Rice bowl restaurant for parents in Jongno, Daegu: Hyangtaek

Today I had a clean, light lunch at Hyangtaek, a great spot in Jongno, Daegu to take your parents.

Hyangtaek Daegu Jongno Branch: basic info and location

What the interior is like

I forgot to take photos of the outside, but the inside of Hyangtaek Daegu Jongno Branch was super clean and cute, with a calm, quiet feel. It has 8 tables, so it isn't big, but I'd guess the turnover is very fast :) I visited at 2:30pm and it was still quite full, so these interior photos were taken on my way out!

The menu and how to eat it

I really love this kind of Korean food. These are rice bowls made with light, good ingredients, so they're easy to eat, filling and feel healthy too. It's exactly the kind of place to bring your parents. The side dishes are total health food as well, haha //

There's also a guide on how to eat it. Mix all the ingredients evenly, then add seaweed and jeotgal (salted seafood), and finish with the special sauce!!!! It already sounds delicious just from the description... ♥

Side dishes and jangguk soup

This is the basic side dish lineup :) Jeotgal and what I think was gungchae (a crunchy stalk vegetable)..? Eating the jeotgal with the rice was seriously good!

Gopchang gim (crinkly seaweed) came out too, and the soy sauce came when I ordered the mackerel gondre rice. It's a special sauce that goes really well with that dish!!

Jangguk (a soy-based soup) comes too, so the rice bowls never felt dry or got stuck in my throat. The soup was seasoned just right, neither too salty nor bland :-)

Mackerel gondre rice: tender mackerel and the aroma of gondre

Hyangtaek's mackerel gondre rice (gondre is thistle greens) was the best light yet filling meal. It tasted both unusual and familiar at the same time. The mackerel and gondre combo is amazing.. !!

The golden grilled mackerel was very soft and moist, great with rice. The gentle aroma of gondre added a deep flavor that was still light.

The more I chewed, the more the fragrance of gondre spread and blended with the mild mackerel. The clean, subtle savoriness lingered, so it was a really satisfying meal.

The mackerel crumbled softly with just a little poke of my chopsticks, haha. I gently mixed it with the rice, and even with the special soy sauce added it wasn't salty, which I liked.

Wrapped in the gopchang gim, it was amazing. Salty and just incredibly good!! I honestly want to go back to Daegu just to eat this dish..

Chamnamul squid rice bowl: sweet and spicy, but not hot

The chewy squid and the fresh aroma of chamnamul (a wild herb) went so well together and really got my appetite going :) It was clean but still savory, so I enjoyed it down to the last bite.

The sweet and spicy sauce soaked into the squid and added depth, and the chamnamul gave a fresh flavor that balanced everything out. The portion was huge too. The mix of textures as I chewed was really satisfying.

Can you see how much squid there is, more than I expected? The chewy, tender texture was great, and mixed with rice the flavor came alive. A properly filling meal.

There were bean sprouts underneath too, and they added a crunch that made the texture even better :)

The sauce is sweet and spicy, so I think almost anyone would like it, and the heat is mild rather than truly spicy, so I recommend it to everyone.