Gyeongsan Korean set meal, spice levels & croquettes: Bapeul Jitda

Some days you just want warm rice with neatly made side dishes. This time I visited Bapeul Jitda Gyeongsan Main Branch (밥을짓다 경산본점). The set runs from the dishes served alongside to the final rice course, so it was a meal I could enjoy slowly.

Parking and atmosphere at Bapeul Jitda Gyeongsan

Bapeul Jitda Gyeongsan Main Branch is on Samseonghyeon-ro in Gyeongsan, and there is parking, so it was easy to come by car. The entrance already makes you look forward to a warm meal, so I took a look around and snapped the outside before going in.

Inside, the mood was calm. The warm-toned furniture goes naturally with Korean food.

Individual plates and spoons and chopsticks were neatly set on the table.

Autumn single set vs winter single set: what's different?

At Bapeul Jitda Gyeongsan Main Branch, the autumn and winter single sets differ only in the final meal. The autumn set comes with fresh abalone porridge, and the winter set with hijiki (tot, a seaweed) stone pot bibimbap.

You order on a screen at the table. Photos and descriptions of the menu appear together, so comparing the sets was easy.

The autumn and winter sets we chose included Caesar salad, sous vide cold pork, gogsiraegi (a crunchy seaweed) with gim (seasoned seaweed), fried eggplant, grilled deodeok (bellflower root), beef brisket mushroom hot pot, steamed fresh abalone and more. I couldn't decide between porridge and bibimbap, but ordering two different sets let us taste both.

You can choose mild, medium or spicy. I liked that you can pick to suit your taste.

The table fills up with a wide variety of dishes.

Caesar salad, sous vide cold pork and gogsiraegi with gim

The set at Bapeul Jitda Gyeongsan Main Branch started lightly with Caesar salad. Egg came with the greens, a fresh bite between the Korean dishes.

The sous vide cold pork came thinly sliced. Eaten with the accompaniments, it was a different combination from eating the meat alone.

Gogsiraegi with gim was a welcome pairing on the table. Put the gogsiraegi on the gim with a little sauce and you get the scent of the sea and a crunchy texture.

Fried eggplant and steamed fresh abalone

The fried eggplant came with sauce. The crisp coating and soft eggplant inside made for a fun texture.

The steamed fresh abalone was sliced into bite-size pieces. It looked neat laid out on the plate, and it was nice to slowly enjoy the abalone's characteristic chewiness.

Beef brisket mushroom hot pot, eaten warm

The beef brisket mushroom hot pot at Bapeul Jitda Gyeongsan Main Branch caught my eye because you boil it at the table. It came generously filled with meat, mushrooms and vegetables.

Once the broth starts boiling, just fish out the meat and vegetables together.

Thin slices of beef brisket with mushrooms were good bite by bite. I also liked having warm broth to go with the other dishes.

With neatly plated dishes and a bubbling hot pot together, the table felt even richer.

Abalone porridge vs hijiki stone pot bibimbap: the final meal

The autumn set ended with fresh abalone porridge. Sesame seeds on top promised a nutty flavor. The soft porridge went down easily even after all the earlier dishes.

The winter set is hijiki stone pot bibimbap. Hijiki, green vegetables and yellow garnish on top looked appetizing from the colors alone. Mixing everything together had a different charm from the porridge. The hijiki adds a chewy texture, and it arrives in a hot stone pot, so it was filling.

Grilled deodeok and doenjang jjigae

Grilled deodeok was part of the set too, so we could enjoy meat, seafood and vegetable dishes in balance.

The doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) that came with it had tofu and vegetables. Spooning the broth between bites of bibimbap felt like a proper Korean meal.

A set with potato croquettes on top

At Bapeul Jitda Gyeongsan Main Branch, two round potato croquettes came with sauce. Crisp outside and soft inside, they were nice to have in the middle of the meal. With croquettes added to an already generous set, it was even more filling.

Bapeul Jitda Gyeongsan Main Branch let us taste many dishes slowly and enjoy the final rice course too. Keep it in mind for a day in Gyeongsan when you want a relaxed meal with a neatly served set.