Yangjae noodle spot, weekend dinner: perilla makguksu & soju, Seonbawi

I heard that the famous perilla oil makguksu (buckwheat noodles) place from Gwacheon had opened right near my home, at Yangjae Citizens' Forest, and I ran over right away. This is the perilla oil makguksu spot famous for its waits in Gwacheon! Here's my review of Seonbawi Memil Jangteo :))

Seonbawi Memil Jangteo Yangjae Branch: location, hours and parking

Seonbawi Memil Jangteo Yangjae Branch (선바위메밀장터 양재점) is at 15-11 Gangnam-daero 18-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul, and it's open every day from 9:00 to 21:00. There's parking for 4 cars in front.

The 4 spots in front are free, and anything beyond that means using a nearby public parking lot. On weekends, roadside parking near the Forest (Yangsiyup, as locals call it) is also allowed, so that's good to know if you're visiting on a weekend!

A 100% buckwheat noodle restaurant

Seonbawi Memil Jangteo is a pure buckwheat place with 100% buckwheat content. I don't know much about buckwheat noodles, but when I do eat them they're so mild and nutty that my chopsticks just keep going, you know? Still, I never actually seek them out, so I don't know the good places. But when this one opened near my home and I stopped by, I got the feeling I'd be coming here a lot!

Weekend dinner at Yangjae Citizens' Forest: what's the wait?

I visited on a weekend evening and it was really crowded. There's honestly nowhere to eat around Yangjae Citizens' Forest on weekends. Everything's closed on weekends T_T But now I've got a lifeline. And it's buckwheat noodles, so it's probably healthier too, right? That's probably why so many people were having dinner there even on a weekend night.

They say there's no break time. You can visit any time during opening hours.

How busy does it get at peak time that they even use Tabling (a queue app)? It's like this even on weekends, so on weekday lunches it must be packed with office workers from the area, with quite a long wait.

Seonbawi Memil Jangteo menu and prices: what we ordered

• Perilla oil makguksu (들기름막국수) ₩12,000
• Pollack hoe suyuk (명태회 수육, boiled pork with seasoned raw pollack) ₩23,000
• Soju ₩4,000

Everyone seemed to order one makguksu each plus pollack hoe suyuk as a side. We always leave food and hate wasting it, so we ordered just one perilla oil makguksu plus the suyuk... and ugh, I regretted not ordering two T_T It was so, so good...

Icy dongchimi broth and the basic kimchi

When you order makguksu, you get icy dongchimi (radish water kimchi) broth. You can have it as an appetizer, but later you're supposed to pour it into the bowl after finishing the perilla oil makguksu and drink up every last bit. They refill it when it's gone, so for now, appetizer, let's go!

The only side dish is one clean, simple kimchi! It's something between white kimchi and dongchimi, and it's tangy, sweet and bursting with savory flavor.

Pollack hoe suyuk as samhap, with a glass of soju

At Seonbawi Memil Jangteo, the pollack hoe suyuk came out first. Why did the suyuk come first? Because the buckwheat dough is made the moment you order, so apparently you need the virtue of patience.

So, first bite of the pollack hoe suyuk, yum. They say it's best when you eat the suyuk, the pollack hoe and the bossam radish strips together as a samhap (three-way combo). At first I thought the bossam radish strips and the pollack hoe were the same thing, but looking closely, they're different.

Now that the anju (food to go with drinks) is here, let's have a drink. Cheers ❤️

The suyuk is super tender, and the samhap of bossam radish strips, pollack hoe and pork is a stunning match. It's soft suyuk without a trace of pork smell.

How was the perilla oil makguksu?

And here comes today's star! The perilla oil makguksu. The noodles are handmade from 100% buckwheat, and the moment it landed on the table the perilla oil aroma spread, and it was so nutty.

How to mix perilla oil makguksu

Now it's time to show off my skills. Mix hard, but without crushing the noodles. First coat the noodles with the ground perilla seeds, then spread the perilla oil evenly over them.

Then coat the radish strips that came with it between the noodles and it's done! Why is the perilla smell so nutty, seriously? And the perilla seeds are generous, really piled on, so it was almost half noodles, half perilla. Not skimping on ingredients must be the key.

It's not for nothing that it's the famous perilla oil makguksu place from Gwacheon. It must be so famous that it expanded all the way to Yangjae, with its expensive land prices! And on the main street too, with makguksu as the main dish? But I get it now, convinced 👏

This is only my second time eating perilla oil makguksu in my life, but I'm calling it the makguksu of my life! At least by my standards, it's number one. And with a number-one makguksu place near home, I think I'll be here often.

Since it's buckwheat I thought the noodles would snap, but they were really chewy and springy! Handmade, I guess, hehe

There's a ton of finely ground perilla seed, and no matter how much I ate, there was still perilla left. So that's why they say to pour in the dongchimi broth at the end and enjoy it to the last drop :))

Cheers cheers cheers ❤️

Finishing with dongchimi broth over the leftover perilla

At Seonbawi Memil Jangteo, you finish by pouring icy dongchimi broth into the bowl you just emptied of perilla oil makguksu. We'd already finished our dongchimi broth as an appetizer, so we asked for more, haha. We learned how to eat it, so let's do it properly!

See how much perilla seed and oil is left in the empty bowl? You mix it with the dongchimi broth and scrape up every last drop.

Pour it in like this, and if it seems like too little you can ask for more, but we were full so we stopped at about this much, haha

Ta-da! Mixing the healthy perilla oil and seeds left to the end into the dongchimi broth makes a surprisingly nice treat, haha. I thought the dongchimi broth was so strongly seasoned it would taste like nothing, but a mild nuttiness comes up and it goes down neatly like a closing dessert, haha

Seating at the Yangjae branch: worth it even with a wait?

The Yangjae branch has tables for 2 and 4, with plenty of seats up to the 2nd floor. It was so crowded that I couldn't take many photos inside, but even though it's a waiting hell, the place is big so you can get in more easily than you'd think! Anyway, I ate well again today, haha