Hapjeong pork bone kalguksu with egg ribbon topping: Pyeongidambaek

Hapjeong kalguksu and bossam restaurant Pyeongidambaek Ppyeo Kalguksu Main Branch 11:00-22:00 (break time 15:00-17:00) No parking (use nearby public parking lots) ✔️ The bone kalguksu is great, but the bossam pork is insane..! ✔️ Clean meat broth, soft noodles

It's been a while since I made it out to Hapjeong~ As someone from southern Gyeonggi, getting to Mapo-gu isn't easy, so whenever I head toward Hongdae I pick restaurants very carefully. I went for the bone kalguksu but came back a fan of the bossam — here's my review of Pyeongidambaek Ppyeo Kalguksu Main Branch, a Hapjeong favorite. Let's go.

Where is Pyeongidambaek in Mapo, and is there a wait?

Pyeongidambaek Ppyeo Kalguksu Main Branch sits roughly halfway between Hapjeong Station and Mangwon Station. The brand now runs six branches nationwide, and this is the original main branch. I heard they originally operated out of Paju before franchising and moving to Mangwon.

A 10% discount for firefighters, military, and police — so nice! Apparently there's often a wait, since they've got a table-ring system and waiting seats set up, but I went at an odd hour on the weekend and got seated with no wait. Very good.

The inside went back deeper than I expected.

What we ordered: pork bone kalguksu and a medium bossam

I originally only planned to get the bone kalguksu at Pyeongidambaek, but I was so hungry I ended up ordering bossam too haha. Now I'm curious about the spicy bone kalguksu and the bibim (mixed) kalguksu too. Looking back, the salted oyster side dish probably would've been amazing wrapped up with the bossam.

If you're friends with the owner, maybe you get to try this... I want it. Feels like one sip could fix my whole constitution.

As you'd expect from a kalguksu place, two kinds of kimchi came out — geotjeori (fresh unfermented kimchi) and kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi) — both refreshing and slightly sweet, pairing really well with the noodles and pork! They were so good I ate every last green leaf.

The bone kalguksu arrived wrapped in a cozy egg blanket — so pretty, right?

Which cut is the bossam pork, and how does it taste?

The moment the bossam pork showed up, its color alone blew me away..! Pyeongidambaek is known for bone kalguksu, but apparently the bossam is famous too — one look at the quality and I got it immediately.

And here's the mu-saengchae (seasoned radish salad), ssamjang (dipping sauce), garlic, salted shrimp, and napa cabbage leaves to go with the bossam. I'm dying to know the mu-saengchae recipe — it hit my taste exactly right.

At first I thought it was pork shoulder, but it looked like pork belly (ogyeopsal) sliced into irregular pieces. The balance of lean meat and fat was golden, and above all it was so tender.. moist with no gamy smell. You can even feel the moistness in the photo, but it's even better in person.

Piled with mu-saengchae and dipped in ssamjang wrapped up — pure bliss~ I wanted a bottle of soju so badly but held off since it was lunch.

Inside the pork bone kalguksu: broth and noodles

I'd been curious about bone kalguksu for a while — there are several places selling it now, but Pyeongidambaek must be the original bone kalguksu spot.. and yeah, nothing beats the original. It's packed with thick, meaty gamjatang-style bones, and the meat in the noodle soup was just as tender as the bossam — delicious!

The broth wasn't too heavy — a clean meat broth, so if you like bone-broth-based kalguksu, I highly recommend it. If you prefer a clam-based broth, the 50%-off surf clam kalguksu sounds like a great pick. Because the broth is clean, it pairs really well with the fluffy shredded egg too.

I care a lot about kalguksu noodle texture, and I liked this one too — the right thickness with the right chewiness. Above all, the clean broth plus soft egg and noodle combo was great.

Instead of the usual mustard sauce, the meat in the kalguksu comes with a chili-oil-based sauce, which was also tasty. The meat was boiled so thoroughly that I didn't even need to pull it apart by hand — chopsticks alone shredded it easily.

Is Pyeongidambaek worth a trip to Hapjeong or Mangwon?

By the time I finished I felt like I'd burst, but I couldn't leave any bossam behind, so I wrapped and ate to the very last bite haha. That final piece of bossam was excellent too.. If you're looking for a good restaurant around Hapjeong or Mangwon, I'd definitely recommend this one! Next time I'll come back for bibim kalguksu and another round of bossam.