No break time near Gyodae Station: 280g bossam at Daseon Kalguksu

Daseon Kalguksu near Gyodae Station: no break time, parking on site

Daseon Kalguksu's Gyodae branch is a '25-year tradition hangover kalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup)' restaurant within 3 minutes on foot from Exit 14 of Gyodae Station. The address is 69 Banpo-daero26-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 1st and 2nd floor, and parking is available.

Today I've got a review of Daseon Kalguksu's Gyodae branch, which I visited when I was craving hot broth kalguksu near Gyodae Station! 💕💕🤭

And personally, what I liked was that there's no break time! You know how when you're out traveling or your schedule ends at an awkward hour, you always miss lunchtime 😭 Daseon Kalguksu operates without a break time, so it was great being able to drop in comfortably even at odd hours like a late lunch or an early dinner!

From the outside, the phrase '25-year tradition hangover kalguksu' immediately catches your eye.

Best of all, there aren't many places with parking near Gyodae Station, but this place has it — score!! I drove there myself, and having parking available was such a relief!

What are the interior and seating like at Daseon Kalguksu?

Inside Daseon Kalguksu's Gyodae branch, there's plenty of seating across the 1st and 2nd floors, and the tables are big enough to comfortably fit kalguksu, bossam, and side dishes all at once. It kept the cozy vibe you'd expect from a long-running local favorite, while the interior itself was kept cleaner than I expected.

With wood-tone tables and chairs, the whole place felt comfortable, and there was plenty of seating toward the back too 😊 I really hate it when tables are too small when I'm eating…😂 When you order several dishes, there's nowhere to put the bowls and it turns into a game of Tetris, so annoying ㅠㅠ

On one wall there were traces of an appearance on SBS Live Today, which gave off a strong sense of being a long-loved local spot ✨ The tables aren't packed too tightly together either, so it seemed like a good fit for solo lunch as well as a group dinner over kalguksu, bossam, and drinks! 🍜🥩🍻

Daseon Kalguksu menu and prices

• Makgeolli set - ₩68,000
• Soju set - ₩73,000
• Plate bossam - ₩15,000
• Dasan spicy octopus kalguksu - ₩30,000
• Bossam kalguksu set - ₩15,000
• Naengmyeon bossam set - ₩14,000
• Black bean noodle (seoritae kongguksu) bossam set - ₩15,000

There was a wide range of menu items available, from kalguksu to bossam to savory pancakes.

What we ordered at Daseon Kalguksu

What we ordered was bossam (medium) 280g for ₩28,000 plus Daseon spicy octopus kalguksu (health-boosting) for two servings for ₩30,000, ₩58,000 total!

Side dishes and unlimited barley rice

The basic side dishes at Daseon Kalguksu came out as a lineup that paired well with kalguksu and bossam — things like kimchi and radish salad — and the barley rice was free to help yourself to as much as you liked. Especially for a kalguksu place, the kimchi really has to be good, right! Slurping a bite of kalguksu and pairing it with spicy kimchi made for a perfect combo 🌶️🍜

And what my husband ended up liking the most (surprisingly?) was the complimentary barley rice! 😂 He mixed the barley rice with radish salad and seasoning sauce and ate it up, saying it was so, so good ㅋㅋㅋ He was satisfied with every single side dish, which made me proud too 💛 We cleared a whole bowl of barley rice even before the kalguksu arrived!

Also, one thing I really liked about Daseon Kalguksu was being able to eat barley rice freely! The barley rice was set up separately, so I could take as much as I wanted and mix it up with radish salad and seasoning sauce. It's great as a light bite before the kalguksu arrives, and if you feel like kalguksu alone won't quite fill you up, adding barley rice on top is a good move!!

Suyuk bossam (medium) 280g: enough for two?

The medium bossam at 280g, paired with the spicy octopus kalguksu, was a pretty generous amount for two people. The pork came out on a steaming tray piled with plenty of chives, so it was served warm, and with barley rice on top, we really came away stuffed ㅋㅋ>< All the fat seemed to have been drained out, so it genuinely felt healthy!?

Delicious eaten with chives too, honestly amazing.

It was good whether dipped in the sauce or eaten plain! The meat had a good balance of fat and lean, so it wasn't dry — nice and tender. It was clean-tasting even plain, but piling on a generous amount of the chives underneath made it even better. Adding the basic seasoned vegetables or kimchi brought in a slight spicy kick that kept me reaching for more. Personally, having bossam with the side dishes before the kalguksu arrives is such a great combo!!

Daseon spicy octopus kalguksu for two: broth and noodles

Daseon's spicy octopus kalguksu (health-boosting) for two servings was ₩30,000, and it came as one enormous bowl with a whole octopus in it. Daseon Kalguksu makes its broth from 8 kinds of ingredients — anchovies, seafood, and vegetables — so the broth was definitely delicious!

In particular, the spicy octopus kalguksu wasn't just a regular kalguksu — it was a hearty, health-boosting dish loaded with octopus. A whole octopus sat in the huge bowl along with the kalguksu noodles, so it looked substantial from the get-go. We cut the octopus into bite-sized pieces with scissors, and the texture was chewy and springy rather than tough, and the clams in it made the broth wonderfully refreshing too. The octopus and clams were fresh, so it was genuinely delicious.

The noodles were on the thicker, wider side rather than the typical thin kalguksu noodle style! The broth soaked into the noodles just enough, while the noodles themselves stayed springy and chewy, so the texture was great. Grab a bite of seafood, slurp up some noodles, take a sip of broth — and honestly the bowl disappears in no time ㅋㅋㅋ

The octopus in particular came in whole, large pieces, so we cut it up with scissors for easier eating. With the octopus in there, the broth had a wonderfully refreshing quality too. Just as the name suggests, it's exactly the kind of spicy, refreshing hangover-soup style you'd crave the day after drinking. That said, it wasn't just aggressively spicy — it kept me coming back for spoonful after spoonful.

We polished it off in no time like this.

Tofu crackers and hwanggi (astragalus) taffy were also for sale, so we could buy some too!

Is Daseon Kalguksu worth a visit in Seocho?

Overall, this was a great spot to have a properly filling meal, from the bossam to the seafood-loaded kalguksu to the unlimited barley rice! Especially with that spicy yet refreshing broth that keeps coming to mind, it seems like a perfect place to visit for hangover relief the morning after drinking too 🍜✨

The bossam was delicious, but the basic side dishes and barley rice were so good too that my husband was extremely satisfied! If you're near Gyodae Station craving something hot and brothy, or looking for a hearty, filling meal, I'd recommend giving Daseon Kalguksu's Gyodae branch a visit 😊