Chungmuro Korean restaurant for bossam and pollock soba: Nagwon-ui Soba

I had jokbal (braised pig’s trotters) recently, and suddenly I wanted bossam (boiled pork wraps) so badly. Why do I always want them alternately? Haha. So I ended up stopping by Nagwon-ui Soba in Chungmuro.

Getting to Nagwon-ui Soba in Chungmuro and a look inside

There was a long line at what seemed to be a famous pizza place on the first floor. The entrance was a little confusing, but if you turn left from here, there are stairs. It is on the second floor, so you will need to go up one flight.

Please keep the break time in mind.

The area with the floor-to-ceiling windows was lovely because it was so bright outside. It has been completely autumn weather lately, with such a high, pretty sky. It is gradually getting chilly too—the perfect weather for bossam and kalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup), haha.

The interior was spacious, with a variety of two- and four-person tables. There were seats all the way inside, so the restaurant was bigger than I expected. Since it was the weekend, there were lots of families, and surprisingly lots of international diners too. Maybe they stopped by while traveling around nearby Dongdaemun?

They thoughtfully had hair ties ready as well. I had happened to forget mine, so I used one very well. There was basic seasoned salt too. The dishes I ordered were already well seasoned, so I did not use it.

Ordering the small bossam platter and seasoned pollock soba

It is a soba restaurant, but it is also a bossam specialist that boils its pork three times a day, haha. There are small and large platters, as well as sets that come with just suyuk (boiled pork). The bossam includes crunchy radish, pickled cabbage, pollock, chili peppers, garlic, cabbage, perilla leaves, and soup. Their featured specials include stir-fried fish roe and intestines, spicy fish roe stew, assorted jeon (savory pancakes), potato pancake, whole fried chili peppers, squid kimchi pancake, and dressed pollock. I ordered the small bossam platter and seasoned pollock soba.

There are pork cutlet dishes that go well with soba too: buckwheat pork cutlet, green onion katsu, cheese katsu, and old-school-style katsu. Please also check out the affordable group set menus.

Please also note the winter seasonal dishes sold from October. It was still September, sadly! Haha. They must really love Tongyeong oysters.

They were running several review events too. A soba meal voucher is such a great giveaway 👍 By the way, leftovers cannot be packed up because of food-poisoning risk, so it seems best to order only what you can eat, or pack up food before you start eating!

Bossam with crunchy radish and dressed pollock

The wrap vegetables arrive with cabbage and perilla leaves too.

While we waited, all the dishes came out~! A full table of bossam!

The spread comes out so neatly, right? I especially loved that dressed pollock came as a basic side dish..! I have barely had pollock naengmyeon (cold noodles) this year, so it felt like it had been a while.

Let me try the bossam too. Such bouncy-looking bossam~! It has a fairly generous fat ratio, so it is wonderfully tender.

I piled crunchy radish and dressed pollock on top, then popped the perilla-leaf wrap into my mouth in one bite. It is such a wholesome bossam! At bossam places, I think I like that crunchy radish more than cabbage kimchi, haha. Its crisp-chewy texture goes so well with the tender pork.

Seasoned pollock soba that is not spicy and gently sweet

It is piled high with pollock, right? Haha. There was even more than I expected, so as someone who loves pollock, I was very happy..

Maybe because it is a soba restaurant, the sauce was really unusual. When I ordered, I only glanced at the menu and assumed it would be standard seasoned-pollock naengmyeon style, but it has soba sauce in it. So although it looks very spicy, it is not spicy at all and tastes slightly sweet.

I mixed it all together and took a bite. I ordered it instead of makguksu (buckwheat noodles), and as expected, it went well with the bossam. The soba portion was generous too. I think this was my first time having seasoned soba(?), haha.

If you leave a review at the end, you get free ice cream too. But the amazing thing is that it was not a regular ice cream bar—it included ice cream like Lalasweet bars and Bungeoppang Samanco, haha. Next time, I really need to do an ice-cream review too.

A good fit for family meals and group gatherings

With fresh bossam, soba, pork cutlets, and other varied dishes all in one place, I think it would be especially nice for a family meal. The interior is spacious too, so it seems suitable for group gatherings.