Jonggak pub dinner, no drinks: ₩19,900 mud duck jeonbyeong, Ari Gyegok

I just went to a total legend of a pub today! Ari Gyegok Jonggak is a pub, but we went and only feasted on food haha. Yes, we're the people who go to a pub and only eat 🙋🏻‍♀️ A whole duck for ₩20,000, an absurd price, and the food is so good on top of being cheap that I had to tell you all about it 🥹

Ari Gyegok Jonggak location and opening hours

Ari Gyegok Jonggak (아리계곡 종각점) is at 41 Ujeongguk-ro 2-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul (1st floor), about a 3-minute walk from Exit 4 of Jonggak Station. It is open Sun–Thu 16:30–02:00 and Fri–Sat 16:30–03:00, with seating on the 1st and 2nd floors.

• 📍 41 Ujeongguk-ro 2-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul (1st floor)
• 🚇 About 3 minutes on foot from Exit 4 of Jonggak Station
• ⏰ Sun–Thu 16:30–02:00 / Fri–Sat 16:30–03:00
• ✔️ 1st and 2nd floor seating

Ari Gyegok, right near Jonggak Station! Doesn't the exterior already give off famous-restaurant vibes? 🤭

Is there a wait at Ari Gyegok Jonggak on a Sunday evening?

When we visited on a Sunday evening it was busy, but we got in right away with no wait. It's a well-known place, so quite a few tables were full! I remember going to the Gangnam Station branch of Ari Gyegok on a Friday evening and the wait was huge, so I was worried, but it was fine 💓

There's a 2nd floor too, so we went up haha. There were quite a few customers, but there were empty seats. Do you see the lights on the ceiling made from infused-liquor jars..? Wow.. There's a really wide variety of drinks, so I think drinkers would love it 🤭

We sat in this cozy spot. The lighting is soft and the mood is nice, so it would be a decent date spot in Jonggak too haha

Ari Gyegok Jonggak menu and QR code ordering

You order at Ari Gyegok Jonggak with the QR code on the table. Spoons, chopsticks and tissues are on the side of the table! First, the food menu.

And the drinks! So many, right? 🤭

What two people ordered without drinks, and the total bill

• Mud duck jeonbyeong set for 2: ₩41,800 (spicy hangover chicken hot pot, mud duck jeonbyeong)
• Udon noodles add-on (review event)
• Aged kimchi fried rice: ₩6,900
• Garlic fried chicken: ₩13,900
• Total: ₩62,600

We accidentally ordered way too much… haha… The portions were huge, so next time I think skipping the hot pot would be just right for two 🥹

They give you a special sauce that tastes like gochujang dipping sauce (chojang) and radish salad (musaengchae) as sides! I still don't really know what the special sauce is meant to go with..

What comes in the ₩41,800 mud duck jeonbyeong set for two?

The mud duck jeonbyeong set for two at Ari Gyegok Jonggak is ₩41,800 and comes with the spicy hangover chicken hot pot and the mud duck jeonbyeong (duck served with wraps). The look of it is insane….!! I can't believe this is only about ₩40,000 😍

The bones you can see there are just decoration, so you take them out before eating, they told us. And once the hot pot starts boiling, they said to put in the tenderloin and cook it!

How does the ₩19,900 mud duck jeonbyeong taste?

The mud duck jeonbyeong at Ari Gyegok Jonggak is ₩19,900 as a single dish, comes as one whole duck, and is limited in quantity. The duck, the main event!! Can you believe this really costs only about ₩20,000.. A full ₩19,900..!!

When you pick it up, duck fat and sauce drip down, and that sight is honestly violent haha. Since it's jeonbyeong (a wrap-style dish), there are lots of vegetables to wrap things in along with the duck! It's limited quantity, so if you want to try it, run there straight after work, go go

You have to cut the duck yourself like this. It's a bit funny haha, but it might have been a little disappointing if it hadn't come out whole like this?

This is what it looks like cut up. Slicing the duck thin is harder than you'd think haha. But maybe it was even tastier because it was thick!

The duck is seriously... so delicious!!!! Moist and tender with no gamey smell at all ㅜㅜ And maybe because the sauce is already brushed on, it was totally delicious even without dipping in any other sauce?! It was the best.. If you go to Ari Gyegok, please eat this duck ㅜㅜ

And the cabbage here also comes whole haha, so you have to work hard at cutting it up ㅎ

Wrapped up with the cabbage like this~ it's so good ㅜ Really the best,,,ㅠ!!!! The combo with cabbage was delicious too!! Ah I want to eat it again..

There's also this tempura-looking thing, and the combo of fried bit + duck + cabbage was seriously amazing. A crispy + moist and tender + crunchy texture party opens up in your mouth ㅎ

Especially this skin-fried part..! So crispy.. all-time best,, ah I really want everyone to go here ㅜㅜ

₩6,900 aged kimchi fried rice: worth it if you don't like kimchi?

The aged kimchi fried rice at Ari Gyegok Jonggak is ₩6,900 and had quite a lot of aged kimchi in it. Pretty good price for fried rice, right! My partner hates kimchi, but said this aged kimchi fried rice was delicious and scraped the plate clean!

Spicy hangover chicken hot pot: portion size and flavor

The spicy hangover chicken hot pot in the set has a whole chicken inside, so the portion is huge. This hot pot is surprisingly slow to boil haha. It only boiled after a long wait! Once it starts boiling like this~ you toss in lots of tenderloin.

But this is seriously a great-value dish too;; I mean haha there's a whole chicken inside like this.. We assumed the tenderloin on top was all the meat, so we also ordered the garlic fried chicken, and then another whole chicken came out and we panicked;; The portion is massive ㅜㅜ

Not knowing there was a whole chicken in there, we happily added udon noodles... and the udon portion was huge too, I thought I'd burst just from finishing the udon.. And actually there are glass noodles in there too haha

That aside, the udon really was delicious ㅎ Actually I'd started a diet and came for the duck to get some protein, but after one bite of the udon I couldn't hold back and ate almost all of it...

Honestly, how could you resist udon in this broth, right? The noodles were chewy and bouncy, totally my style, so good haha

Looking at it now the chicken seems a bit undercooked? Anyway, the chicken wasn't too soft and wasn't dry either, somewhere in between. Kind of addictive haha. The spicy hangover hot pot has wild ginseng in it, maybe that's why, but there was a faint herbal-medicine flavor~. Not an extremely intense taste, but subtly spicy and kind of refreshing?

The portion was so big.. that next time I think I'd order something like yukhoe (Korean beef tartare) instead of the hot pot haha. But for people who love soju, one hot pot looked like it could keep the drinks going endlessly haha

₩13,900 garlic fried chicken with a soy-sauce chicken taste

The garlic fried chicken at Ari Gyegok Jonggak is ₩13,900, and it's basically soy-sauce chicken with fried garlic added. The portion is huge on this one too.. and the taste was even better,, seriously salty-savory and so good..!! Their side dishes are all amazing, everything is done well ㅜㅜ And the fried garlic was a total kick, so tasty..!! My partner loved it ㅎㅎ (my partner has a kid's palate, basically)

We cleaned out the duck and the fried chicken, but the hot pot, we were so full.. that we left a bit ㅜㅜㅜㅜ We're not usually like this..

Best dishes to order at Ari Gyegok Jonggak without drinking

Ari Gyegok Jonggak has so many insanely delicious dishes and a wide range of drinks, so it's a place drinkers will go wild for.. and people like us who only eat and leave..can go too, I think? Probably? I really hope you all go!!!!!

• ✔️ Mud duck jeonbyeong
• ✔️ Garlic fried chicken
• If you want rice, go for the aged kimchi fried rice