Gumi black goat restaurant with parents, 19-team noon wait: Irojeong

Irojeong is a newly opened loach soup and black goat specialty restaurant near Geumosan in Gumi. In this hot weather, I figured a lot of people are looking for a good restorative-food spot to take their parents to. Here's my honest review after going with my parents and properly recharging on black goat soup and boiled meat — visit tips and a final verdict are at the very bottom.

Irojeong Gumi Geumosan Direct Branch — location and hours

• Address: 32 Bakjeonghui-ro, Gumi-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea
• Hours: Daily 11:00–21:00 (break time 15:30–17:00)
• Groups welcome, takeout available, private parking lot on site
• Table-booking app recommended for waiting

Since it's called the "Geumosan direct branch," I looked up whether it's actually close to Geumosan — turns out it's about a 20-minute drive away.

Storefront and parking info

Since it just opened, the exterior looks clean, and since it's a standalone building it was easy to find.

There's a separate parking area right in front of the restaurant, and it's quite large. According to Naver it fits about 60 cars — the place was crowded, but thanks to the lot I could eat without worrying about parking 👍

How long is the weekend daytime wait? A look at the waiting area

I want to say that a table-booking reservation is a must at Irojeong on weekends, because I actually messed this up myself.

I definitely made a table-booking reservation before I left the house. But when I arrived, my wait-confirmation code wasn't showing up... Turns out I'd clicked wrong and ended up booking a wait at a different restaurant listed right below it. So sad ㅠㅠ In the end I had to join the waitlist on site, and at noon on a weekend, there were 19 teams ahead of me. Still, the restaurant is big with good turnover, so it only took about 30 minutes before I was seated.

One thing I really want to recommend about Irojeong is how well set up the waiting area is.

There's sujeonggwa (cinnamon-persimmon punch) and light snacks prepared for waiting guests,

and there are even iced cups ready to go 🧊☕️ After a meal I usually want coffee, so having iced cups on hand felt like a fresh service — you can pack sujeonggwa or coffee to go as dessert 👍

After about a 30-minute wait, I was shown to Room 5.

The hall, group rooms, and individual rooms are all separate, and I found out it can host groups of up to 30. I wondered if it was built for group tourists visiting Geumosan, but either way it felt like a private space to eat in, which my parents liked even more.

Ordering the black goat boiled meat set for three

We ordered the black goat boiled meat set for three (black goat soup + black goat boiled meat). Since I went with my parents, I got three servings of the black goat boiled meat set.

Basic side dishes come out, but there's also a self-serve bar for refills, and I noticed watermelon — a summer seasonal fruit — was also set out as dessert 🍉 There were thin noodles ready to add into the soup or hot pot too, but I was already full from the basic spread so I didn't get to the noodles haha.

Side dishes and loach fritters

The side dishes that came out first were neatly arranged in ceramic bowls. The fritters turned out to be loach fritters. It was my first time trying loach fritters — at first I thought it was just regular meat fritter. The more I chewed, the more savory and unique it tasted.

Odor-free black goat soup

Next, the black goat soup came out right away. It had a good amount of meat in it and was generously filled with ingredients.

Korean identity = garlic. You can never go wrong with plenty of garlic. To describe the black goat soup — the broth was rich with absolutely no gamey odor, and my body felt warm from the very first spoonful. It had a feel somewhat similar to gamjatang (pork bone soup), hearty and filling with soft, tender black goat meat.

👩 Mom said — "Getting rid of that black goat smell is usually so hard, but this place really does it well."

Black goat boiled meat and perilla-vinegar-chili sauce

Next came the black goat hot pot, served with chives and mushrooms underneath — it looked modest but turned out to have quite a generous amount when I actually dug in. I expected fewer chives, but the amount was just right, and the black goat meat really pulled apart tenderly. It was softer than pork boiled meat, and paired especially well with the dipping sauce.

The black goat boiled meat is tasty on its own, but wrapping it with chives, mushrooms, and the perilla-vinegar-chili sauce and eating it all in one bite was absolute perfection — it melts in your mouth. I feel like I could eat just this for three meals straight.

My dad usually eats less than me and has a small appetite, but he cleaned his entire bowl of black goat soup. He said it had been a while since he'd had such a delicious meal, and the rice just kept going down easily.

Of course, since I have the bigger appetite, I finished off both the black goat soup and the boiled meat completely, and even had all the watermelon dessert on top of that.

Final verdict and visit tips

• There's a wait, so a table-booking reservation is recommended
• The parking lot is very spacious, making it easy to visit
• The meat itself was tender — maybe they use young black goat — and it was plated neatly, a treat for parents' eyes too
• There are iced cups so you can grab coffee for dessert — the place is just really thoughtful

That was my satisfying review of Irojeong, a great restaurant near Geumosan in Gumi.