tastier than ramen broth,,, The budae jeongol broth was the kind that cures a hangover even when you haven't been drinking, so I figured the signature yukgaejang must be even better, and packed it uncooked!👍🏻👍🏻

Because they make the broth in-house, the broth was piping hot even though it was uncooked. The owner somehow knew it was for a hangover and packed lots of broth.🤗

Cooking Yukdaejang's takeout yukgaejang at the campsite

The yukgaejang I boiled at the campsite the next morning was 1 serving, but it completely filled my camping pot (coppel). It's the amount you'd get from boiling 2 packs of ramen. I highly recommend yukgaejang as camping food to take away from Wonju!

The chunks of meat were also seriously generous. Lots of thick, vertically shredded beef brisket, and plenty of whole scallions too. Retort yukgaejang from the supermarket doesn't compare.

The yukgaejang was fairly pale at first, but as it bubbled, red oil rose to the top. The contents are only scallions, beef brisket and dangmyeon sari. Exactly original, traditional yukgaejang!!

And the most important part, the taste~~ wow, I'm so glad we took this away, who was it that suggested takeout!!! Seriously amazing.

You can taste a rich seolleongtang with an insane amount of scallions thrown in. The freshness of the scallions in that thick meat broth;; Mix it straight into white rice and slurp it all up, and a hearty morning gukbap is possible even at a campsite...🤤

For camping food that nails both flavor and value, I also recommend the yukgaejang from Yukdaejang, a Wonju takeout favorite. Yukdaejang is a Wonju gukbap specialist that does both budae jeongol and yukgaejang well. I think that in Wonju, at least, the hangover gukbap should be yukgaejang, not sundae-gukbap (blood sausage soup)!!!