All-domestic ingredients at a Seongsu soup restaurant: Dwaeji Gomtang

On days when you want to shop and eat in Seongsu, picking a menu is oddly hard haha!! Seongsu has so many restaurants — pasta, rice bowls, meat, cafés — that options overflow, but when you actually go looking for gukbap (Korean soup with rice) near Seongsu Station, it's surprisingly hard to know where to go. Especially when you're shopping and don't want something too heavy, just a warm bowl of soup.

This time I tried the clear gomtang set and spicy gomtang set at Dwaeji Gomtang House Musinsa Mega Store Branch, inside Musinsa Mega Store Seongsu! If you go in expecting the usual cloudy, heavy pork gukbap broth, it might feel a bit different here. It's more suited to people who like a clean broth paired with pork.

Walking to Dwaeji Gomtang House from Seongsu Station, plus parking rates

Dwaeji Gomtang House Musinsa Mega Store Branch is about a 7-minute walk from Exit 3 of Seongsu Station on Line 2. Hours are daily 11:00–21:00, last order at 20:00, and the address is 4F, 62 Seongsu-iro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul.

The Musinsa Mega Store building itself stands out, so it's not hard to find even on your first visit. Parking is available at Musinsa Mega Store's paid lot — ₩3,000 for the first 30 minutes and ₩1,000 per 10 minutes after that, per posted rates. Personally, I felt like taking public transit and combining the meal with shopping was a more comfortable way to move around Seongsu than driving!

A gukbap (rice and soup) restaurant inside Musinsa Mega Store's 4th-floor Food Garden

Dwaeji Gomtang House isn't a standalone restaurant — it's located in the food garden on the 4th floor of Musinsa Mega Store, so the vibe is a bit different from the restaurants tucked into Seongsu's back alleys. Instead of going out to find a separate restaurant, you can eat while shopping at Musinsa Mega Store.

So if you're planning to visit Musinsa Seongsu, it's pretty convenient that you don't have to go looking for a separate place to eat. Especially since time flies when you're browsing clothes in Seongsu.

If you're browsing clothes first, I'd recommend the escalator, but if you're the "food first, no matter what" type, take the elevator. It was nice being able to eat right inside the building instead of going back outside hungry to search for a restaurant.

The 4th floor is a food garden with several restaurants alongside Dwaeji Gomtang House, so it has a different atmosphere from a typical standalone gukbap restaurant.

Solo-dining seats and bag hooks at Dwaeji Gomtang House

Dwaeji Gomtang House has table seating and dedicated solo dining seats, so going alone doesn't feel like a hassle.

Every seat has a hook for hanging bags, which was a nice detail I noticed if you're visiting with shopping bags in hand.

Kiosk ordering and an all-domestic ingredient list

You order at the kiosk, and the kitchen is an open kitchen, which added to the sense of trust.

Every ingredient sourced domestically…? No way. Honestly I'm not usually one to fuss over this, but I still felt like having all-domestic sourcing was a real strength of Dwaeji Gomtang House! It felt fresher, somehow haha😆😁

Water and tissues are self-serve!! There was staff regularly tidying up, which kept the place looking clean — nice to see.

The Dwaeji Gomtang House menu: clear gomtang and spicy gomtang

The main menu at Dwaeji Gomtang House is the clear gomtang set and spicy gomtang set. There's also the house seaweed soup set, minari and tot (edible seaweed) giant mandu (dumplings), cold jegyuk (boiled pork), and herring roe radish. The menu itself isn't overly complicated. That actually made it easier to choose on a first visit. Want a clean broth, go clear gomtang; want something spicier, go spicy gomtang.

What I ordered was

Clear gomtang set / Spicy gomtang set

I ordered both. The tidy presentation really looked the part of a proper Korean meal, which built my anticipation even more!

What does the clear gomtang set taste like?

I tried the clear gomtang set first. The first thing I noticed after tasting the broth was how clean it was.

With a typical pork gukbap you'd expect a milky, heavy broth, but this clear gomtang was closer to a light, clean broth than that. There wasn't much oiliness to the broth, so the first spoonful didn't feel heavy, and it went well with the rice too.

On top were pork and tot (a seaweed), and that combination was pretty distinctive. In particular, the pork was more generous than I expected, so it didn't feel like just drinking broth — it was a filling meal.

The rice had a slightly different texture from plain white rice, and I noticed a sign explaining they use barley-mixed rice. Mixing the rice into the broth let the broth soak in, making it much easier to eat. Ordering the set means you don't just get the soup alone — side dishes and accompaniments come with it.

There were kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi), mumallaengi (dried radish), salted shrimp, and minced chili. Kkakdugi is a must with any gukbap and paired well with the broth as always, and being able to tweak the broth's flavor a bit with salted shrimp, salt, or pepper was a nice touch.

There was so much meat that no matter how you scooped it, it felt generous. At this price with this quality, there's really no reason not to eat here…………

How spicy is the spicy gomtang set?

Next was the spicy gomtang set. The basic composition is similar to the clear gomtang, but the broth felt distinctly different. If the clear gomtang is clean and light, the spicy gomtang adds a kick of heat.

That said, it's not so spicy your mouth burns — more like warm broth with a bit of heat added, which went well with rice. Since I personally prefer a clean broth with a touch of spice over an overly oily one when eating gukbap, the spicy gomtang was delicious too.

Where the clear gomtang leaned more on tot, the spicy gomtang had shiitake mushrooms on top, giving the ingredients a different texture. Ordering both to compare made it easy to see which one suits your taste.

The pre-scored orange served for dessert

For dessert, an orange comes included, and they'd thoughtfully scored the bottom in advance so it was easy to peel and eat!!

Worth a stop when you want soup in Seongsu

For anyone like me who's shopping in Seongsu and wondering what to eat, wanting warm Korean soup instead of pasta or café food, this was a spot worth stopping at once. If you're specifically looking for a clean gukbap in Seongsu-dong, check the location and give it a visit. Next time I go back, I think I'd personally order the clear gomtang set again.