3-generation family meal with baby chair and seaweed soup: Kkotgeok

This time we went to eat together with my mom, my grandmother, and even Chelchel and Chacha! Kkotgeok is a restaurant my grandmother loves, so it's a place we always visit whenever we come to see her!

We last visited in November last year, before Chelchel turned one, so it had been a while and I was even more excited. Kkotgeok Cheonan Yuryang-dong Branch, located in Cheonan, had a really impressive atmosphere from the moment you walk in the entrance 🤍

It felt like walking into an old noble family's house — the grand hanok (traditional Korean house) atmosphere combined with the neatly set crab set meal made me feel properly treated the whole time we ate :)

• Address: 204 Yuryang-ro, A-dong 1F, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do
• Parking: large courtyard and parking space available in front of the restaurant
• Dog-friendly: pets can dine together in the annex building
• Rooms: various rooms available for small groups up to large parties

A special hanok atmosphere from the moment you walk in

From the moment we parked and walked toward the restaurant at Kkotgeok Cheonan Yuryang-dong Branch, the atmosphere was on another level. The spacious courtyard blended with the hanok building, making it truly feel like being invited into an old noble family's house!

Since the space itself was so large, Chelchel and Chacha didn't feel cooped up and could run around a bit outside. When dining out with kids, how comfortable it is for them to hang around matters just as much as the meal itself, doesn't it? On that front, this crab set restaurant in Yuryang-dong made a great first impression.

The restaurant was divided into a main building and an annex! The main building is a comfortable space for regular guests to dine,

while the annex is a separate space where you can dine with your dog, apparently. These days, so many families go out with their pets, so I thought it was quite nice that they run a separate dining space for that 🤍

Great room spaces for family gatherings and all kinds of events

Once inside, the interior kept the hanok atmosphere of the exterior while being decorated in a very clean and upscale way overall.

Personally, I thought a Korean restaurant like this would just have a strong traditional feel, but once I actually walked in, it felt calm and elegant, like being at a hotel Korean restaurant.

In particular, the rooms come in various sizes from small to large, so it seemed great for family meals with parents, birthdays, family events, or gatherings with acquaintances — days when you want to eat a bit quietly and comfortably. It also suited our situation perfectly, with multiple generations from grandmother to kids eating together :)

The Kkotgeok C Set, chosen so we could also have the crab stew

Kkotgeok's signature dishes are said to be the soy-marinated crab (ganjang gejang) and spicy marinated crab (yangnyeom gejang) made with crab from Yeonpyeong Island. What we ordered was the Kkotgeok C Set at ₩80,000, which comes with the roe-filled crab set for two people and Yeonpyeong crab stew.

We wanted to eat the marinated crab but also wanted the hot, refreshing crab stew together, so we went with the C Set haha. And the dish that caught my eye almost as much as the crab was the dried corvina (boribulgogi)! So we added the dried corvina set for one at ₩30,000 as well.

With marinated crab, crab stew, and dried corvina all laid out on the table, there was plenty of variety, which made it perfect for a group meal.

Soy crab that tasted even better for not being too salty

What I liked most that day was, without a doubt, the soy-marinated crab. At some places, even delicious soy crab gets so salty after a few bites that you keep reaching for rice or water, but Kkotgeok's soy crab really wasn't overly salty at all.

You could taste plenty of umami from the soy sauce, but it wasn't too strong, so it didn't feel heavy even after eating it continuously, and there was no lingering salty taste in my mouth even after the whole meal. That was something I especially loved. I piled the meat onto rice, mixed rice into the crab shell... it confirmed once again why marinated crab is called a 'rice thief.'

The spicy marinated crab comes coated in sauce along with fragrant water dropwort (minari), and the minari really seemed to be the kicker in the spicy crab 🙏🏻 The seasoning wasn't too strong either, so my mom munched through the legs one by one.

The crab stew had that refreshing flavor drawn out from the crab, so eating hot soup in between bites of marinated crab made for a great combination. There was a good-sized whole crab in it too, so the crab in the stew was really delicious as well.

And on top of that, the dried corvina we added! The savory dried corvina has a totally different appeal from the marinated crab, and being savory made it great for the kids to eat too — good to order and share if there are several of you. It was so chewy and delicious that I kept thinking about it. It's also nice mixed with the green tea broth that comes alongside it!

A neat table setting and thoughtful touches for kids

The main dishes were great, but at Korean set-meal style restaurants like this, whether the basic side dishes are done well matters quite a bit to me too. At Kkotgeok, every side dish was neatly arranged, and the composition worked well as something to pair between bites of the main dishes, which I found satisfying.

And for the kids, they gave us a baby chair and baby tableware, and since kids can't eat spicy or raw food, they even brought out a separate seaweed soup (miyeokguk).... 🤍 This is the kind of thing moms go wild for, right?

Even the seaweed soup was really delicious. These weren't just side dishes that looked like a lot of variety — they were dishes that made you want to keep reaching for them, which raised the overall quality of the whole table.

Thanks to that, our Chelchel finished a whole bowl of rice completely absorbed in eating 🤍 Since it was a meal with my grandmother, my mom, my husband and me, and Chelchel and Chacha, everyone had different tastes, but it was nice that there was such a variety of food for everyone to eat something. So we walked out having had a genuinely enjoyable meal from start to finish.

Not just the food but the space, service, and atmosphere all came together, making me think this is a Korean restaurant in Yuryang-dong that's great to visit on a slightly special day. For us too, it was a meal we enjoyed even more for having my grandmother, my mom, and Chelchel and Chacha all together.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Kkotgeok Cheonan Yuryang-dong Branch okay to visit with kids?

Yes! The space in front of the restaurant is spacious and the interior is fairly roomy too, so we were able to dine comfortably with Chelchel and Chacha.

Is the soy-marinated crab very salty?

When I ate it, the seasoning wasn't overly strong. It was especially satisfying that the salty taste didn't linger badly in my mouth even after several bites.

Can I visit with my dog?

The annex is run separately as a space where pets are allowed.

Is it good as a place for family gatherings?

With rooms ranging from small to large, it seemed great to use for meals with parents, family gatherings, and various family events.