Pyeongchang restaurant for buckwheat and pork: Memil Migayeon

A buckwheat meal found at the Pyeongchang Buckwheat Flower Festival

We DINK couple came to the Pyeongchang Buckwheat Flower Festival to enjoy the September festivities. Since we were in Pyeongchang, we wanted to have at least one meal that felt properly Pyeongchang-esque~~ Gangwon-do brings lots of foods to mind, but when you are at the buckwheat flower fields of Bongpyeong, it is hard to skip buckwheat dishes, right?

So while looking for a local favorite in Pyeongchang, we visited Bongpyeong Memil Migayeon!! We had planned to pop in for one simple buckwheat dish, but then we saw the menu and started wanting boiled pork too, plus more and more dishes we were curious about~ The menu was full of things my food-loving Young Forty husband would enjoy, so we came away very full. The DINK couple's food show never misses a meal—let's eat properly today too.

What were the wait and parking like?

There was such a huge queue outside the restaurant. I was surprised to see even the waiting chairs on both sides of the shop completely full... My Young Forty husband and I whispered, “This place must be really good~”

To join the waitlist, enter your phone number on the tablet out front and you will get a KakaoTalk message. You can wait nearby and go in once it is your turn. Sadly, pets are not allowed!

Bongpyeong Memil Migayeon, the Pyeongchang local favorite we found while searching around, has parking in front of the building. There were so many people that even on a weekday, the spaces were packed with cars.

Most people get around by car while traveling in Pyeongchang, so when choosing a restaurant, I find myself looking beyond the food to whether we can go in and enjoy a meal comfortably too...

Studying the menu in a private room

After the wait, a table opened up and we went inside. There were more seats than expected, but it was still completely full!! Quite a few diners were eating too. There were tables in private rooms as well, and we were shown to the Bongdal 1 room, which had two four-person tables.

The moment we sat down, hungry as we were, we started studying the menu. Since we had come all the way to Bongpyeong, the buckwheat dishes naturally caught our eyes. There were quite a few foods using buckwheat, so instead of ordering just one thing, we decided to try several dishes together. As always, two servings are endlessly too little for my piggy Young Forty husband... so we ended up ordering a lot again...

From the side dishes to buckwheat bibim noodles

Once we had ordered, neat little side dishes began arriving one by one. They were all good accompaniments for the buckwheat dishes or boiled pork~ The seasoned vegetables were especially nutty and savory~

With food like this, the mains matter, of course, but the side dishes you eat along the way can really change the feel of the meal. Especially with a mild dish like boiled pork, it was fun to top a bite with one of the accompaniments.

The 80:20, 100% buckwheat bibim noodles arrived. We ordered them with one firm purpose: if we had come to Pyeongchang, we should eat buckwheat properly!! Even in the photo, they look a little different from the noodle dishes we usually eat, right?

At first I worried that the buckwheat noodles might be rough, but they were surprisingly soft. They were deliciously sweet and tangy without being overly intense. Every bite of the dish, with all its ingredients, had different textures; the pickled kelp was especially the key, adding tang and letting us really taste the flavor.

Buckwheat-sprout boiled pork and bulgogi bibimbap together

And the dish with undeniable presence on the table was the buckwheat-sprout boiled pork! It is one of the dishes my Korean-food-loving Young Forty husband goes crazy for. With tender meat sliced into easy bites and buckwheat sprouts alongside it, we simply could not put our chopsticks down... It is so good that if someone in your group is eating it all, you need to give them a look!!!

The buckwheat-sprout bulgogi bibimbap arrived too. We had originally planned to get yukhoe (Korean beef tartare), but bulgogi sounded better that day, so this was our pick. The bulgogi bibimbap had a soy-sauce base. Since it could be a matter of strong personal preference, they also brought gochujang sauce in advance. This was an especially kid-friendly dish—full of nutrition! Its mildness made it even better.

The bulgogi bibimbap came with miyeokguk (seaweed soup) and ssam (wrap leaves), and wrapping the rice in the leaves gave it a different kind of flavor.

Normally I would have added the gochujang sauce, but because we had the bibim noodles, we followed my husband's opinion to choose mildness over spice!! My Young Forty husband really knows food!!

A meal of several dishes shared between two

What I liked this time was the harmony among the dishes. Noodles and rice, vegetables and meat—it was varied, generous, and healthy~ Migayeon, a Pyeongchang local favorite with a clearly different look from the start~

If you visit as a pair like us and prefer ordering different foods to share rather than each having one dish, I think this combination would suit you well. I told my husband to try a bite of this and that, and he ate everything without rejecting a single dish!! Is it really that your tastes in food are broad, or do you simply eat well? Another piece of observation data added today.

When traveling, pretty cafés and famous sights stay in your memory, but sometimes a truly good meal in the middle of the trip lingers unexpectedly long. Especially somewhere like Pyeongchang, with foods that represent the region, the pleasure of eating local becomes even greater.

At Bongpyeong Memil Migayeon, we were able to properly enjoy a Pyeongchang meal by having everything from buckwheat dishes to boiled pork. If you have come to Pyeongchang and want food with local character, or want to try several dishes together instead of just one buckwheat dish, choosing a few items to share seems like a good idea... And today’s Young Forty husband observation result: he overeaten again...

If you are searching for a Pyeongchang local favorite because you want a proper meal during a Gangwon-do trip, Bongpyeong Memil Migayeon is a good option. Thanks to it, this couple polished off another tidy, generous spread today!!!