Bucheon Korean restaurant for family meals: Gim Myeongju Tteuranchae

For dinner today, we ate at Gim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang Bucheon Main Branch, which seemed like a great spot for a family gathering in Kkachiwool, Bucheon, or a Bucheon work dinner. I usually love Korean set meals, and since I’m not great at cooking and don’t often make lots of side dishes at home, my husband and I visited the main branch.

Parking and second-floor access notes

We went around 7 p.m. on Friday evening, and there was plenty of parking.

Maybe because it sits amid Kkachiwool’s natural surroundings, it even felt a little like we’d come camping at a pension-style getaway. Gim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang is on the second floor, and strollers and wheelchairs cannot enter, so that is worth keeping in mind for family gatherings.

There’s a spacious waiting area, a coffee machine, and even a monitor for checking reservations! As you’d expect from a popular Bucheon restaurant, it looks like they manage reserved seats carefully during busy hours, too!

Even though it was that awkward almost-8 p.m. time, there were quite a few diners. The staff also helped us right away, which was nice. Look at how spacious Gim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang is! It felt like a great choice for a Kkachiwool family gathering or a Bucheon work dinner.

How do you order from the menu?

• Choose a Tteuranchae set meal.
• Order Tteuranchae Bapsang at ₩13,000 per person for every guest elementary-school age and older, then add à la carte dishes.
• Soy-marinated crab (Korean yellow crab) ₩18,000; grilled mackerel set meal ₩29,000 per person.
• Charcoal-grilled pork (pork neck and front leg) ₩18,000; borigulbi ₩18,000; seasoned cockles ₩16,000; grilled mackerel ₩16,000.
• Borigulbi, soy-marinated crab, and charcoal-grill set meals ₩31,000 per person each; seasoned-cockle set meal ₩29,000 per person.

Refilling self-bar side dishes without feeling awkward

I loved that we could refill any side dishes we ran short on ourselves at the self-bar, without feeling self-conscious and entirely at my own pace. The refill bar was clean and generously stocked, which made it feel trustworthy.

That day, we ordered Tteuranchae Bapsang for two (₩13,000 × 2) and soy-marinated crab for ₩18,000. Such a reasonable price for this level of quality ㅠㅠ Everyone, I highly recommend Gim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang as a great Bucheon restaurant!

Pot-rice scorched rice and meaty soy-marinated crab

Especially this pot rice, a specialty at Gim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang! Scoop out the rice, then make nurungji (crispy scorched rice) and eat it—it’s so good! Just remove the rice, let the bottom turn into scorched rice, pour in hot water, and your nurungji is ready!

For a Kkachiwool family gathering in Bucheon, I recommend Gim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang—and the highlight of our table today was this soy-marinated crab packed full of meat! One order of soy-marinated crab was a good amount for two people.

This cheonggukjang (fermented soybean stew) comes with the basic table setting, and it had that deeply savory flavor as if your parents had made it themselves. The tofu was especially fluffy, and it was delicious with rice.

A full spread of side dishes that felt like home cooking

Let me show you the side-dish selection in detail. There were all kinds of vegetable side dishes that I wouldn’t normally eat alone at home, including balloon flower root, potatoes, and ugeoji greens. They seemed so healthy and likely to suit older diners’ tastes, so I think it would be nice to come with our parents next time.

There were also generously served dishes that take a lot of prep, such as japchae (stir-fried glass noodles), fried eggplant, fresh kimchi salad, lettuce, and stir-fried burdock root.

Instead of just one lonely main dish, the table arrived full of all kinds of side dishes, so it felt satisfying from the very moment I saw it. From seasoned vegetables to kimchi and all sorts of banchan (Korean side dishes), there was so much variety that one bowl of rice wasn’t enough..! I kept going back to the self-bar to refill the ones I got hooked on because they were so good! The one I was hooked on was the fried eggplant... haha, why was it so delicious? More than anything, I liked that none of the side dishes were overly intense; they had that comforting, home-cooked flavor.

The soy-marinated crab was so delicious today that next time, I’d like to try other set meals or something like borigulbi, too.