Goyang Deogyang-gu kalguksu with mandu half-plate: Bongpyeong Gohyang

On the subject of cutting down on the owner's dishwashing... the empty bowl with not a drop of soup left is the realest proof of a review 🤣

Where Bongpyeong Gohyang Makguksu is, parking and the dining room

Bongpyeong Gohyang Makguksu is a kalguksu and makguksu restaurant on the big road along Hoguk-ro, at Wondang-dong 187-6, Deogyang-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do. Hours are 11:00–20:30, closed every Monday.

✨For 30 years, this restaurant has been serving customers at the same spot with good, fresh ingredients. All the homemade noodles, food, and kimchi are made directly from domestic ingredients.

Sitting right on the main road, it's easy to find even on a first visit. When restaurants have cramped parking, the search alone can wear you out — but here there's a spacious dedicated lot, so I could pull in without any parking stress.

The interior was much roomier than expected, with generous space between tables, making for a relaxed atmosphere to eat in. (Right around mealtime, a wave of people suddenly came in, so I didn't manage to get a photo then.)

The free barley rice that comes before the noodles

Once you order, Bongpyeong Gohyang Makguksu sets down a small but precious bowl of service barley rice first. Refreshingly fermented yeolmu kimchi (young radish kimchi) comes as the basic side dish.

Drizzle on the gochujang and sesame oil set out on the table, mix it all up with the yeolmu kimchi, and it's done.

The popping texture of the barley rice, the crunchy kimchi, and the nutty sesame oil aroma worked together so well it really got my appetite going.

What we ordered: perilla buckwheat kalguksu, bibim makguksu and a mandu half-plate

A whole spread of clearly carefully-made food arrived at the table.

• Perilla buckwheat kalguksu
• Bibim makguksu
• Mandu (half/half)

⚠️ Quick aside — once you learn about the benefits of buckwheat, you'll want to run here even faster, haha.

Perilla-seed buckwheat kalguksu: thick broth and ongsimi (chewy dough balls)

The moment the big steaming bowl landed on the table, a deep perilla aroma spread out and hit my nose hard.

First I took a big spoonful of broth — and it wasn't a thin, watery soup at all. Packed with perilla, it had a heavy, thick consistency that clung to the spoon as it dripped.

With the first bite of noodles, you could immediately tell the buckwheat content was pretty high. None of the slippery, heavy-stomach feeling you get from regular wheat noodles — the more you chew, the more that savory buckwheat aroma keeps rising.

Alternating between a sip of broth and a bite of noodles, both were so good we barely talked. Rustically cut, fluffy potato and zucchini, plus chewy ongsimi, were hiding in there like a game of hide-and-seek.

You could tell the ingredients weren't skimped on and everything was simmered thoroughly — I really felt like they put genuine care into every single dish. Even after finishing it all, my stomach felt comfortable and warm; this felt like a true Goyang kalguksu restaurant worth finding.

Does perilla oil on bibim makguksu work? That's the trick here

As a makguksu (buckwheat noodle) fan, I ordered the bibim makguksu with real expectations, and honestly it's one of the most umami-packed versions my partner and I have ever had.

A lot of bibim makguksu places lean on a strong MSG-forward flavor, but this one has that distinctive umami that just sticks to your palate. The sauce itself is amazing, but the real key here is the perilla oil. I drizzled the perilla oil from the table around once (okay, I poured a lot, haha) and mixed it all up — the nutty perilla oil aroma spread through everything and wrapped the sauce and buckwheat noodles together perfectly. Total kicker.

At the first bite, both our eyes went wide and we kept saying, "Wow, how did they make this sauce?" It's not overpowering, so it never gets tiring, and it keeps you scraping the bowl clean down to the last bite. If you're the type who goes around trying every makguksu spot, you absolutely need to check this one off the list.

How to eat the mandu half-plate: dip it in the perilla broth

The mandu (dumplings) also had thin yet chewy wrappers, filled generously with ground meat and vegetables — one bite and you could really taste the light, well-crafted flavor.

Dipping the hot mandu in soy sauce is fine, but here's my personal tip: dipping the mandu briefly in that rich perilla broth was a combination that worked really well.

Would I go back to Bongpyeong Gohyang Makguksu?

Beyond just the overall flavor, what stood out most was the real skill and care behind noodles that got more savory and nutty the more you chewed. (This place is actually run by the second generation now — the meal felt so carefully made that I went straight to searching it up online.)

When you want a Goyang kalguksu restaurant that's easy on the stomach with deep flavor, or you're craving genuine buckwheat dishes, this is the place — Bongpyeong Gohyang Makguksu. (Saved it to my phone list too ⭕️)