Sindang Market chicken restaurant with doenjang makguksu: Gyeryugwan

Monday already! Real life got busy last week so my posting fell behind ㅠ Let me catch up with a quick record of last week's eating haha!

Last week I met my husband and our kid for dinner on his way home from work, and we headed to Sindang. Every time I go to Sindang I seem to discover a new favorite spot. I love the distinct atmosphere of the market alleys, and these days there are so many quirky restaurants tucked in there that I end up going out of my way to find them.

This time I wanted to eat chicken a little differently, so we went to Gyeryugwan (계류관). It's not your average fried chicken place — they do everything from oak-fired chicken to dishes using specialty chicken parts, so even the menu itself was fun to read.

Where is Gyeryugwan in Sindang, and what are its hours?

• Address: 15-17 Toegye-ro 87-gil, Units 102·103, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Location: About 3 minutes on foot from Sindang Station Exit 2
• Hours: Daily 16:00–23:00
• Last order: 22:00
• Parking: No dedicated lot; use nearby paid parking

Gyeryugwan sits down an alley inside Sindang Station's Jungang Market. There tends to be a wait during the dinner peak, so it might be worth arriving a bit early if you can. Double-check the hours before you go, just in case.

Oak-fired chicken with neungi mushrooms: Gyeryugwan's signature dish

We ordered four things: oak-fired chicken with neungi mushrooms, assorted chicken jeon (pan-fried fritters), dakgaejang (spicy shredded chicken soup), and meat-doenjang makguksu (buckwheat noodles). If you come to Gyeryugwan, the oak-fired neungi mushroom chicken is hard to skip.

The outside is roasted golden while the inside is stuffed with sticky rice, garlic, mushrooms and more, so it's clearly different from a regular whole chicken. Eating the whole bird along with the sticky rice made it pretty filling as a full meal, too.

I get why Gyeryugwan comes up so often when people talk about oak-fired chicken in Sindang-dong. The combination of chicken infused with woodsmoke aroma, eaten together with sticky rice, really gives the place its own identity.

Assorted chicken jeon: a plate to taste a bit of everything

Second up was the assorted chicken jeon. The table could have felt a little one-note with just the oak-fired chicken, but adding the jeon made everything feel much more generous.

You get to experience a range of flavors and textures from chicken all on one plate, which struck me as great for sharing as an anju (drinking snack) with a group too. Taking a familiar ingredient like chicken and reworking it into so many different forms — that's part of the fun of a chicken specialist like Gyeryugwan.

Why order the meat-doenjang makguksu with the chicken

Personally, the most interesting part of the Gyeryugwan lineup was the meat-doenjang makguksu! Even the name sounds a little unusual.

It's buckwheat noodles tossed with a salty, savory meat-doenjang (soybean paste with meat), so it's a completely different vibe from the sweet-and-tangy makguksu I usually eat. Especially after a few bites of the oak-fired chicken, a bite of the makguksu really reset my palate — a great pairing to order together.

Finishing the meal with hot dakgaejang

On top of all that, ordering dakgaejang too really made it feel like a full chicken course haha. If the oak-fired chicken, jeon, and makguksu each have their own personality, the dakgaejang was the dish I reached for at the end, when I wanted something hot and soupy.

First time at Gyeryugwan in Sindang? What to order and expect

Between all the different chicken dishes, we got a pretty thorough taste of Gyeryugwan's menu! If you want chicken that's a little different from plain fried chicken or dakbokkeumtang (spicy braised chicken), it's worth a visit.

If the wait feels like too much, try going right at opening time, and if it's your first visit, do what we did — build around the signature oak-fired chicken and add the makguksu or another chicken dish. You can also browse the Sindang Market alleys while you're there, so it makes for a nice little Sindang outing along with the meal.