Seoul duck BBQ indoors with cheese potato pancake: Gongjung Dodeok

Gongjung Dodeok: a duck restaurant between Gongdeok and Daeheung stations

Gongjung Dodeok is a duck restaurant located between Gongdeok Station and Daeheung Station. I'd had amazing duck near Hanyang University before, and suddenly I was craving duck again!! Then I found this duck place nearby!!

Gongjung Dodeok has both an outdoor terrace and indoor seating, so it's perfect for weather like this when eating outside is so nice!

There's also a Catch Table reservation sign out front, but since we came at 5:30 on a weekday there were still seats open, so it looked like they'd blocked off Catch Table bookings for the time being!

I'd actually been curious about what the name Gongjung Dodeok meant even before coming, and there was a sign right at the entrance explaining it — a duck restaurant in Gongdeok where many people come together to enjoy the flavor!! Reading that, I thought, they really picked a great name haha

Reserving an indoor table for 5:30 on a weekday

We arrived earlier than I expected, but both the outdoor terrace and the indoor area already had a decent number of people in them!! This place is clearly a real hidden gem in Daeheung and Gongdeok?! We'd made a reservation just in case, and sure enough our table was kept for us haha. We do like the outdoor terrace too, but today we wanted to eat somewhere clean and enclosed, so we reserved an indoor table!!

Ordering is done through KakaoPay attached to the table!! You scan the QR code to check the menu haha

What comes with the Gongjung half-and-half set (medium)

Here's how the dinner menu is laid out — since we're greedy, we wanted both roast duck and bulgogi, so we ordered the Gongjung half-and-half set in the medium size haha

Once you order, they set the table with side dishes first — pickled radish and perilla leaves that go so well with duck, two dipping sauces, green onion kimchi, and pickled chili peppers

And after a short wait, out comes the duck!! At the last duck place we went to, they grilled the roast first and then the bulgogi, but at Gongjung Dodeok both came out together on one pan! Honestly, I always want bulgogi while eating roast and roast while eating bulgogi, so having both on one pan at once was so nice haha

Seeing the duck laid out like that, I thought there's no way we're not drinking, so I ordered Chamisul soju right away! Then I saw draft beer on the menu too, so I ordered a glass of Yebisu draft as well haha

The free gonggamtang duck soup at Gongjung Dodeok

There were two burners, and I wondered what the second one was for — turns out it's for the complimentary gonggamtang (duck soup) that comes with any duck order!! Inside there's duck meat, mushrooms, minari (water celery), onion and other ingredients packed in generously, plus perilla seed powder — one spoonful per glass of soju is basically the rule! haha

Grill it yourself, or ask the staff to check doneness

The duck slowly cooking away~ I thought staff would grill it for us, but since Gongjung Dodeok is so busy, the setup is that you grill it yourself so it doesn't burn, and staff will tell you whether it's ready when you ask! When we thought it looked about done, we asked a staff member, and they told us the bulgogi was ready to eat right away, while the roast needed a bit more time haha

Cheese potato pancake: julienned potato, cheese and corn

We're the type who can't go without carbs, so we ordered a pancake too haha. Of the three pancake options, what we craved today was the cheese potato pancake! Unlike the regular potato pancakes I know, this one uses julienned potato piled high with cheese and corn kernels!!

One bite and the potato was crispy yet chewy, and the cheese was mild and clean — so good haha

Roast duck with pickled radish, bulgogi with ranch sauce

By then the duck was fully cooked, so we took a bite — the roast wasn't heavily seasoned, more clean and mild! I actually like strong seasoning, so lol, I tried one bite with perilla leaf plus pickled radish, and another with perilla leaf plus pickled radish and sauce on top, and the pickled radish paired amazingly with the duck — so good haha

The duck bulgogi was already great on its own, but I noticed ranch sauce on the table and got curious, so I wrapped it in perilla leaf and dipped it in ranch — genuinely a delicacy!! I finally understood why they give you that sauce haha

Finishing with self-cooked fried rice

After thoroughly enjoying the meat, we debated between plain rice and fried rice, but c'mon — if you're at a duck restaurant you have to get the fried rice, right~? So we ordered it, and the fried rice is self-serve!! My boyfriend worked hard frying it up haha. The fried rice comes with chopped kimchi mixed in too, so the savory kimchi flavor mingled with the duck taste and we scraped the pan clean like it was dessert, then crawled home happy haha. I had no idea there was such a great duck restaurant around here — good vibes, good food, definitely want to come back again sometime!!

Gongjung Dodeok: address, seating and visit tips

• Location: 28 Baekbeom-ro 20-gil, 1st floor, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Parking: Not available
• Nearest stations: Daeheung Station, Gongdeok Station
• Alcohol and corkage: Free corkage