Busan Chinatown gukbap restaurant for an after-run dinner: Yeongdong

✔️Open daily (closed on Chuseok day) ⏰10:00–20:30 (check hours during Chuseok holiday!) 🅿️Chinatown public parking lot (no validation)

Yeongdong Milmyeon & Dwaeji Gukbap near Busan Station: milmyeon noodles and pork soup on one menu

My dad said 'mom's not home tonight, let's go get gukbap,' so I ended up back at Yeongdong Milmyeon & Dwaeji Gukbap near Busan Station! When you're visiting from out of town, you've got to try the local food, and this Korean restaurant lets you taste both milmyeon and dwaeji gukbap in one place — perfect for tourists!

It's not one of those tourist-trap places that phones it in — as a Busan local myself, I've been back here many times because it's the real deal. They even let you store luggage, so you can just set your big suitcase down beside you and eat without any hassle. Huge plus!

Why Yeongdong Milmyeon & Dwaeji Gukbap stays busy even on a weekday evening

I'd just gone for a run and was too hot for gukbap, so I figured I'd at least get some cool milmyeon. Maybe because they also sell milmyeon even in the hot summer, the place never emptied out on a weekday evening, and with a baby chair available, families could visit comfortably too — a real Busan Station favorite, Yeongdong Milmyeon.

As a Busan native I love old-school spots, but some dwaeji gukbap places have that unpleasant pork smell hitting you as you walk in. This place has zero gamey smell and feels clean, which is exactly why I keep coming back.

The menu and what we ordered: suyuk baekban and dwaeji gukbap

Menu

Once we actually sat down at this Busan Station favorite, I noticed most people were ordering gukbap, so I figured I should refuel on protein after my run haha. I went with the suyuk baekban and dad got dwaeji gukbap — he's an original-flavor kind of guy!

Receipt review

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Table condiments and side dishes at Yeongdong Milmyeon & Dwaeji Gukbap

Each table has chili paste (dadaegi), salted shrimp, pepper, vinegar and mustard, so you can season to taste! With dwaeji gukbap, the base broth matters, but the flavor changes completely depending on what you add yourself, so I love that every table has its own set of sauces haha.

They brought the side dishes out as soon as we ordered. At a gukbap place, good kimchi in a few varieties is a must-pass test! The kimchi tasted like a cool, freshly-made geotjeori, and the diced radish kimchi (kkakdugi) was crisp, not mushy — totally my style. With dad there, we went through a ton of chives and garlic and kept asking for refills — I felt a little bad about it haha.

Eating just the two of us, dad and me, after a while — hah! Drinking beer right after a run, what am I doing... but it was too hot to resist!

Suyuk baekban: thick boiled pork and a milky broth

Suyuk baekban

Dad kept piling on the chives even though I said I didn't want that much haha. The broth itself had big chunks of green onion in it, giving it a great crisp texture.

A milky-white, clean broth with no gamey smell at all!! That's why people from anywhere would enjoy it, no matter their taste.

The suyuk at this Busan Station favorite, Yeongdong Milmyeon, comes thickly sliced, but with a good balance of lean meat to fat, it's tender and soft without feeling heavy. Enjoy the suyuk first with dried radish strips and salted shrimp~

The best order for eating suyuk baekban

Wrap it up neatly in romaine lettuce~~ Load it up with garlic and dried radish strips and pop it in your mouth in one bite! If it gets a little much, just drink some of the soup right after. Another suyuk baekban tip — toward the end, put the leftover suyuk into the broth along with any remaining rice and enjoy it like a dwaeji gukbap haha. Being able to eat it multiple different ways is why I prefer suyuk baekban.

Dwaeji gukbap: my dad's seasoning combination

Dwaeji gukbap

Everyone has their own way of dressing up dwaeji gukbap, and dad's style is kimchi, chives, chili paste and salted shrimp all mixed in haha.

Dad's broth ended up tasting a lot like the cool tang of kimchi and chili flakes(?) haha. A bit different from my style, but we're the same in eating a ton of garlic — can't live without it~~~

Dad polished off every last bit haha. I heard a second location opened at the Hotel Ashti near Busan Station — a sign of how much both locals and out-of-towners trust this place!! Next time I'll have to check out the new second branch.