Gwacheon seaweed soup restaurant, ₩2,000 kid rice charge: Haenon

On our way to Seoul Land in Gwacheon, we stopped by Haenon Miyeok Gwacheon Direct Branch, a Gwacheon Korean restaurant known for miyeok-guk (seaweed soup). I heard all Haenon Miyeok locations are directly operated. It's close to Seoul Land, so it's a great option if you want a filling meal before heading in.

Why Haenon Miyeok Gwacheon works as a stop before Seoul Land

Haenon Miyeok Gwacheon Direct Branch is close to Seoul Land, so it's a convenient Korean restaurant to visit before or after your outing. I've actually been to another branch near my house a few times, so I was happy to see one in Gwacheon too.

Seaweed soup is especially good for eating with kids, so there seemed to be a lot of families around. We came with our daughter Chukbok, and sure enough, most of the other customers were families too.

Self-serve banchan bar, with salad and chicken served to the table

At this Gwacheon Korean restaurant, you can help yourself to side dishes at a clean self-serve bar. Among today's banchan, the salad and chicken were the only items not at the bar — everything else was self-serve. I'm not sure if the chicken and salad are refillable, but the portions were generous enough that we didn't run short.

Ordering by tablet at Haenon Miyeok: we chose the beef seaweed soup

Haenon Miyeok Gwacheon Direct Branch takes orders through a table order tablet, and I put together a little menu table for anyone curious. We ordered the beef seaweed soup.

The side dishes seem to stay the same regardless of which soup you order — only the seaweed soup itself changes. I prefer beef over seafood, so I went with beef, but if you like seafood, the Tongyeong oyster or mussel seaweed soup looked good too.

The dish our child ate most: japchae

The self-serve bar had japchae (glass noodle stir-fry) and some clean namul (seasoned vegetable) side dishes, which made it easy to eat with kids. Japchae especially is something everyone loves, young and old. Our Chukbok ate it up happily. Having a side dish like this really does make feeding kids so much easier.

Free abalone for birthdays and moms-to-be, plus the review event

Haenon Miyeok Gwacheon Direct Branch offers free abalone for birthday guests and pregnant customers. And it looks like joining their review event gets you fried shrimp or mini jeon (savory pancake). We didn't take part this time, but I'd like to try it next time we have the chance.

What the full table setting includes

You get salad, fried flounder, japchae, and six side dishes. I don't think the fried flounder is refillable. As mentioned above, everything except salad and chicken was at the self-serve bar. It seems like you could ask for more chicken, but we had plenty so we didn't request extra.

How rich is the beef seaweed soup broth?

Our seaweed soup arrived. The portion was generous and the broth was really rich. We both love beef seaweed soup, so that's what we ordered.

Visiting with a child? Rice costs 2,000 won extra

Rice is free at Haenon Miyeok Gwacheon Direct Branch, but kids who don't order their own menu item are charged an extra ₩2,000 by default. Since we had Chukbok with us, we paid the extra ₩2,000. We didn't need to add any extra rice on top of that. Something worth knowing if you're bringing a preschooler.