Ssam bap near Gil Hospital, Incheon: homegrown lettuce wraps, Chagane

Hi everyone~ do you like ssam bap (lettuce-wrap rice)? I head to ssam bap places whenever I want to wrap up a mountain of vegetables, or when I'm craving jeyuk bokkeum (spicy stir-fried pork). This time I visited Chagane Ssam Bap (차가네쌈밥), a real-deal gem near Gachon University Gil Hospital with unlimited wrap greens and handmade ssamjang (wrap sauce) ◟( ˘ ³˘)◞ ♡

Chagane Ssam Bap location, hours and parking

Chagane Ssam Bap is at 18 Inju-daero 653beon-gil, Namdong-gu, Incheon. It's open 10:00–21:30 and closed every Sunday. There's a dedicated parking lot next to the restaurant, so driving there is easy.

Here's the outside!! Can you already feel that old-school Korean set-meal vibe, with the years showing?

How is Chagane's ssamjang made?

They say Chagane aims to serve the best flavor with fresh ingredients! They make their own kimchi too, and the menu has griddle dishes, meat dishes and stews, so it's easy to eat to your taste haha.

On top of that, they make the ssamjang themselves: apple instead of MSG for sweetness, plus more than 20 kinds of roasted grains, cooked for a long time. And the ssamjang really was amazing. Insanely good.

Chagane Ssam Bap seating: fine for solo diners and groups?

The dining room is spacious, with seating nicely divided into tables for 2, tables for 4 and large-group tables. It would work for eating alone or for a group.

Chagane Ssam Bap review events and ₩1,000 off a rice bowl

Chagane runs receipt-review and blog-review events. Add a photo to your receipt review and you can choose ₩2,000 off or a drink, and a blog review can get ₩10,000 to ₩20,000 off depending on the text and photos!! Isn't that an amazing deal?! They also give you a drink or a bottle of soju as a free extra if you post on SNS with a hashtag.

Oh, and the rice bowls come out big, so if you don't eat much rice, ask them to leave one out and you get ₩1,000 off :) We skipped one rice bowl too and still ate until we were happily full.

Homegrown lettuce turned a perilla-leaf fan into a lettuce person

Chagane displays lots of vegetables, including their own homegrown lettuce, and the freshness honestly surprised me. Above all, the lettuce they grow is big and so tasty. I'm normally a perilla-leaf person, but after trying it I only ate lettuce..

The broth, the seasonings, even the pork marinade are all made carefully with healthy ingredients, so it really tasted like Mom's home cooking ㅜㅜ Suddenly I miss my mom.

Pork ssam bap for two: what the table looked like

We ordered pork ssam bap for two!! Wow, there were so many side dishes: seaweed soup, kimchi jeon (kimchi pancake), japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), even snail ssamjang!!! The table was practically groaning.

It's packed with tender pork, and with the sauce it's so addictive I wanted to dump it over rice. Plus loads of cabbage in it, so good haha.

The owner stir-fries it on the griddle with tongs, and the look of it is incredible, right, everyone?

The handmade ssamjang was so good I wondered, do they really not sell this packaged? It's such high-quality homemade ssamjang that this alone would let you finish a bowl of rice.

There was hot pork, seaweed soup, bean sprouts, kimchi and all kinds of seasoned side dishes, and not one was bad, so we scraped everything clean. (I normally barely eat vegetables, but today I think I extended my life.)

The rice bowl was packed down tight too, so the two of us shared one haha. (₩1,000 off, total win.)

One wrap: lettuce with snail ssamjang, pork and rice

I put snail ssamjang, pork and rice on the homegrown lettuce and took one bite, and it was so good ㅠㅠ I've been to a lot of famous ssam bap places, but from now on Chagane Ssam Bap is my regular.

The seaweed soup was hot and went perfectly with the pork, so it was a tasty, filling meal! For a hearty, caring meal of freshly made dishes, I'm giving Chagane Ssam Bap my stamp of approval as a true Guwol-dong ssam bap gem.