Yangjae pork bone soup restaurant with free parking: Chomu Gamjatang

Chomu Gamjatang hours and parking for 4 cars

• Name: Chomu Gamjatang
• Address: 1F, 59 Nonhyeon-ro, Seocho-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Hours: Daily 11:00–22:00 (last order 21:30)
• Parking: Available (free parking lot in front of the building), space for 4 cars

They've got a dedicated parking space right in front of the building for diners coming by car, so this counts as a rare parking-available restaurant haha. Honestly there aren't that many restaurants with parking in Seocho, Seoul, so just having a spot made me really happy.

Where is Chomu Gamjatang in Yangjae, Seoul?

Today I'm covering a pork bone soup (gamjatang) specialist near Yangjae Station in Seocho, Seoul — Chomu Gamjatang, a Yangjae local favorite. It's a 5-minute walk from Yangjae Citizen's Forest Station Exit 2, right next to Yangjaecheon stream. Let's see how the food was!

Chomu Gamjatang menu and our star ratings

★★★★★ You must order this! / ★★★★ This dish is great! / ★★★ Hit or miss!

Gamjatang (BEST) ★★★★★

Side dishes and the self-serve kimchi bar

Once you sit down, two kinds of kimchi come standard, set in ceramic bowls on the table. I couldn't believe how good the fresh kimchi (겉절이) was at a gamjatang place — the kind of quality you'd expect at a calguksu (knife-cut noodle) restaurant.

If you want to eat gamjatang well and comfortably, pay close attention to the self-serve bar.

Three things to grab from the self-serve bar

The first thing to grab is an apron. When you're picking meat off the bone, broth splatters everywhere. I'm usually really careful and don't splash food on my clothes, but even I got hit with one drop. My girlfriend splashes more often, and she got hit with four drops. If we hadn't worn aprons, our clothes would've been a mess, ugh.

Second is scissors. Right in front of the aprons there are scissors — use them to cut the kimchi and kkakdugi into easier-to-eat pieces. Third is disposable gloves. Picking meat off the bone with just a spoon and chopsticks is way too hard. Wearing a glove on one hand to hold the bone makes it so much easier!

The self-serve bar had kimchi, kkakdugi, cheongyang peppers, and ssamjang all ready to go, so I could just help myself. Don't tell the owner, but I think I refilled the kimchi four times. Total rice thief, ugh.

How big is the small gamjatang with extra sujebi?

Here's how the main gamjatang looked when it was set down. Big perilla leaves and green onion piled on top.

Big potatoes, meat, dried radish greens (siraegi), and hand-torn dough flakes (sujebi) were all submerged in there.

I ordered extra sujebi thinking the gamjatang wouldn't come with any... but it comes standard!! We ended up ordering extra on top of that, so the portion got way too big, argh.

There's a thick layer of meat packed between the bone joints, so

a few good scrapes and you get a ton of meat out. Piled on top of kimchi, it's pure bliss :) Makes me want to eat it again already.

There wasn't a single small piece of meat — I'd guess there were about 7-8 big chunks and bones. The two of us really dug in, three pieces each, and were completely full, but there was still meat left over.

I honestly doubted this was really the small size. Is this just great value, or...? With that much food, there was absolutely no way we could touch the fried rice.

Kimchi is great, but eating it with siraegi is the unwritten rule. Every single ingredient tasted amazing... the owner must really put their heart into each one.

Bone jjim and pork cutlet to try next time at Chomu Gamjatang

Besides gamjatang, there are two other main menu items — bone jjim (steamed bone dish) and pork cutlet. I was so puzzled — why would a gamjatang place have pork cutlet? — but apparently they make their own cutlets fresh every morning using Jeju loin. Next time I'm going to try the bone jjim or the pork cutlet. If anyone's had either, please leave a comment about how it was!! I'll keep it in mind for my next visit :)

SOLD OUT by 8pm, long before closing

Last order is 9:30pm and closing is at 10pm, but when I left the restaurant around 8pm, there was a sign that hadn't been there when I walked in — a SOLD OUT sign. The place was packed with customers, so I guess they'd already run through their ingredients. Don't assume you're fine just because it's not closing time yet — I'd recommend going early!