Pyeongtaek noodle restaurant with kimchi rolled dumplings: Songdam

Hi, this is Ming9. This time I visited Songdam Kalguksu, a place I found while driving around the Anjung area of Pyeongtaek.

I went in expecting just a bowl of kalguksu (hand-cut noodle soup), but this place lets you cook vegetables, meat, and octopus together shabu-shabu style, so the spread ended up much more generous than I expected. Especially nice for two people who want to load up on ingredients and finish with porridge at the end — a good spot for a day when you want a proper full meal.

Where Songdam Kalguksu is and where to park

Songdam Kalguksu is located near Songdam in Anjung, Pyeongtaek. I drove there, and the restaurant has its own large parking lot, so parking was easy. The exterior is also easy to spot, so first-time visitors shouldn't have trouble finding it!

Inside Songdam Kalguksu and the house noodle-making room

Walking inside, there were far more seats than I expected. The space was large enough for families or groups to eat comfortably, and it felt set up to handle a lot of customers even during busy hours.

On one side there's a separate space for making the kalguksu noodles by hand, and staff happened to be kneading dough right there. Seeing the process start from the dough rather than just a machine cutting noodles got me a little excited before the food even arrived. It definitely felt like a proper kalguksu restaurant, and seeing the noodle-making area made the fact that everything is prepared in-house feel very natural.

There was also a separate waiting area inside where customers could rest before or after their meal. Since there can be a wait during meal times, having a spot to sit comfortably was nice. And out back there's a yard with an outdoor view — good for getting some air or taking in the scenery after eating, with a more relaxed atmosphere than inside.

Why weekends mean octopus and beef kalguksu, not shabu-shabu

The menu was built around kalguksu, with several options including beef and octopus. There's also a shabu-shabu menu, but unfortunately it's only available on weekdays. Since we visited on a weekend evening, we ordered one serving each of octopus kalguksu and beef kalguksu, and since we wanted to eat it shabu-shabu style, we added mixed vegetables, extra beef, and self-serve egg porridge.

Free barley rice and corn bread, side dishes and the self-serve corner

Something I quietly appreciated about Songdam Kalguksu: any order comes with free barley rice and corn bread. I didn't expect to end up eating barley rice on a kalguksu trip, haha.

The basic side dishes were kimchi and yeolmu kimchi (young radish kimchi), and I mixed the complimentary barley rice with the yeolmu kimchi and gochujang (red pepper paste). It was a nice light way to wake up the appetite before the main dishes arrived, and anyone who likes barley rice will probably be pleased with this setup.

Cheongyang chili peppers and garlic don't come as standard side dishes, but you can grab them yourself from the self-serve corner. You can also refill the broth from there when it runs low!

Cooking beef and octopus in the all-purpose broth: how it tasted

This place uses a base broth simmered with various seafood, hwangtae (dried pollack), vegetables, and sanghwang mushroom — a kind of all-purpose broth — and maybe that's why it had a subtle savory depth. The broth itself pairs well with a lot of ingredients, so the seasoning wasn't overpowering from the start, and it felt light even with vegetables, meat, and octopus added in.

Beef can get tough if overcooked, so it tasted best cooked lightly, shabu-shabu style, and dipped in sauce. Adding the mixed vegetables and letting them simmer added their flavor to the broth, deepening it more and more. Adding an extra order of beef made it plenty filling overall.

The octopus came out raw and whole, so cooking it in the pot right in front of us was fun to watch. It had a chewy texture that gave it a different appeal from the beef.

Ask for dagadi to turn the broth spicy midway

At first I ate it plain with the base broth, then about halfway through I stirred in some dagadi (chili paste mix). *You have to request dagadi separately! Once it went into the base broth, the soup turned spicy and the whole mood changed. Personally, I preferred enjoying the clean flavor first and then switching to spicy later rather than adding dagadi from the start.

Adding kimchi gulrim mandu (rolled dumplings)

Before coming, I'd read on Naver reviews that this place is known for its mandu (dumplings), so I ordered the kimchi gulrim mandu (rolled dumplings) too. The distinct spicy kick of the kimchi paired well with the now-spicy broth. The dumpling skin felt different from regular mandu, with a nice texture, and it was good to eat alongside everything else.

Finishing with the noodles and self-serve egg porridge

The finale: kalguksu and egg porridge! After eating the beef, octopus, and vegetables shabu-shabu style, it's time to add the noodles. The broth had absorbed plenty of flavor from the ingredients by then, so it tasted even deeper than at the start, and adding the noodles made for a proper full meal. (I was too busy inhaling it to take a photo of the noodles, oops.) The noodles were on the chewy side and went well with the broth, and after eating so much beforehand, the kalguksu alone was already quite filling.

But Koreans really do run on rice. We were already stuffed from shabu-shabu through kalguksu and thought we couldn't eat any more, but I couldn't skip the self-serve egg porridge we'd ordered. You add rice, egg, and dried seaweed flakes to the leftover broth, stir well while it simmers, and it's done. It was savory and soft, and my spoon kept going in even though I was completely full. I said 'really the last bite' a good few times while polishing off the egg porridge, and by the time we left, the two of us were on the verge of bursting.

Verdict: order the basic set on a first visit

Overall, Songdam Kalguksu felt less like a place for a simple bowl of kalguksu and more like a spot to enjoy shabu-shabu, kalguksu, and egg porridge all in one generous sitting. Starting with the clean broth and cooking beef, octopus, and vegetables shabu-shabu style, then turning it spicy with dagadi partway through, was a nice touch — the same dish tasting a little different as you go.

Adding the noodles and finishing with egg porridge made for a meal that felt like it would burst our stomachs. We added mixed vegetables, beef, and egg porridge, but even the basic menu alone comes in a pretty generous portion, so if it's your first visit, I'd suggest starting with the basic set and adding on if you want more. The free barley rice and corn bread with every order was also a quietly satisfying touch.

This should suit anyone looking for shabu-shabu in Anjung, Pyeongtaek, or a hearty Korean meal in general. If you like kalguksu, it's worth a visit whenever you're craving noodles in Anjung, Pyeongtaek. Songdam Kalguksu — where the two of us added on until we were completely stuffed. I came away having had a proper, full meal that day!