Cauldron rice with special sauce combo at Hyangtaek Daebong, Daegu

I was searching for a place to eat near Gyeongbuk Uni Hospital Station and found Hyangtaek Daebong Branch. My mom loves healthy food, so Hyangtaek was right up her alley. The food was great and the staff were friendly — here's my review 〰️

Location and parking at Hyangtaek Daebong Branch

It's a 2-minute walk from Gyeongbuk Uni Hospital Station, right on the main street of Daebong-dong. 🅿️ You can park 2 cars in front during lunch hours, and if you use the Kim Kwang-seok Street public parking lot, you get up to 1 hour 10 minutes of parking support (just ask when you pay after your meal).

✅ We took photos while paying so there was no wait for us, but there's usually a wait during lunch hours — register with Tabling.

Inside the restaurant and the cauldron rice

Unlike what you'd guess from the outside, the interior is spacious with plenty of tables! Lots of 2–4 person tables, so it's great for group gatherings too :)

The open kitchen lets you watch the cooking, and it was so clean — hygiene point, big thumbs up 👍🏻

Rice cooked in a big cauldron. Hyangtaek Daebong Branch uses Sindongjin rice. Compared to regular rice, Sindongjin rice grains are about 1.3 times bigger, with more stickiness and shine, giving it a soft, nutty flavor — apparently.

We were shown to a 2-seat table. Everything you need is neatly laid out on the table.

The menu at Hyangtaek Daebong Branch

Hyangtaek Daebong Branch's signature dishes are mackerel gondre rice (gondre namul, or dried thistle greens, over rice) and eggplant doenjang rice bowl, along with yukhoe bibimbap (raw beef mixed rice), chamnamul squid rice bowl, herring roe bibim noodles, and a summer-only pollock yukhoe mulhoe (cold raw fish soup). Side dishes include grilled deodeok mushrooms, grilled mushroom platter, grilled short rib platter, and Cheongsong-style spicy grilled chicken. Just looking at the menu photos, everything looked delicious, so I spent ages deciding what to order 🥲

Note that the grilled deodeok mushroom is a new menu item, and you can get a free grilled mushroom platter with a Naver receipt review ✔️ Weekdays only, excludes weekends and holidays.

The basic table setting and how to eat it

After ordering, the basic table setting arrives. It comes with miso doenjang soup, seasoned laver (gopchang gim), special sauce, pickled gungchae (aster stem), and mixed jeotgal (seasoned seafood). Since we ordered the grilled mushroom platter, soy sauce came along too.

✅ How to eat Hyangtaek the best way

• Mix the toppings on the rice or noodles evenly
• Pair with the seasoned laver and mixed jeotgal
• Add the special sauce for a whole different flavor

I ate the dish as is at first, then added the special sauce partway through, and it felt like eating a whole new dish — so good!

What we ordered — Mackerel gondre rice ₩14,000 / Eggplant doenjang rice bowl ₩13,000 / Grilled mushroom platter ₩6,000

Eggplant doenjang rice bowl

Hyangtaek's signature eggplant doenjang rice bowl combines thick grilled eggplant with a strong doenjang (fermented soybean paste) sauce. The grilled eggplant kept its incredibly moist texture, and the doenjang flavor wasn't too strong or salty, so it didn't overpower the eggplant — they went really well together 😊

The eggplant tore apart with barely any effort from my chopsticks, and mixing it thoroughly with the strong doenjang sauce turned out to be a surprisingly great combination. I always preferred deep-fried eggplant, thinking that's the best way to eat it, but grilled was really delicious too 🫢

Mackerel gondre rice

Mackerel gondre rice is topped generously with nutty grilled mackerel and fragrant gondre greens. Hyangtaek doesn't skimp on ingredients.

The mackerel was boneless through and through — clean and nutty. With the distinct fragrance of gondre added in, it wasn't overwhelming at all, just an incredibly healthy flavor 😊

Grilled mushroom platter

King oyster mushrooms and enoki mushrooms grilled to a golden brown, easy to tear along the grain — even people who don't like mushrooms could probably enjoy this one without complaint. It's one of the dishes I always order whenever I visit Hyangtaek 👍🏻

If you're looking for a great place to eat near Gyeongbuk Uni Hospital Station, I recommend Hyangtaek Daebong Branch with its wide variety of Korean set-menu dishes.