Gamjatang pot for three in Yangjae, Seoul: Chomu Gamjatang

What kind of restaurant is Chomu Gamjatang?

Set near Yangjaecheon (Yangjae Stream), Chomu Gamjatang is a Korean restaurant focused on doing the basics right — gamjatang (pork bone and potato stew) and ppyeohaejangguk (pork bone hangover soup). It's a 5-minute walk from Yangjae Citizen's Forest Station, so it's easy to get to and pairs nicely with a stroll along the stream before or after eating. The broth is made fresh every morning from bones boiled in-house, giving it a deep flavor that still finishes clean. Generous, tender meat clinging to the bones delivers all the heartiness gamjatang is known for. The restaurant is spacious and comfortable enough to eat alone without feeling out of place, and works just as well for family meals, coworker get-togethers, and group dinners. Parking right in front is a nice bonus for anyone driving. With bones and broth prepared fresh daily, and pork cutlet made in-house from Jeju loin, this is a solid, no-frills spot for a filling meal.

• Address: 283-1 Yangjae-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Hours: Daily, 11:00–22:00

A 7-party lunch wait and a mid-size pot for three

Before heading to my sister's place, who recently moved to the Yangjae area, we decided to stop by Chomu Gamjatang near Yangjaecheon for lunch.

Whoa, the wait was long... 7 parties ahead of us.

You write your party size and menu order on the waiting note ahead of time, then wait for your turn. I'd written down a large gamjatang, but just to check, I asked the owner, who said it might be too much, so I changed it to a mid-size gamjatang and one pork cutlet. We waited maybe 15 minutes before our turn came. I think this was my first time waiting for gamjatang.

The exterior looks like a hanok (traditional Korean house), and the inside is clean too, with a big window wall that makes the interior feel bright and comfortable.

Maybe because it was lunchtime, there were a lot of office workers, plus families, couples — every table was full with a mix of different customers.

There's a self-serve bar with kimchi and vegetables, so refills on side dishes are free.

What's on the menu at Chomu Gamjatang?

Mid-size gamjatang and the Jeju pork cutlet

• Gamjatang (mid)
• Jeju hand-breaded pork cutlet ...................... ordered

Kimchi matters just as much at a gamjatang place as it does at a kalguksu place! Both the napa cabbage kimchi and the diced radish kimchi were delicious. Refills are self-serve from the bar.

The mid-size gamjatang arrived. As expected, the portion is huge haha.

Everything was already cooked, but they told us to simmer it for another 5 minutes or so before eating.

While the gamjatang was simmering, the pork cutlet came out. It's a generous portion for ₩12,000. There were quite a few tables ordering both gamjatang and pork cutlet to share, like us — neither dish is one you want to pass up^^

It has that totally familiar old-style pork cutlet look. Chomu Gamjatang's cutlet is made fresh daily using Jeju pork loin.

The cutlet is thick and delicious. The demi-glace sauce tastes exactly like the nostalgic kind you remember.

How did the meaty pork bones taste?

While we were sharing the pork cutlet, the gamjatang started simmering, so we dug in.

The bones aren't just huge — each one has a ton of meat on it.

Haha, this is the first gamjatang I've had with this much meat. I put one bone on my plate and spent a long time picking meat off it.

I fished out the ugeoji (dried napa cabbage leaves) separately and dipped the fully braised meat in wasabi soy sauce. I love gamjatang and have tried it at all kinds of places, so once I tasted this, I understood why the wait here is so long. The broth was rich but not heavy, and clean. The ugeoji wasn't tough either — it went down soft and easy. Especially since the bones were braised so thoroughly, the meat separated effortlessly, and there was so much meat clinging to the bones that it was more visible than the bone itself. This was a gamjatang where the satisfaction of how much there was to eat outweighed the effort of picking it apart.

This was also my first time seeing potatoes with the skin still on, and even the potatoes were really tasty. Fishing out the sujebi (hand-torn dough soup) was fun too. We didn't order extra rice — we got our carbs from the rice that came with the cutlet, plus the potatoes and sujebi.

Chomu Gamjatang location and parking in Yangjae

Chomu Gamjatang is located at 1F, 59 Nonhyeon-ro, Seocho-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It's 933m from Exit 2 of Yangjae Citizen's Forest Station on the Sinbundang Line, and about 6 parking spots are available in front of the restaurant.