Balsan Korean restaurant with individually wrapped utensils: Mikodam

Mikodam, a Korean restaurant near Balsan Station — one I'd recommend for a family gathering.

I visited this Korean restaurant, Mikodam Magok-Balsan Branch, with my family. Parking was available, the interior was clean, and the food was perfect too — I left completely satisfied.

• 📍 Address: 42 Gangseo-ro 54-gil, 1st floor, Unit 2, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• 🕖 Hours: Daily 11:00–22:00
• 🚘 Parking: Lot next to the restaurant (not the building's own lot, a separate one beside it)

Inside Mikodam near Balsan Station: the private room and who it suits

The interior of Mikodam near Balsan Station has the clean, tidy atmosphere you'd expect from a Korean restaurant. There's a private room too, so it works well for family gatherings. If you're not looking for anything too fancy, it could even work for a meeting-the-in-laws type occasion!

Older folks tend to love Korean food, so it's also a good fit for a parent's birthday. The clean atmosphere makes it a satisfying choice for gatherings or anniversaries near Balsan Station. They also offer a free beef jeon for birthday guests, so if you set the coupon when booking, you can enjoy the beef jeon on top of everything else.

Individually wrapped utensils and a bottle of water per person

At some point I started noticing how unclean the loose spoons and chopsticks look, jumbled together in a communal utensil box — but at Mikodam near Balsan Station, they're individually packaged. Open utensil boxes always have chopsticks pointing every which way, people pulling out a bunch and putting back the ones that don't match — it's pretty unsanitary. Mikodam packages each set individually, and I really appreciated that.

Small details like this really raise my satisfaction. And the water wasn't from a shared pitcher either — individual bottled water! So nice.

Mikodam's menu board and the price of the set for three

➡️ The menu board at Mikodam, a well-known spot near Balsan Station

Menu board Hansang Gadeuk 2-person set ₩46,000 Hansang Gadeuk 3-person set ₩62,000 Mansok Gadeuk 4-person set ₩92,000

There were three of us, so we ordered 🔖 the Hansang Gadeuk 3-person set for ₩62,000!

What comes with the Hansang Gadeuk set for three

The 3-person set, all set up. Since they set it all out at once when you order, expect a bit of a wait. A nicely browned grilled fish, rich pork stir-fry, moist and well-seasoned japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), plus three-color namul (seasoned vegetables) and a fresh kimchi salad. Genuinely great Korean food, all gathered in one spread 👍🏻 The menu lineup is insane!

Grilled mackerel

Grilled fish is hard to make at home because of the smell. Here, a fish this big comes out perfectly browned.

Jeyuk bokkeum (spicy stir-fried pork)

The pork here is so good... Sometimes you get pork stir-fry that's bland or chewy, but this one is good enough to be considered a main dish in its own right — great cut of meat, seasoning that's just right, and the meat is deeply soaked in the sauce. Delicious.

Japchae (stir-fried glass noodles)

I already love japchae, but Mikodam's japchae is rare. First time having japchae this well-seasoned and moist. It's got a slight Chinese-style japchae feel — less like japchae, more like soy-sauce glass noodles. Just delicious. Though it's salty, so you need rice with it.

Chicory salad and three-color namul

Chicory salad and three-color namul (seasoned vegetables). These are hard to make at home, but at this Korean restaurant near Balsan Station, you get to enjoy delicious namul.

Spicy cockle salad

Spicy cockle salad. Lots of vegetables, but also tons of cockles. Kept eating and there was still more, so eventually we left some. Mixed into rice, it was so good.

Flounder seaweed soup

Flounder seaweed soup. Not just regular seaweed soup — seaweed soup with flounder. The flounder was simmered long enough to be tender, and the broth was rich, as if it had been simmering for days.

Rich, delicious seaweed soup. The flounder was really plump, and there was no shortage of clam meat either.

Soy-marinated cockles with steamed rice

The dish everyone liked most: soy-marinated cockle salad. Loaded with cockles, with spicy peppers mixed in for just the right kick! Umami on another level.

All this delicious food absolutely has to be eaten with hot rice... freshly-cooked, fluffy rice 👍🏻 Rice is the foundation of a proper Korean set meal, and Mikodam's rice is genuinely sweet.

Choosing the main: beef jeon or soy-marinated crab

Main dish: beef jeon (pan-fried beef). The surprising thing is the main course hadn't even come out yet at this point. You get to choose between beef jeon and soy-marinated crab, and we chose beef jeon. Fresh off the pan, savory and delicious.

The review-event egg roll and how side dish refills work

Couldn't skip the review event. A Korean meal isn't complete without egg roll. Ate it happily with the rice.

The surprising part... every side is refillable except grilled mackerel and beef jeon. It's hard to imagine there'd be anything left over at this Korean restaurant near Balsan Station. Just note that all the sides are seasoned pretty strongly.

Dessert: puffed corn, sikhye and plum tea

Even the dessert was perfect 🤍 The roasted corn (gangnengi) was warm, which made it even better, and sikhye (sweet rice punch) and maesil (plum extract drink) were there to enjoy to taste. Mikodam, a Korean restaurant near Balsan Station, is one I'd recommend for a family gathering.