Group dinner Korean BBQ at Yangjae Station: two galbi, Gukgojip

We had dinner at Gukgojip (국고집), a great spot for a group dinner that's also easy to reach, since it's right in front of Yangjae Station~

What are the table setup and seating like for a group dinner at Gukgojip?

If you reserve, the table is set with just the basics, and the side dishes and vegetables are brought out right after you sit down. Aprons for every guest hang right next to each table, and you can store coats and bags under the chairs so the smell doesn't soak in.

Since the sides and vegetables come out after you're seated, no dust gets on them, so it felt clean and fresh.

Even though it was early evening, there were quite a lot of people, and many of them were company dinner groups. The basement floor in particular looked really good for booking a big group.

Gukgojip menu and side dishes

The strength of Gukgojip is the variety of meat. There's beef and pork, and even the marinated galbi (ribs) comes in both beef and pork, which I loved.

But what I liked even more was that the sides aren't just wraps and dips for the meat. They also come with things that go well with rice, like white kimchi and green onion kimchi, so it felt like a group-dinner restaurant that works with rice, as a dinner, and with drinks.

The story of Gukgojip, run by three generations

I found out Gukgojip is a restaurant carried on through three generations. It began with a grandmother's restaurant in a traditional market in Yecheon, North Gyeongsang, specializing in gukbap (rice soup) and meat. Her belief that food business must be honest was passed on to the father, who ran it, and from 1985 he ran Boksunok in Yeoksam-dong and Milsarang, an Andong guksu (noodle) specialist in Daechi-dong. The third-generation owner took all of that over and now runs Gukgojip in Yangjae-dong, carrying on all that history and flavor.

What did we order at Gukgojip?

This day at Gukgojip we started with marinated pork galbi and finished with marinated beef galbi, and added bibim naengmyeon and mul naengmyeon. We figured we should try a bit of everything so we could enjoy the flavors handed down from the gukbap shop, the noodle shop and the meat restaurant.

At first I thought the dessert naengmyeon was regular naengmyeon, and that the barley chogye mul naengmyeon and barley chogye bibim naengmyeon were chogye (cold chicken) noodles made with barley. But it's only a difference in portion, and both are barley chogye naengmyeon, so keep that in mind!

And this is seriously, seriously good. Please order it. We ordered one bibim and one mul in the dessert size, and the barley chogye naengmyeon was so good that we regretted not just getting the big meal size.

Gukgojip marinated pork galbi: boneless and served pre-marinated

Oddly, the marinated pork galbi at Gukgojip has no bones. It was a generous portion, about two big pieces and one small one, with plenty of marinade so the flavor had soaked in well.

It's not the kind that's tossed in sauce right before serving, but the style of galbi that arrives already marinated.

Even so, it wasn't overly salty, which made it tasty, and the subtle marinade flavor was lovely.

Best of all, because it had been marinating, the meat was tender and delicious.

Extra rice for Gukgojip's kongbiji stew side dish

Gukgojip serves kongbiji stew (soybean pulp stew) as a basic side, and because of it we immediately ordered more rice, haha.

A stew coming as a basic side, and we hadn't even ordered rice... Usually you have to order rice before a doenjang stew shows up, but with such a tasty kongbiji stew arriving on its own, it made us shout "One rice, please!!" haha. It was salty and rich, and the flavor was excellent.

What does Gukgojip's barley chogye naengmyeon taste like?

The barley chogye mul naengmyeon and barley chogye bibim naengmyeon I raved about above!! We ordered the mini dessert size, and it was still not a small amount.

The noodles are made with barley, so even I, who get an upset stomach from too much wheat flour, felt comfortable after eating. That day we ate only marinated pork galbi and marinated beef galbi rather than pork belly or fresh meat, so with this naengmyeon it was a perfect match.

Also, I'm a mul naengmyeon person who barely drinks the broth. But the broth was so good I kept going back for spoonfuls, and it was my first time trying chogye guksu (cold chicken noodles), which was charming. If lunch lets you order just the chogye guksu, I'd probably go often. It had that kind of appeal.

Gukgojip marinated beef galbi: tossed in garlic sauce

After the marinated pork galbi, I got curious about the marinated beef galbi, so we ordered Gukgojip's version too.

The beef galbi didn't seem to be marinated ahead but tossed in garlic sauce right before serving. There's a lot of garlic, and once it's on the grill the garlic really stands out. It tasted even better thanks to the garlic.

We enjoyed it with naengmyeon down to the very last piece haha