Gamjatang restaurant in Suncheon, 10-year regular: Namdareun Gamjatang

The gamjatang place we visited every week 10 years ago just reopened

Back when our kid was in daycare, we came to Namdareun Gamjatang, a Suncheon gamjatang (pork bone stew) favorite, almost every week — we loved the stew, the unlimited ramyeon noodle refills, and the big play room. When I heard the restaurant had reopened at a new location, I went back after a long while. This was about 10 years ago, when play-room restaurants were rare in Suncheon, but now you see them everywhere. Maybe that's why the new location doesn't have a play room anymore. *Even the kids remembered and asked, 'Where did the big play room go?' haha

But the gamjatang was still just as delicious as ever, and the dining space felt even cleaner and nicer, so we promised the kids we'd come back often.

Namdareun Gamjatang Suncheon Jorye branch basics

• Address: 123 Baegyeon-gil, 1F, Suncheon-si
• Hours: Daily 10:00–23:00 / last order 22:20
• Parking: Available in front of and beside the restaurant
• No play room / baby chairs available

Namdareun Gamjatang Suncheon Jorye branch recently relocated to a new spot. Even from the outside, it looks much cleaner and more put-together than the old place! It's conveniently located for anyone near Jorye-dong and Wangji-dong in Suncheon, making it a great dinner spot, and the dedicated parking space made parking easy too.

From floor seating to table seating, and no more play room

When my kid was little, Namdareun Gamjatang had floor seating where you took your shoes off, but now it's a full table-seating setup. My guess is that with fewer newborns these days, and families with kids tending to head toward Sindae instead, they've shifted their target customers to adults. Still, it was nice to see the self-serve bar and the unlimited broth and ramyeon noodle refills were still there.

Menu and prices at Namdareun Gamjatang in Suncheon

As the name suggests, Namdareun Gamjatang's signature dishes are gamjatang (pork bone stew), bone steam, and bone haejangguk (hangover soup): bone haejangguk (Namjatang) is ₩11,000, and gamjatang (Namdareun Bone Hotpot) comes in small ₩32,000, medium ₩38,000, and large ₩44,000. Compared to the national average for gamjatang (?), the prices are pretty reasonable. You can check the full menu and prices posted at the entrance before going in.

Four side dishes, and 3 refills of radish kimchi

The side dishes are geotjeori (fresh cabbage kimchi), kkakdugi (radish kimchi), seasoned bean sprouts, and cheongyang chili peppers — four in total, and the kkakdugi is seriously delicious. We refilled just the kkakdugi three times +_+ Also, there's dumpling soup dough (sujebi) at the self-serve bar, so make sure to grab some and add it before the stew starts boiling so it cooks properly. Most gamjatang places charge an extra ₩3,000 if you order both a dumpling dough serving and a ramyeon noodle serving, but here they give it free, and even unlimited refills!!!!

One serving of ramyeon noodles comes set up before the meal starts, and for extra orders you press the tablet to call staff and ask for more ramyeon noodles and/or broth.

Namdareun Bone Hotpot (medium) ₩38,000

We ordered the Namdareun Bone Hotpot in medium size with two bowls of rice. Honestly, I was planning ahead for fried rice by controlling the rice bowl count, but in the end my son slurped down both bowls himself, and everyone was too full for fried rice, so we decided to save it for next time. ㅠ

The portion was slightly too much for 3 people but just right for 4 — the Namdareun Bone Hotpot came out generously topped with big pork bones, perilla leaves, and ground perilla seeds even before it started bubbling, looking hearty just from the sight of it.

My second kid polished off two whole bowls of rice by herself. The rice comes packed full and glossy — this is a real Suncheon gamjatang favorite! The kkakdugi pieces were a bit large, so we cut them with the scissors provided.

The bone meat and broth are unchanged after 10 years

Once the broth starts bubbling, you push the perilla leaves and mushrooms toward the broth side and scoop the napa cabbage greens and bone meat into your own bowl. The napa greens here are soft and delicious too — my daughter got greedy and ate them all. Some gamjatang places serve dry, tough meat, but Namdareun Gamjatang in Suncheon has served nothing but tender, thick, meaty bones for over 10 years straight. No wonder they have so many regulars!

The bone meat falls apart easily even with just a light pull of the chopsticks +_+ Dipping it in mustard sauce is a must, of course. The broth at Namdareun Gamjatang is nutty and rich thanks to the ground perilla seeds and perilla leaves, with a spicy kick on top, so you keep scooping up spoonfuls of the broth too.

A carb party with ramyeon noodles and dumpling dough

Since the ramyeon noodles are given for free, it'd be a shame not to eat them, so after finishing off most of the bone meat, we threw in the noodle serving plus more broth. Be sure to grab the dumpling dough from the self-serve bar too and boil it together with the noodles for a full carb party :) haha. The chewy dumpling dough soaks up the rich gamjatang broth and it's really delicious.

One more bag of unlimited ramyeon noodles! We were planning to eat fried rice, but got too full on the extra noodles, so once again fried rice got pushed to next time...

Even after moving to a new location, the rich broth, generous meat, and the kkakdugi that pairs perfectly with the gamjatang are still our family's favorites! Namdareun Gamjatang, the Suncheon spot I've been visiting steadily for about 10 years — we wrapped up a happy family meal, promising to come back again soon.