Yangsan restaurant: braised pollack with bunmoja noodles, Yongdeokjang

I honestly almost never eat braised pollack, but my parents love it, so we went. And now I'm the one asking to go back! 🤤 This is a legit great braised pollack place near Tongdosa in Yangsan. Yongdeokjang Kodari has konjac noodles, rice cake add-ons and radish greens with its braised pollack, so even people in their 20s and 30s will enjoy it.

Where is Yongdeokjang Kodari Tongdosa Branch, and is there parking?

Yongdeokjang Kodari Tongdosa Branch (용덕장코다리 통도사점) is a restaurant at 2648 Yangsan-daero, Habuk-myeon, Yangsan-si, Gyeongnam, South Korea (Building 2, 2nd floor), near Tongdosa Temple in Yangsan. You park in the lot in front. It's a perfect stop when you visit Tongdosa, and since it's a dish parents love, I'd recommend it even more. The lot is big, so apart from weekends it should be roomy.

Kodari is pollack with the guts removed and then semi-dried. The chewy semi-dried texture is the point, and Yongdeokjang's sweet-and-spicy sauce makes it a flavor that the parents' generation and the MZ generation (millennials and Gen Z) can both enjoy!

Yongdeokjang Kodari's dining room size and group seating

Inside, Yongdeokjang Kodari Tongdosa Branch is really, really spacious with lots of seats, and the group seating holds about 100 people in total, so it's a good pick for group gatherings too. I went a little after weekday lunchtime and it was still busy. On weekends there will definitely be a wait at this Tongdosa-area spot.

Pot-cooked rice instead of plain rice, same price on weekdays

If you visit on a weekday, you can get pot rice (솥밥) for the price of plain rice. The sauce is a total rice thief (so good you keep eating rice), so rice is a must. There's regular rice too, but I recommend the pot rice for its nuttier aroma!

If pollack this good were around, I'd eat it every day, and the restaurant even displays a whole list of its health benefits. Totally love it! 😋

There are also baby chairs for family meals and aprons for a neat meal.

What's on the Yongdeokjang Kodari menu, and how much does it cost?

The menu at Yongdeokjang Kodari Tongdosa Branch has five dishes: radish-greens braised pollack, black garlic pollack, webfoot octopus pollack, shrimp pollack and Yongdeokjang braised pollack. Each comes in small (recommended for 2), medium (for 3) and large (for 4). The cheapest, the small Yongdeokjang braised pollack, starts at ₩35,000.

• Radish-greens braised pollack: small ₩40,000 / medium ₩51,000 / large ₩62,000
• Black garlic pollack: small ₩42,000 / medium ₩54,000 / large ₩66,000
• Webfoot octopus pollack: small ₩46,000 / medium ₩57,000 / large ₩68,000
• Shrimp pollack: small ₩45,000 / medium ₩56,000 / large ₩66,000
• Yongdeokjang braised pollack: small ₩35,000 / medium ₩46,000 / large ₩57,000

The radish-greens braised pollack, with soft, well-cooked radish greens (siraegi), is the signature dish! Every braised pollack here comes with chewy rice cake add-ons by default, so people of all ages can enjoy it. The small has 3 pollack and the portion is big, so I'd recommend it for 3 people. There are add-ons too, and you have to mix rice into the sauce, haha.

How was the small radish-greens braised pollack?

What I ordered: the small radish-greens braised pollack, ₩40,000.

Side dishes and bean sprout soup, with free refills

The side dishes are simple: bean sprouts, seaweed, pickled onions and so on, with free refills if you ask the staff. Honestly, with a giant main like braised pollack, that's just right. And of course there's the refreshing bean sprout soup too.

Which spice level? Go for mild

You can adjust the spice level, but even if you order mild, the base sauce is subtly spicy, so I recommend mild to enjoy it properly.

The radish-greens braised pollack came out after about 15 minutes! I'd added extra konjac noodles, but even so, it's a very generous portion, haha.

Why the bunmoja noodle add-on is a must

The rice cakes and the konjac noodles (bunmoja) sit on either side of the dish like two great mountain ranges, so just looking at it is filling and mouthwatering 🤤 Both are chewy but clearly have different charms, so adding the konjac noodles is a must!

The konjac noodles are cooked through like the ones in malatang, soft and floppy outside and chewy inside, ㅠㅠ truly Jang Wonyoung-level noodles (the writer's joking nod to the idol). Coated in Yongdeokjang's special sauce, they even taste a bit like Jikoba (a spicy Korean fried chicken brand), and they're a total rice thief.

Ah, I really want to go back just for these noodles, hahaha.

The rice cakes and radish greens are amazing too. Maybe because every ingredient is cooked separately for balance of flavor and texture, each one keeps its own texture, which made the taste even more perfect.

Scoop out the pot rice gently, pour in warm water, and it's time to make sungnyung (scorched-rice tea).

Does the pollack meat come off the bone easily?

The pollack's flesh separates softly and easily, so it's super comfortable to eat. While the sungnyung was brewing, I tried the well-cooked pollack 🤤 The worst part of eating fish is the hassle of picking out the meat, but at Yongdeokjang Kodari, this Tongdosa-area favorite, it comes off gently.

I ate it on top of white rice, and also in a bite of seaweed + bean sprouts + radish greens! The sauce is so good I got mad at the braised pollack I used to eat in school lunches. It's properly, seriously delicious. If every braised pollack in the world tasted like this, I'd have eaten it more than fried chicken... Rice-thief flavor.

Rice mixed into the leftover sauce, wrapped in seaweed

The proof that Yongdeokjang's sauce is a rice thief comes at the end, mixing rice into the leftover sauce, haha. There was plenty of sauce left, just saucy enough for mixing, so I was happy. Wrapping the sauce-soaked rice in seaweed mixes the nutty seaweed with the spicy-sweet sauce, and it keeps going down like the joy of ganjang gejang (soy-marinated crab). Even though I was full, I couldn't stop my spoon 🤤🤤

After the meal, I had the nutty sungnyung as dessert. The pot rice was properly scorched like nurungji, so it felt like homemade sungnyung. Finishing with something so thoroughly Korean made it a meal that sat comfortably in my stomach!

Final verdict on Yongdeokjang Kodari Tongdosa Branch

• Radish-greens braised pollack with an appealing spicy-sweet sauce
• Generous spread with rice cakes and chewy konjac noodles
• Pollack meat that comes off softly, and a rice-thief sauce
• Spacious restaurant with group seating for 100+
• Weekday pot rice and nutty sungnyung afterward make for a hearty meal

With rice cakes and radish greens in generous amounts, Yongdeokjang Kodari near Tongdosa in Yangsan gave me a whole new appreciation for braised pollack! The chewy konjac noodles and the rice mixed into the sauce were especially good, and I'd recommend it for family meals or anyone wanting a hearty Korean meal. 😋 It's a legit great spot I'll revisit myself 🤤🤤