Gangnam Station dakgalbi cooked by staff, no gochujang: Dakgalbijeon

When it's lunch or dinner time near Gangnam Station, there are so many options that it can actually be hard to decide where to go. This time I visited Dakgalbijeon, a Gangnam Station dakgalbi restaurant that works just as well for a filling meal as it does for a get-together with friends or a date.

Where is Dakgalbijeon Gangnam Branch, and what are its hours?

Dakgalbijeon Gangnam Branch is on the 2nd floor of Gangnam Diobill, 54 Seocho-daero 73-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul, open daily from 11:00 to 22:00. Paid parking is available, along with a disabled parking spot and group seating.

Dakgalbijeon is close to Gangnam Station, so it's convenient as a meeting spot too. If you're an office worker on a lunch break, distance matters a lot, and this is a good pick for anyone looking for a place to eat around Gangnam Station.

If you're driving, they offer 1 hour of free parking, which is handy for anyone coming by car. Looking at the menu, it's mostly centered on dakgalbi and potato pancake, and gamssadak is the restaurant's famous set — haha. It's dakgalbi wrapped in potato pancake, and when you add something delicious to something else delicious, how could it not be good! 👍 Total genius idea 🐥

• Dakgalbijeon is great for office workers looking for a Gangnam Station lunch spot during the day, and it also works well as a dinner gathering place where people eat and drink together
• The restaurant is spacious and clean, so it's comfortable for family meals or friend gatherings, and the window seats keep the atmosphere from feeling cramped

Inside Dakgalbijeon: window seats and atmosphere

The interior of Dakgalbijeon Gangnam Branch is spacious and pleasant, so the tables didn't feel cramped, and there's space for larger groups too, which would work well for a company dinner or a gathering of friends.

There's a self-bar set up too, where you can help yourself to pickled radish and radish if you need them.

I especially liked the open, floor-to-ceiling window seats, which let you eat without feeling boxed in even in the middle of Gangnam.

The tables are spaced well and there are plenty of them, so the atmosphere works well as a lunch spot for office workers and as a dinner spot for friend gatherings or dates.

That spatula is mine!!! Hahahaha 😂

How spicy is the chicken thigh cheese dakgalbi?

One of the biggest features of Dakgalbijeon is that they only use chicken thigh. Many people prefer the softer thigh meat to the drier breast meat when eating dakgalbi, and here the thigh meat keeps that moist, tender texture front and center.

Another thing that sets it apart from typical dakgalbi is the special sauce — it's aged without gochujang, using their own secret recipe, which apparently gives a clean, deep flavor rather than a heavy one.

With dakgalbi, if the sauce is too heavy or intense it can get tiring after a while, but with this kind of special sauce, you can enjoy the chicken's flavor together with the sauce's flavor 👍

It's also a plus that people who find very spicy dakgalbi overwhelming can eat this more comfortably — haha. It's mild enough that even my foreign husband enjoyed it just fine.

Staff cook the dakgalbi at your table

The cheese dakgalbi comes with pure mozzarella cheese piled generously on top, so it looked appetizing just from the visuals — and I especially liked that staff cook it for you 👍

With dakgalbi you usually have to watch the heat and cook time, and it can easily overcook while you're chatting with friends, but since the staff cook it for you, you can wait comfortably and eat it at its best. They brought it out already cooked, so the whole meal felt really easy 👍👍

You can also add a side, and we ordered the cheese rice cake side. There's also udon noodles, ramen noodles, and other options, so you can pick according to your taste.

Picking up the well-cooked chicken thigh together with the melted mozzarella cheese added a nutty, soft flavor! The chicken keeps its moist texture and the sauce is cleanly spicy-sweet, which paired well with the cheese too.

It went especially well with the tangy-sweet pickled radish, and since the cheese softens the spicy edge of the dakgalbi, the balance of spice and savory flavor was pretty good. Last up — fried rice!

Finishing with cheese fried rice at Dakgalbijeon

After dakgalbi, you can't skip the fried rice. We finished with cheese fried rice 🤍 Cooking the rice in the pan with the leftover sauce let the rice naturally soak up that deep dakgalbi flavor.

• Leave a little dakgalbi before ordering the fried rice

Adding cheese on top made the nutty, soft flavor even stronger. Since the fried rice uses the leftover sauce after eating some of the dakgalbi, it finished the meal with a totally different feel from what came before!

Personally, I feel like a dakgalbi meal isn't complete without the fried rice at the end, and going from cheese dakgalbi straight into cheese fried rice made for a really filling finish.

The sauce itself is already tasty, so frying rice in it makes it even better, and the melted cheese stretched out in long strings, which was fun to eat too.

Is Dakgalbijeon Gangnam Branch worth a visit?

Here's a summary of Dakgalbijeon Gangnam Branch, the Gangnam Station dakgalbi restaurant I visited this time.

• Soft chicken thigh meat, clean special sauce, and the comfortable service of staff cooking it for you
• Cheese dakgalbi piles moist chicken thigh with plenty of mozzarella for a nutty, soft bite, and the cheese fried rice made the meal really filling
• A spacious spot good for office workers on lunch break near Gangnam Station, and equally good for dinner gatherings, company dinners, family meals, or dates
• Since the staff already finish cooking everything deliciously, you can just focus on eating

If you're searching for a Gangnam Station restaurant, a Gangnam Station place to eat, or a Gangnam Station lunch spot and want something filling, I'd recommend giving Dakgalbijeon a try.