Hanam kodari restaurant, 10:55am opening run for two: Appa Jjim

What is Appa Jjim Hanam Main Branch?

This is my review of Appa Jjim Hanam Main Branch, a famous kodari (braised dried pollock) restaurant in Hanam that you really need to do an opening run for.

Appa Jjim Hanam: address, hours and parking

• 📍Address: 60 Wolho-ro, 1F, Hanam-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
• ⏱️Hours: 11:00 - 21:50 (break time 15:00 - 15:30), last order 20:50
• ✅ Naver reservations available
• 🚘 Private parking lot available
• ✅ Takeout available, group dining, delivery, baby chairs, separate men's/women's restrooms

Inside and outside the Hanam kodari restaurant

Here's the exterior of Appa Jjim, a Hanam favorite.

There's a private parking lot, so parking was really convenient. This place opens at 11am, and since I already knew it was popular, we arrived around 10:55, just before opening. At that point the parking lot was still pretty quiet, but by the time we finished eating around noon, the spacious lot was completely full — that's how popular this place is.

At the entrance there were autographs from famous people who'd visited — baseball player Kim Byung-hyun, actor Jin Seon-kyu, and various other sports stars and actors have stopped by.

There's also a coffee machine, so you can enjoy dessert after your meal.

This is the interior of Appa Jjim. There's plenty of outdoor seating and private rooms inside too, so it's a great spot for group dinners.

They say it's the world's first monkfish-stew-style steaming method done on elvan stones at 180 degrees high heat.

The crispy seafood pancake is also a popular menu item.

There's a story about how Appa Jjim came to be, and it was interesting — I read the whole thing from start to finish.

The restroom even had floss and mouthwash, which really showed how much thought they put into their guests.

This photo was taken around 11:30am — there were already so many customers. I was glad we did the opening run.

Appa Jjim Hanam menu and prices

Side dishes served at Appa Jjim

The side dishes were really generous and varied — vegetables, bean sprouts, seasoned bok choy, seasoned fish cake, laver, cold seaweed soup, and more.

Braised kodari with dried radish greens (small), 35,000 won

Here's what we ordered.

Braised kodari with dried radish greens (small) ₩35,000, fragrant pot rice ₩2,500, cuttlefish add-on ₩9,000, crispy seafood pancake ₩16,000. Total: ₩62,500.

There were two big pollock in there, and with the added cuttlefish, the portion was really generous.

I'd already read in reviews that staff debone the fish for you, but watching them do it with such skilled hands meant we could eat comfortably and enjoyably.

Not only did they debone the kodari, they also cut the cuttlefish into bite-sized pieces for us, making everything easy and delicious to eat.

The kodari-jjim was loaded with cuttlefish, dried radish greens, pollock meat, radish, and even tofu — a really generous mix of ingredients.

We got ours at regular spice level, and since we ordered the version with dried radish greens, the greens were generous and really delicious too. It was great just eating the pollock on its own, wrapped in lettuce with meat, or combined with pollock, scallion pancake, and dried radish greens as a three-way bite.

Fragrant pot rice, 2,500 won

We only ordered one pot rice, since I already knew from reviews that the kodari-jjim portion is huge, and we'd also ordered the crispy seafood pancake.

Being made in a stone pot, it was really delicious. They also give you hot water, so you can pour it in, cover the pot, and make a scorched-rice broth (nurungji).

We only ordered one pot rice, but it was generous enough to fill two bowls.

Crispy seafood pancake, 16,000 won

While we were eating the kodari-jjim, the crispy seafood pancake arrived. It was packed with squid, shrimp, and other seafood, and the pancake itself was huge.

True to its name, the crispy seafood pancake was really crunchy and delicious.

There was really a ton of squid packed in.

Dipping it into the kodari-jjim sauce was delicious too. That's my genuine review of Appa Jjim Hanam Main Branch, a famous Hanam kodari restaurant where you need an opening run or a reservation.