Korean beef hangover stew and soju near Pangyo Station: Useum Pangyo

Quick summary ✔️ 2 minutes on foot from Pangyo Station ✔️ Korean beef hangover stew ₩41,000 (recommended) ✔️ Lunch: gomtang (beef bone soup) or yukhoe bibimbap (raw beef mixed rice) ✔️ Dinner: hot pot, boiled beef, and a shot of soju!

Drinks with a friend near Pangyo Station — why Useum?

✔️ From Pangyo work dinners to Pangyo bars to lunch or dinner near Pangyo Station!

My friend said she was coming to Pangyo, so we decided to meet up and have a light drink together for the first time in a while. While searching around Pangyo Station, I found a place with good transit access and a nice vibe, so I booked a table at Useum Pangyo Branch and went.

It's gotten pretty chilly in the evenings lately, so I wanted something with warm broth, but not too heavy a dish either. That's how I landed on the Korean beef hangover stew — broth, meat, and vegetables all in one.

Turns out Useum is actually a chain, and they have a branch in Pangyo too. Being right near Pangyo Station made it really convenient, whether for meeting a friend or scouting a spot for a work dinner.

Location, hours, and is a reservation a must?

📍 31 Daewangpangyo-ro 606beon-gil, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, 1F Useum Pangyo Branch ✔️ Hours 11:00–23:00 ✔️ Weekends 10:00–22:00

✔️ About 2 minutes on foot from Pangyo Station ✔️ Group reservations available ✔️ Private rooms available

Evenings tend to get busy with reservation customers, so booking ahead is recommended. I reserved in advance too, and I noticed that for group bookings, they'll push tables together to set up something like a proper dinner party. Being so close to Pangyo Station was also a plus for meeting up by public transit.

Hanok-style exterior and the interior atmosphere

The exterior overall gives off a clean hanok (traditional Korean house) feel. With the ivory tones and wood accents, it almost felt a bit like a Japanese restaurant too. The whole place has a tidy, calm atmosphere, feeling a touch more refined — fitting for a spot that serves Korean beef.

They also run a Catch Table reservation system, likely because evenings get busy with booked guests. If you're planning to visit, it feels safer to reserve ahead of time!

By the way, the name 'Useum' was interesting too — it's a beef restaurant, but I heard they named it 'Useum' because they wanted to give customers a smile (in Korean, '웃음' sounds like 'useum' and means 'laughter'). Knowing the meaning behind the name made it feel kind of cute haha.

Inside there were several 4-person tables, and overall the spacing between tables felt fine.

We had a reservation, but looking at the other tables, this place seemed like it could work well for anyone searching for a Pangyo work dinner spot too. Plus, since they have private rooms, if you want something more private for a gathering or dinner, it's worth asking about when you book.

There was also a terrace area off to one side, which seems great when the weather's hot — when I visited, there was a tent set up over it. I imagine the vibe changes quite a bit depending on the season!?

The menu: from lunch dishes to dinner drinking food

Useum isn't just a place you'd use as a bar at night — there are plenty of solid options for a lunch meal too.

There's Korean beef gomtang (bone broth soup), eobokjaengban (a beef platter dish), beef sujuk (boiled beef) — plus yukhoe bibimbap and a variety of side dishes, so it looked like a good spot to come for a meal at lunchtime too.

And apparently they have handmade nurungji (scorched rice) ice cream for dessert — I'll have to try that next time. Scorched rice plus ice cream sounds like it could be really good, so now I'm curious.

What we ordered was the Korean beef hangover stew for ₩41,000 and Jinro soju for ₩6,000. We also added a vegetable platter for ₩6,000 and sujebi (hand-torn dough noodles) for ₩2,000.

Best banchan of the bunch: the vinegar-dressed mix

Once you sit down, they set out the side dishes first — cubed radish kimchi and napa cabbage kimchi, which go well with soup or hot pot, but my favorite by far was the vinegar-dressed mix (chomuchim)!

It's Korean beef cartilage-type cuts tossed with vegetables and sweet vinegar-chili sauce — tangy and chewy, exactly the kind of thing that goes perfectly with drinks. It was so good I asked for a refill, though the second round had a bit less of the soft meat part, which was a little disappointing. Still, that first bite was genuinely delicious and I kept reaching for it.

Korean beef hangover stew, ₩41,000 — the red seasoning is the whole point

Korean beef hangover stew, ₩41,000. Finally, here it is!! Right off the bat, the pot was packed full — the portion looked pretty generous.

The whole point of this stew is the red seasoning. For an extra ₩1,000 on top of the base stew, you can add this spicy seasoning and turn it into a proper hangover stew. So you can add it from the start, or stick with the regular hot pot for a while and toss it in later when you think, 'okay, time to cure this hangover...' haha.

To add the seasoning, you scoop up some of the broth from the bottom and pour it little by little onto the seasoning and vegetables. There's a lot of broth in there though, so be careful when you're scooping at first, haha.

Inside there's enoki mushroom, oyster mushroom, king oyster mushroom, minari (water dropwort), napa cabbage, and various other vegetables, with the Korean beef laid out wide on top.

At first the portion looked so huge I thought, 'can the two of us actually finish this?' But then I realized it's mostly meat and vegetables, so it kind of felt like eating something healthy haha. If you're dieting but still want to meet a friend for food and drinks, this kind of dish might work well. Of course, once soju enters the picture, calling it diet-friendly health food feels a little like a stretch haha. And at first, since the seasoning hadn't fully dissolved yet, I was thinking, 'wait, why is this called a hangover stew?'...

That's how it looked at first, and here's how it turned out!! haha. Once the red seasoning is fully mixed into the broth and the vegetables and meat are cooked through, the whole look changes completely.

The broth itself is already tasty, and once the spicy seasoning is added in, it's definitely the kind of flavor that goes great with drinks. It's not just aggressively spicy — you can still taste the meat and vegetables coming through, so I kept spooning up more broth.

Adding the vegetable platter and the perilla powder combo

As we kept eating, I felt like something was missing, so we added the vegetable platter for ₩6,000. It comes with bean sprouts, scallions, and alba (young napa) cabbage, which you toss into the hot pot to cook together. Even though there was already a lot in there to start, the broth was so good that adding more vegetables just kept us eating.

On one side of the table there's an array of different seasonings set out. My favorite combo to recommend here is the perilla powder! Scoop a bit of perilla powder onto your small plate, add a little of the hot pot broth, and it instantly tastes like a perilla hangover soup. But... don't worry, eating this won't actually cure your hangover from the soju you're drinking alongside it (haha).

A bottle of Jinro, the perfect toast to go with it

And no hangover stew is complete without soju. Jinro, ₩6,000.

Toasting with a friend, one glass turns into two, and love overflows along with the glasses... haha. Naturally, that meant we started craving some carbs.

Ending on ₩2,000 worth of happiness: the sujebi noodles

Sujebi, ₩2,000. I went back and forth between noodles and sujebi, and ended up going with sujebi — such a good call. Truly, ₩2,000 worth of happiness.

After eating up most of the vegetables, we pushed the remaining bits to one side and dumped the sujebi in all at once. Then, while chatting with my friend, the dough pieces cooked through in the broth and turned soft and chewy.

With the spicy broth and the chewy sujebi, I enjoyed it all the way to the last bite. The two of us ate way more than expected and ended up genuinely full. The stew portion alone was already big, and adding the extra vegetables and sujebi on top left us completely stuffed. We ended up so full that we took a little walk outside before wrapping up the night on a good note haha.

Useum: great for lunch or an evening drinking session near Pangyo Station

This time I visited in the evening with a friend for the Korean beef hangover stew and drinks, and it was more satisfying than expected — generous portions and delicious broth. Especially as the weather gets colder, if you're craving warm broth with a solid amount of meat and vegetables, this is a solid choice.

In the evening, it's a good spot for drinks alongside dishes like boiled Korean beef, eobokjaengban, or the hangover stew, while at lunch you can get proper meal dishes like Korean beef gomtang or yukhoe bibimbap — overall a pretty versatile place.

• Looking for a Pangyo work dinner spot: recommended thanks to the private rooms, group seating, and reservation option
• Looking for a Pangyo bar: good for drinks too, with Korean beef dishes and broth to go with your soju
• Looking for lunch near Pangyo Station: solid for a lunchtime visit thanks to meal options like gomtang and yukhoe bibimbap

Above all, being close to Pangyo Station makes it convenient for meeting friends, and it seems like an easy pick for office workers looking for a dinner or gathering spot too. Next time I want to come for lunch and try the Korean beef gomtang or yukhoe bibimbap. And I'm curious about that handmade nurungji ice cream — definitely trying it on my next visit haha.