Sejong hanjeongsik weekday lunch, perilla tteokbokki: Bapkkot Hansang

I had somewhere to be in Sejong and stopped for lunch at a hanjeongsik (Korean set-course) place that turned out to be really good. Here's my review of Bapkkot Hansang, a Sejong restaurant worth knowing about 👍🏻

Bapkkot Hansang is a generous hanjeongsik restaurant that uses fresh ingredients. 📍 91 Doum8-ro, 3rd floor, Unit 303, Sejong, South Korea ⏰ Mon–Sat 11:00–21:00 (break 15:00–17:00) ⏰ Sun 11:00–15:00 🚘 Parking available (basement levels 1–2, up to 3 hours)

Do you need a Naver reservation for weekday lunch at Bapkkot Hansang?

Bapkkot Hansang gets busy enough that reservations fill up even for weekday lunch. I went on a weekday and the place was packed, so I was glad I'd booked ahead through Naver Reservation. One thing to watch out for: even if a time slot shows as open, you might still get a message asking you to change your reservation because it's actually full.

How to find Bapkkot Hansang, and what the dining room is like

Bapkkot Hansang is on the 3rd floor of Sejongmachi, near Sejong Lake Park. You can park in the building's basement levels 1 or 2 and take the elevator up. The building has an interesting square, ring-shaped layout.

Get off the elevator connected to the basement parking lot, turn right, and you'll find Bapkkot Hansang right away.

Inside, the place was buzzing with lunch guests.

The interior turned out to be surprisingly spacious with plenty of tables — no wonder this Sejong restaurant fills up its lunch reservations.

If you're bringing an infant, add them to the headcount when booking through Naver. I'd requested a high chair in advance, and I was grateful they had it all set up for us.

What's on the menu at Bapkkot Hansang

Ordering at this Sejong restaurant is done via tablet. The signature menu is the Bapkkot Teukseon set at ₩25,000, a course served in two rounds.

Besides the Bapkkot Teukseon course, there are also various rice bowl dishes for a lighter meal — good options for a quick lunch.

First course: seaweed konjac japchae and perilla tteokbokki

The owner called this first round jeonche-yori (whole-meal starters), and the dishes started filling the table.

A refreshing green salad with a pineapple-kiwi dressing! The vegetables were fresh and crisp — I liked it.

This one had buckwheat noodles topped with a tangy, creamy perilla sauce — the nutty flavor was excellent.

It looked like japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), but the noodles weren't the usual dangmyeon. The green noodles turned out to be seaweed konjac noodles — probably healthier than dangmyeon, and springier in texture too.

The freshly pan-fried chive pancake came with a soy dipping sauce with garlic scapes visible behind it. Hot and crispy — I enjoyed it.

Tofu kimchi came out too — the first course at this Sejong Lake Park restaurant was really varied. The tofu was delicious enough that I asked for a refill and had more.

Some of these dishes were good enough to be a main course on their own. This tteokbokki (rice cake stir-fry) was made with dried eggplant, dried squash and dried radish, topped generously with perilla powder — really nutty and delicious.

The suyuk (boiled pork slices) was moist with no gamey smell, served with a spicy vegetable relish that paired well with it.

Second course: minari tteokgalbi, gangdoenjang and rice

Just as I was starting to fill up on the first course at this Sejong Lake Park restaurant, the second course arrived.

The main dish of the second course was minari (water parsley) tteokgalbi, served on a hot griddle pan.

Underneath the two big chunks of tteokgalbi were hidden enoki mushrooms. The house-made sauce was sweet but not overpowering, which I liked. The tteokgalbi meat itself was really tender.

The second course is built around a proper meal to have with rice. For soup, we got a clear doenjang (soybean paste) soup.

It was packed generously with large-cut tofu and a variety of vegetables.

The gangdoenjang (thick soybean paste stew) at this Sejong restaurant! It had shiitake mushrooms and potato in it, and wasn't too salty — I liked that. They give you rice in a wide bowl so you can mix it right in with the gangdoenjang.

Several types of namul (seasoned vegetable side dishes) come as banchan too. You can mix these into the bowl with the gangdoenjang like a bibimbap.

I love bibimbap and thought about mixing everything together, but I wanted to taste each of the many namul side dishes at this Sejong restaurant one by one, so I ate them separately instead.

Is Bapkkot Hansang a good place to eat with a child?

Bapkkot Hansang has no spicy dishes, which made it a good Korean restaurant to visit with a child. Overall, the food is gentle on the stomach and made in a healthy, home-style way, so it's the kind of Korean cooking anyone, young or old, can enjoy.