Sindang Station chicken restaurant with herring roe sauce: Gyeryugwan

My friend and I were meeting up in Sindang, and I was looking for somewhere that could double as dinner and drinks after work — and found Gyeryugwan! It's mainly chicken dishes, and the side dishes looked really solid, so we went for it.

Where Gyeryugwan is in Sindang, and what it looks like outside

Gyeryugwan is near Sindang Jungang Market, at 15-17 Toegye-ro 87-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul. The exterior has a distinctly Japanese-izakaya vibe.

Is there a wait at Gyeryugwan at 8pm on a weekday?

We got there after 8pm on a weekday and there was still a wait. Apparently dinnertime always has a wait here — busy enough to have a line even on a weekday during vacation season!

Waiting is registered via a tablet — you can only get on the list through CatchTable or in-person registration.

Inside Gyeryugwan: seating and the restroom indoors

Clean wood-toned interior! Good vibe for friends, couples, or coworkers alike. It was so hot outside but the place was nicely cool — loved that.

Semi-open kitchen! And the restroom is inside the store, which I really appreciated — I go to the bathroom a lot, so having it outside would be annoying. This one's inside and separated by gender.

What's on the Gyeryugwan menu?

True to the name, chicken dishes are the main event. Not just chicken meat either — there are side dishes made from chicken feet, gizzards, and more. Oak-fired chicken is the signature dish. You order by scanning a QR code at the table!

There's a menu with photos too, which made it easy to pick by looking at the pictures.

What we ordered at Gyeryugwan, and the side dishes included

We ordered oak-fired neungi mushroom chicken, assorted chicken jeon (savory pancake), and doenjang (soybean paste) makguksu (buckwheat noodles). First, the basic side dishes: kimchi and pickles. I like well-fermented kimchi, and this napa cabbage kimchi was perfectly ripened — so good!

Oak-fired chicken with neungi mushroom

I figured grilled chicken would take a while, but it was already on the grill so it came out super fast! I was hungry, so I loved that — waited maybe under 3 minutes. The visual was incredible, like something you'd eat as a tonic to recover your strength.

They gave us three dipping sauces for the grilled chicken. The white one is a tartar-plus-onion kind of sauce — I love mayo-style sauces so this was totally my thing, and even if you don't like mayo, it wouldn't disappoint. The red one is herring roe! At other restaurants herring roe is always an add-on, but here it comes as standard! And the last one is ssamjang (seasoned soybean paste).

The basic kimchi side dish was also perfect with the chicken! Now I get why they serve kimchi as the default side.

The oak-fired chicken is the signature dish, and pretty much every table had ordered it. It comes stuffed full with neungi mushroom hot pot rice — the rice alone looked like enough for two bowls.

You can see how much rice is packed in there! And it's not just plain glutinous rice — it's tasty on its own too.

It pulled apart really easily. The chicken was genuinely so tender! All the fat had rendered out so it was light and savory. And because it's grilled, the skin was legendary — so crispy I could've eaten just the skin.

We fought over the drumstick and I won it! Truly the definition of crispy-outside-juicy-inside — crunchy skin and moist, tender meat, a legendary combo!

The white sauce was really my favorite. I expected the mayo/tartar-style sauce to be heavy, but it was creamy with a slight tang and genuinely delicious. Surprisingly good match!

And the herring roe was actually even better eaten with the rice inside than with the chicken itself — a real winner!

Doenjang makguksu (buckwheat noodles in soybean paste) with chicken feet pyeonyuk

Soybean-paste noodles? Interesting enough that we ordered it as a palate cleanser! And of course chicken couldn't be left out — it came topped with braised chicken feet pyeonyuk (sliced pressed meat). I'd seen chicken feet pyeonyuk in the market and always wondered about it!

Braised meat sat on top of the seasoning sauce, so as the meat soaked into the sauce and you ate it with the noodles, it was savory and delicious. This one paired especially well alongside the meat dishes. (You can spot the soju behind the noodles — so refreshing!)

Assorted chicken jeon (pan-fried chicken patties)

Chicken jeon (savory fritter) — that's a new one, so we had to try it! Filling enough for a meal and perfect as a side dish too — great menu item. The portion was huge. It includes thigh meat, heart, neck, breast, cartilage, and more, all different parts! There's also a chili pepper jeon stuffed with chicken meatball filling — absolutely delicious. Definitely not just one or two parts — a real assortment of chicken!

Onion soy sauce came alongside it for dipping! Not just plain soy sauce — it had onion and chili in it too, which was great.

The assorted chicken jeon was genuinely delicious!!! I thought jeon is just jeon, but this felt new — somehow fresh yet totally familiar since it's made with chicken!! I kept thinking, how did anyone come up with making jeon out of chicken?

Every single piece was good, nothing disappointing. The heart was savory and delicious! Heart jeon is genuinely a new experience.

The chili pepper jeon with chicken meatball filling had crunchy chili wrapped around the meatball, which gave it great texture. I already love chili jeon, so this was totally my style.

The meat was also cut to just the right thickness, so you could really enjoy the flavor of the jeon.

Is Gyeryugwan in Sindang worth the wait?

I made it out to Gyeryugwan in Sindang, and it was clearly the kind of restaurant that draws a weekday-evening wait! The assorted chicken jeon was new yet familiar and so delicious that I want to try it with makgeolli (rice wine) next time. And the oak-fired chicken is the ultimate crispy-outside-juicy-inside dish!

If you're looking for a place for dinner drinks, and you want a variety of chicken dishes, I recommend Gyeryugwan in Sindang.