Seongsa-dong lunch: spicy sundae soup and hinoki bossam at Gohyangok

A Wondang favorite, Gohyangok Eolkeun Sundaeguk Wondang Branch, and a bowl of spicy sundae soup

🙋‍♀️: Hi, this is the restaurant editorial team. Now that mornings and evenings are getting cooler, I find myself weirdly craving hot soup. Wanting a filling meal, I looked around the Wondang area and ended up at Gohyangok Eolkeun Sundaeguk Wondang Branch.

Where is Gohyangok in Seongsa-dong, and what are its hours?

Gohyangok Eolkeun Sundaeguk Wondang Branch is located at 1578 Goyangdae-ro, 1F, Deogyang-gu, Goyang, Gyeonggi, and is open 06:00–22:00. Parking is available.

• 📍1578 Goyangdae-ro, 1F, Deogyang-gu, Goyang, Gyeonggi, South Korea
• ⏰06:00–22:00
• 🚘Parking available

🚘: The parking lot is huge!

Inside Gohyangok: a Goyang restaurant that works for solo diners

Walking into Gohyangok Eolkeun Sundaeguk Wondang Branch, the whole place had an easygoing atmosphere that made for a comfortable meal. It has that no-fuss sundae soup restaurant feel, so it's fine for eating alone, and there are plenty of solo seats too. Feels like a spot lots of people would come to for a hearty meal!

Sundae soup is great for a quick meal, but if you mix in rice with that hot broth, it's surprisingly filling, right? So when my friend said she wanted something warm and soupy that day, we decided on sundae soup right away.

Tablet ordering and what's on the self-service bar

At Gohyangok Eolkeun Sundaeguk Wondang Branch, you order right at your table using a tablet, and you can pay there too, all in one go.

Turns out if you want extra side dishes, you can just help yourself at the self-service bar!

The kkakdugi (radish kimchi) and kimchi here are genuinely delicious, and they even give you somyeon noodles to add into the sundae soup!

What does Gohyangok's spicy sundae soup broth taste like?

Sundae soup with an appealing spicy broth — what I was most looking forward to at Gohyangok Eolkeun Sundaeguk Wondang Branch was exactly that, the spicy broth! Unlike the usual milky-white sundae soup, this one has a clearly spicy edge right from the broth, so it should suit anyone who likes a hot, spicy gukbap (soup with rice). Take one spoonful and it's got that fiery-yet-good-with-rice flavor that kept me coming back for more.

Rather than being aggressively spicy for spice's sake, it was hot and warming in a way that made me think of it as a hangover cure too. And gukbap always tastes even better as you keep eating, past the first couple of spoonfuls! Pouring a bit of rice into the broth and eating it together — yep, this is exactly what gukbap should taste like.

With sundae soup, the fillings matter just as much. When I eat sundae soup, the broth matters, but I also pay close attention to how generous the fillings are. This one had plenty of sundae (blood sausage) and meat sitting in the hot broth, and with a bowl of rice it was more than enough for a full meal.

Old-school hamburg steak at a sundae soup restaurant

We also ordered the nostalgic hamburg steak! And honestly, this was the dish I was quietly most excited about that day — the nostalgic hamburg steak. A hamburg steak at a sundae soup restaurant felt a bit unexpected, which made me all the more curious, so we ordered it too. The soft patty with its sauce brought back exactly what the name promised — that old-school gyeongyangsik (Western-style) hamburg steak from childhood!

If the sundae soup is spicy and hot, the nostalgic hamburg steak is sweet and soft — each has its own charm. It's a great side dish to order if you're visiting with kids or just want something besides sundae soup.

Does the hinoki-steamed bossam go with the spicy broth?

For a side dish, we also got hinoki bossam. Bossam (boiled pork wraps) really is best eaten warm, and served in a hinoki (Japanese cypress) steamer, it looked appetizing from the moment it arrived.

The meat was on the soft and clean side, which paired well with the spicy sundae soup, and let the savory bossam flavor come through cleanly. Alternating between the spicy broth and a bite of mild bossam gave a really nice balance of flavors.

Try out a hot bowl of sundae soup together with the nostalgic hamburg steak and hinoki bossam at Gohyangok Eolkeun Sundaeguk Wondang Branch. If you're looking for gukbap in Wondang, it's worth a visit at least once.