Gojan-dong bar street in Ansan: weekday raw beef set and soju at

Hi, this is the big eater!

It was a day I'd arranged to meet a friend after a while. I wanted somewhere to eat something good and have a soju together, so I looked around and ended up at Yuksul in Gojan-dong, Ansan.

Yuksul's opening hours and last order

Sun–Thu 17:00 – 1:00 the next day / last order 00:00 Fri–Sat 17:00 – 2:00 the next day / last order 01:00 - Open until 2:00 the day before public holidays, like weekends

What is Gojan-dong's yajang bar street like?

Yuksul sits on the yajang (outdoor tented street) area of Gojan-dong, so there are lots of bars nearby, and visiting in the evening the atmosphere was just right. When the weather's decent like this, the yajang street really has its own vibe.

Since it had been a while since I'd seen this friend, we decided to order one solid dish and take our time talking over drinks.

The place we visited is called Yuksul, and it was a good pick while searching for a bar in Gojan-dong, Ansan.

Yuksul's two floors and high ceilings

Yuksul's space is spread across the 1st and 2nd floors, and with the generally high ceilings, it didn't feel cramped even with people around. Some bars pack tables tightly together and feel chaotic, but here there was enough breathing room to sit comfortably.

Above all, the lighting and overall mood had a subtle atmosphere to it — good for a casual drink with a friend, and just right for catching up with someone I hadn't seen in a while.

The mungbanhansang set, 61,000 won and weekdays only

• Mungbanhansang set ₩61,000
• Soju ₩5,500

Order placed! We went with the mungbanhansang set that day. This set, as I mentioned, can only be ordered on weekdays. Despite the name suggesting a single dish, it's actually a combination that lets you enjoy mungtigi, sashimi, and yukhoe all at once. For a beef lover like me, that was a pretty appealing setup.

With so many different foods on one plate, the visual was quite generous from the moment it arrived. The mungtigi and yukhoe looked delicious just by color alone, and with sashimi in the mix too, being able to rotate between several dishes instead of eating just one thing the whole time was a plus.

Especially since we'd come specifically to drink soju with a friend that day, having such a varied lineup of dishes to pair with it was great. The mungtigi let the texture of the meat itself really come through, while the yukhoe, with its seasoning, was smoother to eat. The sashimi had yet another texture altogether, so rotating between the three meant I kept reaching for more without getting tired of any one thing.

The pairings and the combination recipe that come with it

But the fun of Yuksul's mungbanhansang wasn't just eating meat. The side dishes that came with it were seriously varied. There was house-made meat sauce, gamtae (seasoned laver), mujigeun-ji (aged kimchi), garlic oil sauce, shiitake mushroom, black sesame sauce, poached-egg sauce, and minari (water dropwort), among others. On top of that, gamtae gimbap and smoked cheese filled out the table quite generously.

Even with the same meat, the flavor changes depending on which sauce or side you pair it with, so trying out combinations one by one was fun. This kind of menu can be a little confusing on a first visit — what do you even eat it with? — but thankfully a pairing recipe came along with it. I followed the recipe step by step, and each combination felt different, which made it interesting.

Dipping the meat plain in sauce is tasty on its own, but trying it with gamtae, adding mujigeun-ji, or pairing it with minari made it feel like I kept eating a brand-new dish.

Beef radish soup served on a tabletop burner

Alongside the meat dishes, beef radish soup also came out. Instead of just arriving pre-served, it was cooked separately and set on a portable burner at our table. Being able to keep eating it hot at the table made it a great match for soju too.

Since it had really been a while since I'd seen this friend, time flew by faster with catching-up talk than food talk. We usually just message each other, so once we were actually sitting face to face, there was so much to talk about.

Chatting away over soju, before we knew it we'd each finished a bottle. With good food in front of us and a drink with a friend I hadn't seen in ages, it was just a happy time in itself.

Who is Yuksul, a bar in Gojan-dong, Ansan, best for?

Personally, what I liked most that day wasn't just the food itself, but being able to try it in different ways with a friend while talking. With mungtigi, yukhoe, and sashimi all coming out together, we didn't need to order several separate dishes, and with so many kinds of pairings, we didn't repeat the same flavor all night. If you're looking for something to pair with soju, this kind of set is worth considering.

Next time I'll meet up with my friend again and have another good meal and drink. It had been so long and it was so good to see her — I was genuinely happy that day ❤️ Let's meet again soon!