Clam kalguksu team lunch for 5 in Yeouido, Seoul: Gaetbeol-ui Jogae

Gaetbeol-ui Jogae Yeouido Main Branch — where I went for lunch with coworkers in Yeouido! Usually I just grab something simple for lunch, but this time there were five of us, so we figured we'd go a little bigger haha.

What kind of restaurant is Gaetbeol-ui Jogae Yeouido Main Branch?

Gaetbeol-ui Jogae is mainly known for clam hot pot, but at lunch they also have kalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup), bibimbap, and rice bowls, so it's a solid choice for a Yeouido office worker lunch spot too. They say they use fresh clams and seafood brought in from clean waters every morning, and the giant clam hot pot — where you can taste a variety of seafood at once — is the signature menu item.

The place itself is spacious and pretty comfortable, so it felt like a good fit not just for lunch but also for Yeouido work dinners or group gatherings.

Free barley rice and gangdoenjang at the self-bar

The self-bar at Gaetbeol-ui Jogae Yeouido Main Branch offers free barley rice. We used the self-bar while waiting for our order, and it made lunch feel even more filling haha.

The self-bar had barley rice, yeolmu kimchi (young radish kimchi), regular kimchi, and other side dishes to go with it — just take as much as you need.

Top the barley rice with yeolmu kimchi, mix in the sauce and doenjang, and you basically have a full bowl before the main dishes even arrive lol. Having the doenjang ready to go was especially nice, since you could basically make yeolmu bibimbap out of it. Just don't pile on too much from the start...!

Since we'd already ordered the spicy shelled clam kalguksu and the seafood boiling, we only took small portions to taste haha. Even if you just order the kalguksu, you can still enjoy the barley rice alongside it, so the 11,000-won lunch menu is heartier than it sounds! And because it's self-serve, you can grab more side dishes without feeling awkward about it, which made it easy for an office lunch :)

Gaetbeol-ui Jogae Yeouido lunch menu and prices

The lunch menu at Gaetbeol-ui Jogae Yeouido Main Branch includes spicy shelled clam kalguksu (11,000 won), shelled clam kalguksu (11,000 won), Namhae cockle bibimbap (10,000 won), and Namhae spicy cockle rice bowl (11,000 won). The giant clam hot pot starts at 59,000 won for two, with 3-person, 4-person, and special sizes available depending on the group — makes me want to come back for dinner and try the full clam hot pot properly :)

You can add on shabu-style beef, abalone, live octopus, roe and milt, scallops, octopus, and hot pot clams, plus toppings like kalguksu noodles, ramyeon noodles, rice cake skewers, fish cake skewers, and cheese sauce. There are also sides like cheese-bomb steamed egg, mini seafood pancake, and flying fish roe rice balls, which looked great for a dinner visit with a drink or two.

We ordered two servings of spicy shelled clam kalguksu together with the seafood boiling! When just the regular office lunch menu feels a bit light, adding one main dish to share among the group like this seems like a good move haha.

Spicy shelled clam kalguksu: all clam meat, no shells

As the name suggests, the spicy shelled clam kalguksu comes with the clam meat already picked out, so it's really easy to eat. We love a spicy broth, so there was no hesitation about going with the spicy version! Picking clam meat out of shells one by one can be a bit of a hassle, so it was nice being able to dig straight into the noodles and clam meat together!

With clam meat, small octopus-like organgdong, dried pollock, dried shrimp, and seaweed all in there, you could really taste that clean seafood flavor. The spicy version was fiery but also had that refreshing seafood-broth quality, so I kept going back for more soup! It felt like the kind of dish that'd be perfect as a hangover cure the day after drinking lol.

In particular, the spicy shelled clam kalguksu let us eat comfortably without having to pick apart any shells, and thanks to the spicy, refreshing broth, it made for a satisfying lunch haha.

What is the new seafood boiling like?

The dish that caught my eye the most that day was the seafood boiling! It's a new menu item at Gaetbeol-ui Jogae — a Southern American-style party food where you toss various clams and seafood together in a special sauce.

It's a dish with a generous mix of ingredients — shrimp, clams, corn, and more — all piled together, so it caught everyone's eye the moment it hit the table. It's great for a group to gather around and pick pieces off, and since it felt different from the usual clam hot pot, it was a nice change of pace haha.

There was a nice variety of seafood, so it was fun picking out different pieces, and the special sauce blended so well with everything that it had way more flavor than just plain boiled seafood.

Since there were five of us, we got to try both the kalguksu and the seafood boiling instead of just sticking to one — and honestly, I'd recommend that combo to anyone visiting with a group!

Is Gaetbeol-ui Jogae worth it for a group lunch?

Gaetbeol-ui Jogae Yeouido Main Branch is a great pick if you're looking for a place to have lunch with coworkers in Yeouido, or if you want a filling seafood meal with a group. For lunch, a simple bowl of kalguksu works fine, but if you've got a bigger group like we did, ordering something like the seafood boiling alongside it makes the meal that much more satisfying!