Danyang Korean restaurant with blue crab stew: Danyang Heukmaneul Ssambap

While planning my Danyang trip, I wanted a neat Korean set-meal lunch and found this garlic ssambap (rice and wrap set) restaurant, said to be good value and popular with locals, so I went! It was my number-one spot in Danyang! The set meal was so good, from the boiled pork and spicy pork to the varied wrap greens and tidy side dishes.

Danyang Heukmaneul Ssambap parking and waiting

For parking, just use a public parking lot. The free riverside lot is a five-minute walk away, while the free public lot at Danyang Gugyeong Market is one minute away on foot.

Danyang Heukmaneul Ssambap was popular enough to have a wait. There is a second branch just 100 m away, so if you do not want to wait, head there!

We waited about 10 minutes before going in. It was full, so I could not take interior photos ㅠ_ㅠ They give you Sobaeksan makgeolli (Korean rice wine) for writing a review, and lots of people seemed to be joining in. Boiled pork and makgeolli are hard to resist... We had a car, so we held back.

The cutlery was individually wrapped, too. Usually lots of people's hands touch shared cutlery, so seeing it packaged like this made me feel reassured about hygiene.

Black garlic ssambap menu and our boiled-pork order

• Black garlic spicy squid ssambap ₩17,000: thick soybean paste, black garlic rice, doenjang-jjigae (soybean paste stew), and black garlic spicy squid
• Black garlic spicy pork ssambap ₩17,000: thick soybean paste, black garlic rice, black garlic spicy pork, and doenjang-jjigae
• Black garlic boiled-pork ssambap ₩19,000: thick soybean paste, black garlic rice, doenjang-jjigae, and black garlic boiled pork

They say they make all the black garlic used in their ingredients themselves {{{(>_<)}}}.

The Korean set meal was laid out in no time. We ordered two servings of the boiled-pork ssambap.

There were eight side dishes! They said they did not season them heavily with health in mind, but they were not bland at all—just perfectly delicious. It felt like having a proper home-cooked Korean set meal.

Black garlic sauce boiled pork and black garlic rice

The boiled pork comes topped with black garlic sauce, along with doenjang-jjigae and assorted wrap greens.

They keep the black garlic warm in a rice cooker for 15 days, then dry it for several days to make it chewy. Seriously, this garlic sauce was the total game changer..!

The boiled pork itself was cooked incredibly tender, so I enjoyed it so much. I even debated whether to order more.

The rice at Danyang Heukmaneul Ssambap is not ordinary either. They say they do not discard the extract released as the garlic turns black, but add it when cooking the rice to make black garlic rice.

Having the tender boiled pork with kimchi piled right on top, alongside black garlic rice.

Special wrap greens and thick soybean paste

Wrap greens with thick soybean paste.

Rather than perilla leaves or lettuce, I love special wrap greens like these that I do not normally eat.

I diligently wrapped up and ate all those healthy greens, too.

The doenjang-jjigae had a refreshing flavor from the blue crab. This boiled-pork ssambap set was delicious from the pork, rice, and stew to every side dish! I came away feeling like I had eaten a truly proper meal. The menu seems like something everyone, young and old, would enjoy, so I would recommend it for lunch in Danyang for anyone on a family trip :-)