Dangsan gamjatang spot with mild bone soup for a toddler: Ppyeodaegwi

A Yeongdeungpo-gu Office gamjatang spot I want to visit again — Dangsan Ppyeodaegwi Haejangguk

Why Dangsan Ppyeodaegwi Haejangguk works with a 3-year-old

A little neighborhood gamjatang place! I went not long ago and came away really satisfied — a solid Dangsan gamjatang restaurant.

The taste is great, but what made it good to bring my kid to was that the basic bone soup isn't spicy :) It's the kind of gamjatang a kid around 3 years old can eat (there's a spicy version too).

Regular or spicy: which bone soup to order

Since the basic bone soup isn't spicy, it's split into two options — regular and spicy — so if you're picturing the usual ppyeodaegwi haejangguk, I'd recommend ordering spicy.

The price is a friendly ₩9,000 for the bone soup. There's about three pieces of pork spine packed with meat, so as a family meal option it felt very worth the price.

House-made napa cabbage kimchi and kkakdugi

There are two kinds of kimchi — napa cabbage kimchi and kkakdugi (diced radish kimchi) — and both are really good! The napa kimchi tastes like something my mom would toss together fresh, and the kkakdugi was tasty too — my kid ate the kkakdugi really well.

Both are made in-house with domestic ingredients, they said — and once you taste it, yep, definitely domestic, definitely homemade. The flavor backs it up.

Bone soup simmered in a stone pot in the middle of summer sounds like it'd be hot, but the restaurant keeps things so cool that it wasn't an issue at all. Since having a kid, gamjatang wasn't even on my radar as an eating-out option anymore, but Dangsan Ppyeodaegwi Haejangguk is the top recommendation for families with kids!! Just because it's not spicy doesn't mean it's bland for adult tastes either — my husband and I cleaned our bowls completely haha.

How the Cheorwon Odae rice tastes

Before the bone soup came out, I tried the plain white rice with a piece of kkakdugi. The ₩9,000 bone soup is already a friendly price given today's prices, but the rice is Cheorwon Odae rice, so it's tasty even eaten on its own.

Maybe because our family cooks with good rice even at home, rice quality matters to us when eating out too — and the rice at Dangsan Ppyeodaegwi Haejangguk is genuinely delicious.

Large vs regular bone soup: the portion difference

My husband ordered the large bone soup, which came with a bit more ugeoji (dried radish greens) and one or two extra pieces of bone. Since we were eating with our kid, we ordered one large and one regular, and the amount was just right.

The meat isn't so tender it falls apart, but it's soft enough that it comes off the bone when you suck it — exactly the texture I like!! It doesn't have that heavy MSG-savory taste, more of a 'huh, this is good, this is really good' kind of flavor that grows on you the more you eat.

Adding the mustard sauce made it even better. The owner told us the basic gamjatang isn't spicy, so kids can eat it too.

Gamjatang with a kid — how touching!!

Squid-chive pancake for 15,000 won

There was squid-chive pancake on the menu too, so we ordered it. At ₩15,000 it's a big one, fried on the thinner side so the batter doesn't clump — crispy and delicious. The kind of flavor that makes you think of makgeolli haha.

The squid was spread evenly throughout, so every bite had squid in it. Turns out Dangsan Ppyeodaegwi Haejangguk is also a hidden gem for squid dishes? I'll have to try the stir-fried squid next time.

My kid ate it really well too haha. He seemed especially fascinated by the pork spine bones my husband and I picked clean — stared at them like he was looking at dinosaur bones haha.

Gamjatang used to be off the table as an eating-out option with a kid, so we'd just buy the pre-made packs from the supermarket sometimes — but this has much heartier meat and a friendlier price, so we've decided our family's gamjatang from now on will be from Dangsan Ppyeodaegwi Haejangguk.

Non-absorbent earthenware pots

They use non-absorbent stone pots — Kkaettuk brand! After seeing videos about detergent residue in stone pots, I'd felt a bit uneasy, but here I could eat with peace of mind :)

Location and final verdict on Dangsan Ppyeodaegwi Haejangguk

Not a chain, just a small neighborhood restaurant — but I found a real treasure of a Dangsan gamjatang spot!! It's close to Yeongdeungpo-gu Office Station and right behind the Ministry of Employment and Labor's Seoul Southern Employment Center.

A Yeongdeungpo-gu Office gamjatang spot that's also great for solo dining.

I keep thinking about that squid-chive pancake +ㅁ+

Ate well and finished off with the complimentary mint candy — a satisfying, full day.