COEX Korean restaurant for group dinners of 50+: Yangeunine

Finding a lunch spot near COEX in Samseong-dong can be tricky — it's a neighborhood full of office workers, so there's no shortage of restaurants, but ones with decent prices are surprisingly hard to come by. This time I visited Yangeunine Samseong Station Branch, close to COEX and buzzing in the evening with people out for group dinners. Here's my honest review of the spicy pollack stew, squid bossam, water naengmyeon, and a soju or two along the way.

Yangeunine Samseong Station Branch: location, parking, corkage

Yangeunine Samseong Station Branch sits behind COEX, between Samseong Station and Bongeunsa Station. It's an easy walk from the subway, so it was convenient to leave the car at home and come for a drink.

Yangeunine Samseong Station Branch also allows corkage with no limit on the number of bottles, so if you've got your own drinks ready, that's worth keeping in mind.

There's no dedicated lot for the restaurant, so if you're driving, the nearby T map parking lot works fine.

Inside Yangeunine Samseong Station Branch: group dinner seating

Even on a weekend evening, Yangeunine Samseong Station Branch was quite busy with people eating or having a drink. The streets of Samseong-dong were relatively quiet that weekend, but inside was a different story.

With pollack stew and bossam both great to pair with drinks, it seemed like a lot of people were coming for dinner doubling as a drinking session.

Inside, there's a mix of 4-top and 6-top tables. The hall as a whole can seat around 70 people, so it looked like a good spot for group dinners with several people.

Rooms and full-venue booking for 50 or more

Separate from the hall, Yangeunine Samseong Station Branch also has rooms with four 4-top tables put together. Full-venue booking is available for 50 or more people, so if you're planning a group dinner, it's worth asking about.

What's at the self-serve bar?

On one side of Yangeunine Samseong Station Branch, there's a separate self-serve bar where you can help yourself to more side dishes if you run out.

You could also grab more of the bean sprouts and seasoned radish that come as basic sides. Mixing rice with radish, bean sprouts, and sesame oil would go really well together too.

The self-serve bar also had rice and warm siraegi doenjang soup (dried radish green soybean paste soup). From 11am to 3pm during lunch hours, you can take as much rice as you want. The siraegi doenjang soup is available any time, and it paired well with the main dishes.

At the entrance, there was floss and candy to use before or after your meal — a nice simple way to freshen up on your way out.

The ₩48,000 Yangeunine Set as drinking food

The Yangeunine Set is a ₩48,000 combo letting you have both signature dishes — pollack stew and squid bossam — together. If it's hard to choose just one, ordering the Yangeunine Set covers both a meal and drinking snacks at once, which I liked.

You order at Yangeunine Samseong Station Branch using the tablet installed at each table. You can choose your preferred flavor for the pollack stew and naengmyeon, and if there are more people, you can add extras like pollack roe and milt or more bossam to the set to make it heartier.

After ordering, bean sprouts and seasoned radish came out as basic side dishes. Not too strong in flavor and clean-tasting, they were good to have alongside the main dishes.

I also brought over a bowl of siraegi doenjang soup from the self-serve bar. Being able to eat it warm made it a nice light bite before the main dishes arrived.

Boil the pollack stew for 3 minutes, dip the roe and milt in wasabi soy sauce

The pollack stew that came first with the Yangeunine Set needs to boil at the table for about 3 minutes before eating. Once the broth was boiling well, I fished out the tofu and green onion first, then slowly cooked the pollack and roe and milt. If you want more, you can add noodles or hand-torn dough bits or more roe and milt, and you can also ask for more broth.

I dipped the plump, well-cooked roe and milt into the wasabi soy sauce that came with it.

Squid bossam: bossam, squid, and kimchi in one bite

The squid bossam came out right after. Bossam, squid, kimchi, and chives were all piled generously on one plate, so I could try all sorts of combinations.

I piled squid and kimchi on top of the bossam and took a big bite. The soft bossam combined with the chewy texture of the squid, and adding the kimchi made for a really satisfying mouthful.

I also tried the squid on its own, topped generously with chives. Eaten separately from the bossam, I could really feel the squid's chewy texture — a light way to enjoy it too.

With the spicy pollack stew and bossam both on the table, it was impossible not to think about a drink. I had a warm spoonful of soup, a piece of bossam, and ordered soju right away.

Water naengmyeon: ask for it whenever you're ready

The naengmyeon (cold noodles) in the Yangeunine Set doesn't come automatically with the order — you can ask for it whenever you want. We had eaten a good amount of the pollack stew and bossam and asked for the water naengmyeon toward the end of the meal.

I added mustard and vinegar to taste. After the hot, spicy pollack stew, finishing with cool water naengmyeon felt refreshing for the palate.

At Yangeunine Samseong Station Branch, writing a Naver receipt review gets you a free plate of boiled pork slices, so it might be worth taking part.

How's Yangeunine Samseong Station Branch for lunch or a group dinner near COEX?

Yangeunine Samseong Station Branch worked well for everything from lunch to an evening drink near COEX in Samseong-dong. There's a ₩12,000 lunch menu, and in the evening you can have both pollack stew and squid bossam together, making it a good combination for office workers. If you're someone who wants spicy soup with bossam and a drink, Yangeunine Samseong Station Branch is worth a visit.