Same-day butchered mungtigi and beef gopchang, Midang Hanwoo Gopchang

As summer ended and fall rolled in, I started craving seasonal food like raw fish or raw shrimp, so more people have been heading toward Songpa or Jamsil. I heard Gareak Market gets so crowded there's usually a wait, so I looked around the Garak-dong food alley nearby instead. That's how I ended up at Midang Hanwoo Gopchang, a hanwoo (Korean beef) gopchang restaurant run directly by a Nonghyup livestock wholesaler. Here's my honest review of the same-day butchered mungtigi, grilled gopchang, and jjangkalguksu (noodle soup) I tried.

Location, parking, and corkage at Midang Hanwoo Gopchang

Midang Hanwoo Gopchang is within a 5-minute walk from Exits 3 and 4 of Garak Market Station, so it was easy to reach on foot even from inside Gareak Market. Parking is available at the Garak Building outdoor lot, and if that's full, the basement lot at Seongwon Sangttevil commercial building offers parking support.

There are plenty of famous gopchang restaurants around Songpa and Jamsil, so it's hard to decide where to go. This place is run directly by a Nonghyup livestock wholesaler who personally selects the hanwoo beef. Knowing they check the condition of the raw meat themselves every day gave me some confidence.

Corkage is just ₩20,000 with no limit on the number of bottles, so it seemed like a good spot to bring your own good liquor for a group gathering or company dinner.

The exterior, interior atmosphere, and how many people fit in the group seating?

The restaurant sits near Songpa Seongwon Sangttevil and the KT Garak branch, right next to the Garakbon-dong post office and in the middle of the Gareak Market food alley, so it wasn't hard to find. It's also close to the Munjeong-dong legal district and the Garak Mall agricultural and fisheries market, so it seemed like a good spot for office worker dinners or gatherings.

Inside, tables can be pushed together for group use, accommodating 20 or more people, so group gatherings and private bookings are possible.

Since this kind of food uses a lot of oil, some places end up with slippery floors, but here both the tables and floor were kept impressively clean.

There was also a lucky draw event, with the top prize being a ₩50,000 voucher, so it might be worth trying.

Menu lineup — lunch dishes and evening grilled cuts

Lunch service is also available, so it seemed like a good option for nearby office workers. The lunch menu ranged from hanwoo yukhoe bibimbap to sundubu, galbitang, and hot pot, with a variety of dishes priced in the ₩10,000s — good value.

In the evening, the main draws were the grilled gopchang sets, hanwoo gopchang hot pot, same-day butchered mungtigi, and hanwoo yukhoe (raw beef). For grilling, you could order gopchang along with teukyang, makchang, daechang, honeycomb tripe, heart, and hanwoo chadolbagi separately, which made it fun to sample different cuts.

Since we visited on a weekday, they also served cheonyeop (beef stomach lining), and when we ordered the mungtigi, it came with dipping sauce and gamtae (dried seaweed).

Same-day butchered mungtigi 120g for ₩36,000, paired with gamtae

Same-day butchered mungtigi, 120g for ₩36,000. Since mungtigi is sold in limited quantities, I asked if it was still available and was relieved when they said yes, so I ordered it right away.

First I tried it with just a bit of wasabi on top, and maybe because it was butchered that day at 4pm, it had a wonderfully chewy texture. Even compared to the mungtigi I've had in Daegu, this one had a much springier, more delicious bite.

And then there was the unusual pairing — gamtae! I tried wrapping a bit of mungtigi with sauce inside the gamtae, and the combination worked better than I expected. They refill the gamtae if you run low, so it's worth trying at least once.

Gopchang for two, ₩50,000, grilled tableside by staff

Gopchang for two, ₩50,000. The moment it arrived, the raw meat itself looked fresh. At a lot of gopchang restaurants, they sprinkle a so-called 'magic powder' on the gopchang itself to boost flavor, but here they only sprinkled it on the sides like rice cake or onion, not on the gopchang itself.

It came with a secret sauce to dip, along with chive salad and green onion kimchi.

Beef gopchang is all about the doneness — overcook it and it gets tough, undercook it and the smell lingers, so timing matters. Here, the staff grilled it themselves, so I didn't have to worry about any of that. They cooked it to just the right point, so all I had to do was wait and eat, no need to fuss over the grill myself.

I dipped the gopchang generously into the special sauce they gave us, and whatever was in that sauce completely cut through the usual richness of gopchang.

One bite in, I was already craving soju, so I poured myself a glass right away.

They also grilled minari (water dropwort) alongside, and topping the gopchang with it made for a lovely combination of fragrance and nuttiness.

That special sauce especially was a flavor I hadn't tasted at any other gopchang restaurant, so I kept dipping generously every time, and ended up finishing it off and asking for a refill.

With good ingredients plus skillful tableside grilling, I got to eat my fill of gopchang packed with fat and full of nutty flavor.

Honeycomb tripe and spicy jjangkalguksu, ₩9,000

Honeycomb tripe is the cow's second stomach, located just below the teukyang cut. Grilled until almost fried, it was nutty and had a great texture.

Spicy jjangkalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup), ₩9,000. We finished the meal with this noodle soup. The broth was moderately spicy, so even us spice wimps could handle it, and it made for a good spicy hangover cure or soju pairing.

Wrap-up — who should visit

I visited Midang Hanwoo Gopchang while looking for gopchang near Gareak Market, and right from the start, knowing the hanwoo beef is personally selected by a Nonghyup livestock wholesaler gave me confidence in the raw ingredients. The gopchang was packed with fat and full of nutty flavor, and pairing it with chives, minari, and the special sauce made it feel less greasy overall. If you're looking for hanwoo gopchang in the Gareak Market food alley, or a spot for a company dinner or group gathering near the Munjeong-dong legal district, Midang Hanwoo Gopchang is worth a visit.