Gopchang hot pot set for 2 in Mokdong, ₩3,000 E-Mart parking: Omokgyo

A visit to Omokgyo Gopchang, a Seoul top-three garlic gopchang spot and a great meat restaurant in Omokgyo, plus menu recommendations.

Why we chose Omokgyo Gopchang in Mokdong

I found Omokgyo Gopchang while watching a gopchang mukbang (eating show) on YouTube. A few days ago I was lazing around at home watching a mukbang YouTuber eat gopchang. They ate it so deliciously that I happily watched all 20 minutes, and then a photo of a gopchang restaurant taken by someone else caught my eye. Watching the fresh ingredients being prepared and grilled, I was practically drooling, and when I checked the restaurant info, it turned out to be nearby.

It turns out it's one of Seoul's top three gopchang restaurants, and its garlic gopchang is counted among the best in the country. So I saved it right away and finally went this time. What would the garlic gopchang said to be the best in the country taste like?

Omokgyo Gopchang, one of the country's top three garlic gopchang spots! Fresh ingredients and distinctive sauces are the highlight.

Where is Omokgyo Gopchang and where to park?

As the name suggests, Omokgyo Gopchang Mokdong Main Branch is just 2–3 minutes (220m) from Omokgyo Station on Line 5, so it's easy to reach by public transport. It sits in the Omokgyo food alley, which has plenty of cafés and bars for a second round, so it's also good for company dinners and gatherings.

The restaurant doesn't offer parking, so you'll need to use a nearby paid lot. I searched around and picked a cheap one. The E-Mart Mokdong parking lot costs ₩3,000 all day on weekends, and ₩3,000 from after work until morning on weekdays, if you use a certain app, so keep that in mind.

If you follow Naver's route-finding app, it will tell you to go into the alley. Go in past the sushi restaurant as in the photo and you'll see the Omokgyo Gopchang sign.

Omokgyo Gopchang atmosphere and seating

Omokgyo Gopchang seems to have been featured often in the media, including SBS Today. It has the class you'd expect from a top-three garlic gopchang spot in the country. The window seats are open-front with big glass walls, so on a nice day it feels really open. We're a couple who can't live without air conditioning, so we hunted for the AC and sat at a seat close to it.

There are lots of tables and it feels lively and bustling. The space is big and well ventilated, so the smell doesn't cling to you as much.

Celebrities and athletes have visited a lot too. There were signatures from a Kiwoom player (my favorite baseball team) and a basketball player.

Omokgyo Gopchang menu and sauce pairings by cut

I took photos of the Omokgyo Gopchang menu to make ordering easier. Gopchang restaurants usually have their own best way to eat, so it's important to understand the restaurant's style before you go.

The menu lists how to eat each cut for the best taste. Study up a little beforehand so you know which cut to dip in which sauce, and you'll enjoy it more.

• Heart (yeomtong): eat with chives and oil dipping sauce
• Bull gopchang, makchang (abomasum), honeycomb tripe: green onion kimchi and spicy sauce
• Garlic gopchang: green onion kimchi + oil dipping sauce
• Daechang (large intestine): everything goes well

There are sets sized for your party, plus grilled dishes and hot pot menus. We love gopchang, and I believe a proven restaurant always calls for the set, so we ordered the 2-person set.

Omokgyo Gopchang side dishes: free raw liver?

The side dishes at Omokgyo Gopchang come in generous variety. Along with raw liver, yangji (beef brisket), salad, onion, green onion kimchi and chives, you get shiitake wasabi sauce, oil dipping sauce and the special sauce.

Raw liver is hard to handle, so it rarely comes as a free side dish, and that shows how confident the restaurant is about its freshness. One bite of raw liver tells you the overall condition of a place, and mine was cold and springy with that distinctive raw-liver texture intact, very enjoyable.

The salad, onion and yangji soothe your mouth when you get bored while eating gopchang. Taste them one by one while the main dish cooks.

Chives and green onion kimchi pair fantastically with gopchang, so just eat them the way the menu describes.

The sundubu jjigae (soft tofu stew) that comes by default is spicy and tasty. If I'd call the gopchang hot pot here slightly mild, the sundubu jjigae has an intense, zingy kick. The two stews have different characters, so it's nice that people with different tastes can all be satisfied.

I just got an Osmo Pocket 4, so I filmed a video as practice too.

What's in the 2-person gopchang hot pot set and how it's grilled

The Omokgyo Gopchang 2-person set comes with mixed gopchang + stone-pot gopchang hot pot + fried rice, so you can try most of the menu. The biggest star today is the restaurant's special sauces. I think the sauce and seasoning soaked into the ingredients decide about 80% of a gopchang restaurant's flavor.

At first a staff member helps with the pre-grilling, and after that you grill it to your own taste. They do a fire show at the start. It looked even tastier since it was grilling up so nicely, and my mouth watered.

How does Omokgyo Gopchang's garlic gopchang taste?

With garlic gopchang, I think that signature taste matters: moderately oily, sweet yet deliciously rich. Omokgyo Gopchang recreates that flavor very well.

Stone-pot gopchang hot pot and fried rice portions

The gopchang hot pot here is made nicely spicy, and even though it comes in a stone pot, the portion is not lacking at all. It's packed with ingredients.

Finished with fried rice! The fried rice portion was big too, and we left very full.

Omokgyo Gopchang events and team dinner tips

Omokgyo Gopchang runs a lot of events.

• Free drink for following + saving + sharing
• Prize draw entry for adding the channel
• Big mileage points if you prepay before eating

I think the prepaid mileage would be really useful for company dinners and group meals. And after paying, don't forget to grab the hovenia (hut-gae) hangover drink placed next to the POS!

Who should visit Omokgyo Gopchang?

• A must-visit for gopchang lovers looking for a top-tier Seoul gopchang restaurant
• Prepaying brings benefits, so picking it for a company dinner will earn you points
• Staff pre-grill and explain how to cook, so even meat-grilling beginners can manage easily
• Big portions and strong heat, suited to big eaters
• Wide variety of items and side dishes to suit different tastes
• Couples planning a date, since there are lots of cafés and things to do nearby

I ate happily at one of the country's top three garlic gopchang spots, and I want to come again next time 😚