Raw beef restaurant in Songpa, Seoul: Hampyeong Yukhoe

Are there foods you love but still hesitate a little before ordering? For me, that is yukhoe (Korean raw beef tartare) and mungtigi (thick-cut raw beef). I tend to like almost every dish eaten raw, so I enjoy yukhoe and mungtigi too, but freshness is so important with these dishes that finding a good place is not as easy as it sounds. And once you factor in the price, I become even more careful about choosing. This time, I found a place that eased both my freshness and price concerns to some extent, so I went to try it.

Location and hours of Hampyeong Yukhoe Bangi Main Branch

Hampyeong Yukhoe Bangi Main Branch (함평육회 방이본점) is about an eight-minute walk from Jamsil Station Exit 9. It is in Bangi-dong's food alley, so it was not difficult to find. I also spotted outdoor patio seating in front of the restaurant. Now that the weather has cooled down, I think eating outside would have quite a nice atmosphere. You know how, on a nice day, you suddenly just want to eat outdoors, haha.

Once inside, the dining room was fairly spacious too. The tables were comfortably spaced, so it looked good for a visit with friends, as well as a group work dinner or gathering. After settling in, we looked over the menu. There was a menu board on the wall, and we could also view everything through table ordering. We conveniently ordered through the table system.

Ordering the yukhoe and mungtigi set with yukhoe bibimbap

The menu had more variety than I expected. There were several options, from mungtigi and yukhoe to nakji tangtangi, chopped live octopus. And while looking through the table-order menu, I found out something! YouTuber Tzuyang had visited for an episode about mungtigi. Hearing that Tzuyang had been here somehow raised my expectations for the food even more, haha.

• Yukhoe and mungtigi set
• Yukhoe bibimbap
• Fresh beef brisket sashimi

Same-day delivery notice and the basic table setting

While waiting for our order and looking around, I saw a notice related to freshness. Hampyeong Yukhoe Bangi Main Branch says it receives cattle and octopus caught that day by express bus delivery and uses them that same day. Freshness matters more than anything for mungtigi and octopus, right? So the fact that ingredients are supplied through same-day delivery made me feel that they pay a lot of attention to the food.

After a short wait, they set up the portable gas burner with the basic side dishes, and seonjitguk, a blood soup, came out as well. It seemed that the seonjitguk was included as a basic side.

We had made a reservation before visiting. They said a reservation comes with flat-iron steak shabu-shabu, so we received slices of flat iron for shabu-shabu too. Doesn't the meat look quite fresh just from looking at it? At first, though, I wondered, “Where am I supposed to cook this shabu-shabu?” But it turned out you put it into the seonjitguk broth that came with it. I dropped the flat iron into the bubbling broth, and, as expected of shabu-shabu meat, it cooked in no time.

One bite in and wow, it was so good that I wondered whether flat iron had always been this tender. The meat was soft, and it paired better with the broth than I expected. While we were eating the shabu-shabu, the menu items we had been waiting for finally arrived.

Chewy, clean-tasting mungtigi and yukhoe

This was the yukhoe and mungtigi set. It looked pretty appetizing right from the start, didn't it? In particular, the egg yolk for the yukhoe was served separately so we could mix it in ourselves.

Some people cannot eat raw egg yolk, so I liked that it was served separately and could be enjoyed to taste. We do not usually eat raw yolk either, so we left it out this time. First, I picked up a piece of mungtigi.

Even the color looked very fresh. When I tried it, wow, it was really chewy and had absolutely no off smell. I am not much of a drinker, but it tasted like something that would go perfectly with a shot of soju. There were actually quite a few people in the restaurant having soju, and I could see why! Next, I tried the yukhoe too.

I tried the yukhoe as well. At other places, the yukhoe and seasoning can sometimes feel as though they are separate, but that was not the case here. The seasoning was not too strong and blended naturally with the beef. I do not like the dry texture of frozen yukhoe, you know? But Hampyeong Yukhoe Bangi Main Branch's yukhoe was incredibly chewy, perhaps because it was not frozen.

Putting mungtigi on vinegared sushi rice

And when you order mungtigi and yukhoe, they also provide sushi rice mixed with sweet vinegar as a basic accompaniment. Once they gave us that, there was no way we could not try it, right? I scooped out a suitable amount of sushi rice and put mungtigi on top.

One bite in, the slightly tangy rice went surprisingly well with the chewy mungtigi. It was a different flavor from eating mungtigi on its own. Plus, making sushi like this with mungtigi is only possible when the meat is fresh. As I ate, I even felt a little as if I were at an upscale sushi restaurant! While we were eating the mungtigi and yukhoe, the yukhoe bibimbap arrived.

Yukhoe bibimbap with adjustable gochujang

The yukhoe bibimbap came with gochujang, Korean red chili paste, on the side, so we could add as much as we wanted. We added a moderate amount and mixed it up enthusiastically.

Once it was all mixed, the yukhoe bibimbap looked mouthwatering right away. The sweet and salty yukhoe paired nicely with the crisp vegetables. It was seasoned just right, the kind of flavor that keeps your spoon moving. If you are planning to have drinks here but thinking, “I want a drink, but I should eat first,” I think having the yukhoe bibimbap before drinking would be a good choice.

My first taste of savory fresh brisket sashimi

Actually, the dishes we had planned to eat from the beginning that day were mungtigi, yukhoe, and yukhoe bibimbap. But one item on the menu caught our eye: fresh beef brisket sashimi. I had never seen this dish before that day. I already think grilled beef brisket is incredibly delicious, so I became curious about what it would taste like as sashimi. In the end, we could not hold back our curiosity and ordered the fresh brisket sashimi too!

Not long after ordering, the fresh brisket sashimi arrived. Oh, it looked completely different from the mungtigi. Mungtigi was mostly lean meat without fatty portions, while the fresh brisket sashimi had visible fat, like the brisket you grill.

Looking closely at a piece, the meat was really beautiful. You eat the fresh brisket sashimi dipped in the salt served alongside it. I lightly dipped it in salt and took a bite. The fresh brisket sashimi was actually very similar to the savory flavor of grilled beef brisket. Even the aroma you notice through your nose was like the rich, savory scent of really good brisket. I found myself thinking, “How can sashimi have this kind of savory flavor and aroma?” The meat was also extremely fresh, so the texture was wonderfully chewy. It was my first time trying brisket sashimi, and it was much tastier than I expected—I was surprised. It tasted like something I would have regretted missing later if I had left without trying it.

I also made sushi with the fresh brisket sashimi. I put it on top of the sushi rice like this, and the savory brisket sashimi went surprisingly well with the tangy rice. Since it is sashimi, it feels a little like eating raw fish, but at the same time the distinctive savory brisket aroma comes through strongly, which was really fascinating. Maybe because it was my first time trying this combination, it was even more fun. After eating all sorts of things, I honestly felt like I was about to burst. Still, we finished every last bit!

We had such a delicious meal. Finding a good mungtigi restaurant in Seoul is not as easy as you might think. Even when you find one, you may wonder, “Will it really be fresh?” In that respect, Hampyeong Yukhoe Bangi Main Branch's use of cattle and octopus delivered by express bus on the same day they are caught felt quite appealing for anyone who values freshness. If you are looking for a good restaurant around Jamsil or Bangi-dong, or for mungtigi in Seoul, Hampyeong Yukhoe Bangi Main Branch may be worth a visit.