Wondang hanjeongsik with free parking and green tea rice: Kim Myeongju

Kim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang at Wondang Station: parking, hours and directions

Today's post is a review of Kim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang, a restaurant near Wondang Station with easy parking, close to my heart because parking near Wondang is honestly rare.

Hours are 10:30 - 21:00, last order at 20:20. The location is right in front of Exit 1 of Wondang Station, so access is great, and if you're driving, there's plenty of parking space right in front of the restaurant, so you can visit comfortably. And yes, it's free!

Kim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang is a popular spot, always full of a wide range of ages on weekday and weekend lunches and dinners. The easy parking is a big plus, and since you get so many hanjeongsik (Korean set-meal) side dishes for the price, it seems to be popular as a family dining spot.

Seating and waiting time at Kim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang

The restaurant has group seating for 6 and 8, plus standard 4-person tables.

The place is spacious with plenty of seats, so there are always customers whenever I come, but I've always been seated right away without any wait.

Menu and ordering rules: why the set meal needs an extra dish

First, the Tteuranchae Jeongsik (full course) menu items.

If you don't want the full course, you can order the Tteuranchae Bapsang, but it can't be ordered on its own — for a 4-person table, you need to add at least one single dish! We ordered the Tteuranchae Bapsang for two plus dried croaker (boribulbi).

After ordering, they bring water and wet wipes first, and the Tteuranchae Bapsang comes out fairly quickly. The stone-pot rice takes about 15 minutes to prepare, so it comes out last, though it usually seems to arrive within 10-12 minutes.

What comes with the Tteuranchae Bapsang for two plus boribulbi

The hearty Tteuranchae Bapsang with the stone-pot rice, the dried croaker, and everything else — if you love ssambap (lettuce-wrapped rice) or hanjeongsik, this is the kind of spread that makes you smile just looking at it. The base menu items are already full of healthy food, so when you can't decide what to eat, a spread like this where you can try a bit of everything is great.

There's eggplant, japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), chwinamul (aster greens), potato, lettuce, and more.

There's cheonggukjang (fermented soybean stew) and the rice-thief dried croaker, and they also give you cold Boseong green tea kept refrigerated specifically for the croaker.

Kimchi, burdock root, spinach, doraji (bellflower root) — all the side dishes served can be refilled from the self-serve bar, so you can eat as much as you want without feeling awkward about it.

Delicious rice and warm nurungji (scorched rice) to enjoy with the stone-pot rice too! Since the menu itself is healthy food, it feels like it draws more visitors in their 30s to 60s.

How the self-serve side dish bar works

And if you run low on side dishes while eating, there's a self-serve corner where you can bring more of any of the side dish items yourself!

Please only take as much as you can actually eat. You can take a lot, but they mentioned that too much food ends up wasted! I also went back and forth a few times but only scooped small amounts I could actually finish.

You can also get more ssamjang (dipping sauce) or lettuce, and the fried eggplant is set up right next to it.

How does the boribulbi taste after years of ordering charcoal pork?

Kim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang, the go-to hanjeongsik spot near Wondang! The staff are friendly and the food is great — every time I come I'm really satisfied, and it's the kind of place I think about again after a little while has passed.

I used to always order the charcoal-grilled pork, but this time I tried the dried croaker (boribulbi) for the first time, and it was definitely delicious too. Especially when you let the rice cool down a bit and pour in cold green tea, it sounds simple but it's so good.

The cheonggukjang was also generously portioned, and overall, once you sit down, you can fill up on light, not-too-heavy healthy dishes, which makes the menu suitable for people watching their diet or managing their health.

I've eaten jogi (croaker) often since I was a kid, so I had no trouble picking apart the boribulbi either.

White rice with boribulbi was truly a rice thief of a combination.

After setting some rice aside, they pour in hot water.

The side dishes were fresh too, and since each one had different seasoning and saltiness, I never got tired of eating them.

When to pour the cold green tea: wait until the rice cools

At first, I just ate the still-hot rice with the boribulbi, and later, once the rice had cooled down some, I added the cold green tea. If you pour the green tea in right away while the rice is hot, the tea itself turns lukewarm and it's somehow a letdown.

I ate a bit of everything, one bite at a time, waiting for the rice to cool, and once it had cooled down enough, I poured in the cold green tea.

It's genuinely surprising how much better it tastes — like, what is this, why does it work so well. But the key point is that it's best when the tea is properly cold, not lukewarm or warm.

There's no bigger rice thief than this. Plain cold water with white rice is already delicious, but cold green tea plus white rice plus boribulbi? Come on!

The fried eggplant seems like a great way for kids to try eggplant for the first time and actually enjoy it, and the doraji side dish was well seasoned too, not bitter at all and quite tasty.

Finishing with nurungji, and why bigger groups get better value

After eating for a while, they finish things off with warm nurungji, like a sungnyung (scorched rice tea), to settle the stomach.

It was a healthy hanjeongsik that was perfect right down to the last warm bite at the end. You don't have to order one main dish per person, so if four people order the Tteuranchae Jeongsik and split one or two main dishes among them, the price works out well — meaning the value only gets better the bigger the group.

If you're looking for good restaurants around Goyang or near Wondang, I'd recommend enjoying a hearty hanjeongsik at Kim Myeongju Tteuranchae Bapsang Wondang Station Branch. Also a great pick for family meals or group gatherings.