Pyeongchon Korean buffet with garlic butter chicken: Gorae Bapsang

What kind of place is Gorae Bapsang Pyeongchon Hagwon-ga?

Gorae Bapsang Pyeongchon Hagwon-ga (고래밥상 평촌학원가점) is a Korean buffet in the Pyeongchon academy district. In this age of high prices you can eat your fill for a low price, so it's especially popular with students.

How to find Gorae Bapsang Pyeongchon Hagwon-ga

The restaurant is in the basement of a building on the main street of the Pyeongchon academy district. There's a banner in front of the building, so it's easy to find.

The menu changes every day and is posted on Gorae Bapsang's Instagram, so it's worth checking before you go, haha.

Head down to the basement level and you'll find the entrance!

What are the interior and seating like? Can groups go?

Gorae Bapsang Pyeongchon Hagwon-ga holds up to 80 people, so it's great for groups and also perfect for eating alone. The interior is clean and spacious, and the staff come by constantly to wipe down the tables, so it was kept really neat and clean.

How much is the Korean buffet?

• Adults ₩9,000
• Elementary students ₩7,000
• Preschoolers ₩4,000

The value for money is excellent. You pay on site, and meal tickets are available.

After paying, the buffet is right behind the counter, and you just take as much food as you like~

What dishes are served at the buffet?

The default rice at Gorae Bapsang was healthy black rice~

The day I visited, they had soupy tteokbokki and butter curry chicken, and both were really good! They're kept simmering, so the food stayed warm instead of going cold.

This is Gorae Bapsang's signature chicken! Since lots of kids and students come here, a different kind of chicken is fried every day, and it's honestly as tasty as a chicken specialty shop's.

I also spotted the shredded konjac and vegetable salad (silgonnyak yachae muchim) that showed up so often in school lunches. Haven't seen it in ages, haha.

The banchan (side dishes) include kongjaban (sweet braised soybeans), soy-marinated garlic stems and seasoned pepper leaves, with plenty of variety and a daily rotation~

With kimchi, salad and ssam vegetables (leaves for wrapping), you can get plenty of veggies too~

The soup changes daily as well, and on my visit it was kongnamul-guk (bean sprout soup).

The unlimited ramen zone, bibimbap and fried eggs

In Gorae Bapsang's ramen zone you can eat unlimited ramen~ It uses a Hangang ramen machine, so the noodles come out chewy and tasty~ I was too full to have any ramen, though, sadly T_T Tip: have them cook it plain, no extras~

You can have bibimbap (rice mixed with vegetables) every day too, and you cook the fried egg yourself.

Is the chicken at Gorae Bapsang really that good?

There were 3 of us, and each person picked food to their own taste~

Gorae Bapsang is known as a chicken hotspot, and the chicken really is delicious! It's absolutely not bland frozen chicken or that home-fried (Gajeong) taste; it tastes like it came from a chicken specialty shop 😋 There are different cuts too, and I picked a drumstick 🍗 There's always chicken, and the type changes daily. That day it was garlic butter chicken.

It turns out the owner is a veteran: after graduating from Daerim University's hotel culinary and food service department, he worked as an instructor at a cooking academy, as a military cook, and as head chef for the Hong Jjajang franchise, a Bon Dosirak outlet and group catering!

Butter curry chicken, spicy soupy tteokbokki and bean sprout soup

The butter curry chicken was totally my style. The chicken sits in a thick, rich butter curry, the curry has soaked in well, and the chicken is tender, so mixed with rice it went together beautifully 👍

The spicy soupy tteokbokki tastes just like old-school tteokbokki! It's moderately spicy and sweet, a flavor everyone from kids to grandparents would like. Buffet tteokbokki is sometimes soggy, but here the chewy wheat rice cakes hadn't gone mushy. It pairs really well with the chicken too.

The bean sprout soup was spicy and hearty, just right for sipping between bites~

Drinks and the lunch box service

Gorae Bapsang even has 20 kinds of drinks, so you can pick whatever you like. If you join the Naver receipt review event, you get 1 free can of a drink!

They also run a lunch box service with delivery and pickup around the Pyeongchon academy district, so it seems great for regular delivery to your workplace or home.

In this high-price era where even deciding on a meal is a headache, I highly recommend Gorae Bapsang Pyeongchon Hagwon-ga: big portions, great taste and a kind price!

Gorae Bapsang Pyeongchon Hagwon-ga hours and info

• Weekdays 11:30–19:30
• Saturday 11:30–14:30
• Closed every Sunday and public holidays
• Takeout, group seating, local currency, Naver Pay and the high-fuel-price support subsidy accepted