Beef soup restaurant in Gwangju with mushroom-packed usintang: Dugeori

I was looking for a Gwangju Hyocheon-district spot that's easy to eat at for lunch but also works as a place to grab drinks in the evening, and that's how I ended up at Dugeori Usintang Imam Branch, located in Imam-dong, Gwangju.

The name literally puts 'spicy' (辛) next to 'beef' (牛), and true to that, this place is known for its own especially spicy beef soup.

If you like a hearty, spicy broth, this is definitely worth a visit as a Gwangju Hyocheon-district restaurant haha.

Parking and opening hours at Dugeori Usintang Imam Branch

Dugeori Usintang Imam Branch is located at Imam-dong 849, Nam-gu, Gwangju. It's open daily from 10:30 AM to 10:00 PM. What I liked most was that there's a dedicated parking lot right in front of the restaurant.

Parking availability matters a lot when you're driving. Especially when you're heading out with family to a Gwangju Hyocheon-district restaurant, easy parking makes the whole meal feel less stressful — and this place delivered.

We drove there too, and it was so convenient being able to park right in front of the restaurant.

Inside Dugeori Usintang: a big room with well-spaced tables

The exterior already looked clean and tidy, and stepping inside, the dining room was bigger than I expected. The tables were spaced generously too, so I never felt cramped against the next table — it made the whole meal feel comfortable. Dugeori Usintang Imam Branch is open every day of the year with no break time, so it's convenient whether you're stopping by for lunch or coming in the evening for dinner or a drink.

The Dugeori Usintang menu and what to order for lunch

Looking over the menu, there was a good range — from soup dishes like usintang and galbitang to usinjjim, special jeongol, and usin jeongol. Usinjjim, special jeongol, and usin jeongol are all for two or more people. The special jeongol especially caught my eye, since it comes as a course with galbi, shabu-shabu, udon, and porridge all together.

If you're coming with a group in the evening, the jeongol would pair nicely with a drink. Since we were just having a simple lunch that day, we ordered one galbitang and one usintang.

If you're after a lunch dish at a Gwangju Hyocheon-district restaurant, both of these felt like solid, easy-to-eat options.

Side dishes and fresh perilla leaves topped with sauce

After a short wait, the side dishes came out — perilla leaves, ggakdugi (diced radish kimchi), salted squid, and white kimchi, all good pairings for the soups. One thing that stood out was that the fresh perilla leaves came topped with a sauce. The staff told us it's a real treat if you put meat on top of that leaf and eat it that way. At first I wondered why there was sauce on the perilla leaf, but once I tried it with the galbitang meat on top, the combination worked better than I expected haha.

Any extra side dishes could be grabbed freely from the self-serve bar, which felt convenient for a group — nobody has to feel awkward about taking more.

Galbitang at 14,000 won: how does the clear broth taste?

Our galbitang arrived. It came out bubbling in a stone pot, and just the sight of it looked like it would warm you right up. The galbitang has a clear broth style, and you can add pepper to taste.

I lifted up one of the rib bones and the meat pulled away smoothly. It wasn't stuck stubbornly to the bone, so it was easy to pick apart with chopsticks. Most of all, the broth was clean-tasting. Apparently they make fresh stock every morning, which probably explains the depth of flavor in the broth. It wasn't an aggressively salty galbitang but a clean one, so I kept going back for more! 👍👍👍

Following the staff's suggestion, I tried putting rib meat over rice and wrapping it in the sauced perilla leaf.

Eating it this way brought out a different flavor than just eating it plain — it was good.

It also paired nicely with the ggakdugi — if you order the galbitang, try wrapping the meat in a perilla leaf.

This combo was surprisingly good haha.

Usintang, the dish at Dugeori that won me over

And finally, the usintang — Dugeori Usintang's signature dish — arrived. Even before tasting it, the broth in the stone pot looked incredibly appetizing. The red broth had me expecting a spicy hit, but taking a spoonful, it was actually much cleaner-tasting than I'd anticipated.

It was spicy but also had a deep beef-broth flavor, making it a great match with rice.

I'm generally a fan of red, spicy broths, and this one ranked among my favorites out of everything I've eaten recently. 👍👍👍

It's the kind of broth you keep going back to spoonful after spoonful — I found myself dunking rice in it without even realizing haha. There was plenty of meat inside the usintang, and the mushrooms and vegetables were more generous than I expected.

Why Dugeori's usintang is packed with mushrooms and vegetables

I really love mushrooms, so I was thrilled to find so many varieties in the usintang. There were oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, and wood ear mushrooms, plus scallions and bracken fern. It wasn't just a soup loaded with meat — the variety of vegetables gave it a nice range of textures throughout the meal.

The spicy broth paired especially well with the mushrooms. The meat was great on its own, but I tried the perilla-leaf wrap again with this one too.

Wrapping the meat in the sauced perilla leaf matched really well with the spicy flavor of the usintang. A spoonful of broth, a bite of meat, a spoonful of rice — before I knew it, the bowl was nearly empty haha.

Glutinous pot rice and a sungnyung finish

At Dugeori Usintang, the rice isn't just a regular bowl of rice. It comes as freshly cooked glutinous pot rice, which takes about 10 minutes after ordering. We properly enjoyed the pot rice while eating our meal. After finishing most of the rice, you pour water into the pot, and in the end you get to enjoy a savory sungnyung (scorched-rice tea) and nurungji (crispy scorched rice).

I'm a fan of finishing a meal with sungnyung, so I enjoyed it to the very last sip. It paired especially well with a bit of salted squid on top.

Filling up on soup and then finishing with warm sungnyung made the meal feel really complete haha.

Galbitang or usintang: which one should you order?

Galbitang would suit those who like a clear, mild broth, while usintang is one I'd recommend to anyone who likes a hearty, spicy broth like I do. Either way, both dishes come loaded with meat, so as a lunch meal they left me full and satisfied.

Having a dedicated parking lot and no break time also made things easy. With convenient parking and a fairly spacious dining room, it seems like a low-pressure choice for a family meal or a get-together with friends. If you love a hearty, spicy beef soup, Dugeori Usintang Imam Branch is worth a visit as a Gwangju Hyocheon-district restaurant.