Soy sauce dakgalbi 900g for two near Yangjae Station: Yanggyegok

I was looking for dinner near Yangjae Station and ended up at Yanggyegok! This isn't the pan-grilled dakgalbi (stir-fried chicken) most people picture — the main dish here is chicken grilled over charcoal. Besides charcoal dakgalbi, they also have dak-kalguksu (chicken noodle soup), jeyuk-bokkeum (spicy pork stir-fry), dak-hanmari (whole boiled chicken), dak-doritang (spicy chicken stew), and more, so it looked like a solid spot for both dinner and a drink.

We came on a weekday evening, and since I got off work a bit early, we luckily got a table right away. It felt spacious when we walked in, but by the time we were eating, the tables were almost completely full. Seeing that many people on a weekday evening, this place must already be pretty popular around Yangjae Station.

Since it's dakgalbi grilled cleanly rather than smothered in sauce, I'd especially recommend it to anyone looking for a Korean restaurant near Yangjae Station or a spot for a slightly different date near Yangjae.

Yanggyegok's menu — just how many chicken dishes are there?

Looking at Yanggyegok's menu, there are more chicken dishes than you'd expect. Besides the signature charcoal dakgalbi, there's dak-hanmari, dak-doritang, dak-kalguksu, and even non-chicken options like jeyuk-bokkeum. So it's less a place you go purely for charcoal grilling and more a spot to enjoy a whole range of Korean dishes.

It seemed like a good option if you're looking for a Korean restaurant near Dogok-dong too, and in the evening it felt perfect for grilling dakgalbi with a drink!

Since charcoal dakgalbi was our whole reason for coming, we ordered

• 1 serving soy sauce dakgalbi
• 1 serving gochujang dakgalbi
• Deulgye guksu (perilla-buckwheat noodles)

first. Then it was so good we ended up adding another serving of soy sauce dakgalbi haha.

300g per serving, plus the side dishes and self-serve bar

For side dishes, they give you pickled gochujang, four kinds of sauce, perilla leaves, flying fish roe, pickled radish, and chicken soup! You can add more at the self-serve bar as much as you want~! (Giving out flying fish roe for free — this owner really knows food!)

What I liked right away about Yanggyegok's charcoal dakgalbi was the portion. Each serving is 300g, and even the first two orders looked pretty generous. Usually at Korean barbecue restaurants a single serving is smaller than expected so you end up ordering three from the start, but here even two servings made the table feel plenty full.

We ordered soy sauce and gochujang, one each, and compared the two flavors — and both were a hit. The generous portion was nice, but more than anything, the chicken itself was just really good.

Can charcoal dakgalbi really be this juicy?

When most people think of dakgalbi, they picture chicken, cabbage, and sweet potato in red sauce stir-fried on a hot plate. But Yanggyegok's dakgalbi is a completely different experience. It's not pan-grilled dakgalbi caked in sauce — it's charcoal-grilled dakgalbi where you really taste the flavor and texture of the chicken itself.

One bite in, the chicken was truly tender and moist. Chicken can easily turn dry with even a slight grilling mistake, but here the meat stayed soft with the juices intact, so I kept reaching for more. The charcoal grilling also added a subtle smoky flavor to the surface. It was on a totally different level from the dakgalbi I had in mind, so I loved it from the very first bite.

Soy sauce dakgalbi — we ended up adding one more, for 900g total

Between the two, I personally liked the soy sauce dakgalbi better. Despite being a soy sauce marinade, it wasn't overly sweet or salty — just seasoned enough to not overpower the chicken's own flavor. The spots slightly charred on the charcoal grill had this deeper savory flavor that was really delicious.

At first I thought one soy sauce and one gochujang order would be enough… but the two of us ate so well that we ended up adding another serving of soy sauce dakgalbi haha. The first two servings totaled 600g, and adding 300g on top made it 900g of dakgalbi between the two of us! And we still enjoyed every bite until the end.

We didn't add more because the portions were too small — we added more because it was so good we wanted to keep eating, which made it that much more satisfying.

Gochujang dakgalbi has its own charm too

Gochujang dakgalbi has a different appeal from the soy sauce version. If soy sauce let you taste the clean, moist flavor of the chicken itself, gochujang had more of that seasoned punch, which was good for alternating between the two.

Still, it's nowhere near the drenched-in-sauce style of regular pan-grilled dakgalbi. You can taste the gochujang seasoning while the chicken's texture still comes through fully, so you really get the charm of charcoal dakgalbi. If it's hard to choose between the two, I'd recommend ordering one of each to compare, like we did!

Definitely order the deulgye guksu too

And just as impressive as the dakgalbi was the deulgye guksu (perilla-buckwheat noodles)! I had no idea what to expect from the name, but it turned out to taste like a naengmyeon-based bibim-makguksu (spicy cold buckwheat noodles). It was tangy, sweet, and refreshing, and paired really well with the charcoal dakgalbi.

No matter how good the meat is, eating a lot of it can start to feel a bit heavy or repetitive. Right at that point, one bite of deulgye guksu completely resets your palate haha. The tangy flavor clears everything out, and suddenly you're ready for more dakgalbi.

It went especially well when paired with the savory soy sauce dakgalbi. If I come back, I'll definitely order the charcoal dakgalbi with deulgye guksu on the side, no question.

How's the wait on a weekday evening?

We visited on a weekday evening but got a table right away since I left work a bit early. Not long after we started eating, the tables were nearly all full. So rather than assuming a weekday means it'll be quiet, I'd recommend arriving a bit early during the evening peak.

Plenty of people seemed to be coming for dinner after work from nearby offices, and since it's dakgalbi grilled over charcoal, it also seemed like a good spot to pair with a drink. If you're looking for a different kind of Korean restaurant near Yangjae Station besides the usual pork belly or beef, this seems like a solid choice.

Also recommended for a date near Yangjae!

Eating at Yanggyegok this time, what satisfied me most was simply how good the chicken itself was. Each serving is 300g so the portion is generous, and the chicken is tender and moist with that added charcoal aroma — a completely different charm from the usual pan-grilled dakgalbi. Alternating between soy sauce and gochujang, then resetting the palate with the tangy, sweet deulgye guksu, was a really great combination.

We even ended up adding another serving of soy sauce dakgalbi, so the two of us ate a total of 900g haha. We came away very well fed.

If you're looking for a slightly different Korean restaurant for a date near Yangjae instead of the usual barbecue spot, a Korean restaurant near Dogok-dong with everything from dakgalbi to dak-hanmari, or a solid spot near Yangjae Station for a hearty meat dinner after work, I'd recommend Yanggyegok. Next time, I'll definitely go for the soy sauce dakgalbi plus deulgye guksu combo again :) This is about to become one of my go-to spots, hehe.