Yeonan Pier haejangguk restaurant with free refills: Sopuri, Incheon

"On a chilly, damp day like today, nothing beats hot soup with rice mixed right in!" On a weekend morning I found myself craving a hot, hearty bowl of soup, so I suggested gukbap (soup with rice) as our family outing meal. Normally, when it comes to haejangguk (hangover soup) places, I get a little nervous about my wife, who can't eat blood sausage or offal at all because of the smell.

There was also somori gukbap on the menu that the kids could eat comfortably, and I trusted reviews saying the place had zero gamy smell — even beginners loved it — so I took the wheel. Where we ended up was 24-Hour Sopuri Yangpyeong Haejangguk, a place everyone near the fish market seems to know as a landmark Yeonan Pier restaurant.

Once we tried it, even my wife, who normally won't touch blood sausage soup, couldn't put her spoon down, and the kids cleaned out a whole bowl of somori gukbap. We came away truly understanding why this place has been a beloved Yeonan Pier institution for so long.

Is Sopuri really open 24 hours, and what is the dining room like?

24-Hour Sopuri Yangpyeong Haejangguk, Yeonan Pier General Fish Market Branch runs 24 hours, every day, and the restaurant itself was spacious and clean. Being near the fish market, you can drop in any time — early dawn or late night — which felt like exactly the kind of convenience you'd expect from a real Yeonan Pier restaurant.

When you picture a 24-hour gukbap place or an old-school haejangguk restaurant, you'd expect slippery floors or a musty smell. But the moment we opened the door, what caught my eye first was a clean, spacious interior and tables polished to a shine. The air was remarkably clean, with none of the fishy or stale smell offal can bring, and I felt reassured the moment we walked in with the kids.

The tableware was spotless and wet wipes were already set out, haha! The tables were spaced generously apart, making it really comfortable for a family to sit and eat, and the staff greeted our kids Jjunu and Yunu so kindly that the mood was warm even before the food arrived.

The yangpyeong haejangguk that won over a wife who can't eat blood sausage

The yangpyeong haejangguk arrived in a stone pot overflowing with fresh honeycomb tripe, big chunks of blood sausage, and crunchy bean sprouts. We ordered the signature yangpyeong haejangguk along with somori gukbap for the kids.

Not long after we ordered, the haejangguk arrived boiling furiously in its stone pot like a little volcano.

Stirring the pot gently with a spoon, I found fresh honeycomb tripe, big pieces of blood sausage, and crunchy bean sprouts overflowing from the bowl. My wife, who won't even pick up a spoon if there's the usual metallic blood smell, took one taste of the broth and was genuinely surprised.

There's zero smell, and the broth is really spicy and refreshing!

The blood sausage was plump and soft with no dryness at all, and the chewy tripe was cleanly prepped with no off smell. Mixing the chili oil, perilla seed powder, and pickled fermented chili on the table into a makeshift sauce and dipping the ingredients in it sent the savory flavor through the roof.

And on top of that, extra blood sausage and rice were waiting in generous supply at the self-serve bar, free for the taking!

Somori gukbap: the bowl the kids went for

If you've got young kids who can't handle haejangguk, Sopuri's somori gukbap is the perfect answer. The stone pot came loaded with a rich, milky broth and generous portions of thinly, softly sliced ox head meat. The meat wasn't tough at all — it was gelatin-soft and tender, so the kids had no trouble chewing it. The broth wasn't heavily seasoned either, letting the deep, savory flavor of the bone broth shine through, and once we mixed in a full bowl of rice, both Jjunu and Yunu shoveled it in until they could see the bottom of the bowl.

With everyone able to enjoy the gukbap that suited their own taste, it made for an especially satisfying meal.

Are extra blood sausage and rice at the self-serve bar free?

At the self-serve bar at 24-Hour Sopuri Yangpyeong Haejangguk, you can help yourself to extra blood sausage and rice for free. Kkakdugi and napa cabbage kimchi were also neatly laid out for you to take as much as you liked.

The most touching part of the visit was just how generously they served us. At the tidy self-serve bar set up in a corner of the restaurant, we could freely take crunchy kkakdugi and napa cabbage kimchi, the perfect match for gukbap. Best of all, in these times of high prices, they let you take extra blood sausage and rice for free. For big eaters, or anyone who feels a single bowl of gukbap is a little light on ingredients, it felt like an absolute paradise of a perk. On top of that, there was a Naver receipt review perk of

a sample of stir-fried beef innards, which was absolutely delicious. We were painfully full by the end, but thanks to the owner's generous hospitality toward guests, we left with both our stomachs and hearts full — truly a real Yeonan Pier favorite.

Small tips to know before visiting Sopuri at Yeonan Pier

• Highly recommended for first-timers to blood sausage or yangpyeong haejangguk: the style here perfectly eliminates any off smell or bacteria, so even people who usually avoid blood sausage can enjoy it without any hesitation.
• Tip for making the dipping sauce: mix two swirls of chili oil, half a spoon of chopped fermented chili, and a pinch of perilla seed powder into the soy sauce base — dipping the ingredients in this doubles the flavor.
• 24-hour operation and fish market access: since it's open 24 hours every day, it's a great stop for breakfast or a late-night meal if you're at Yeonan Pier General Fish Market shopping for salted seafood or other goods.

Verdict: a hearty, crowd-pleasing meal for all ages

From the offal-free, deeply satisfying haejangguk to the somori gukbap the kids polished off in no time, to the generous free refills of blood sausage and rice, 24-Hour Sopuri Yangpyeong Haejangguk delivered 200% satisfaction on every front. Even my wife who can't eat blood sausage and my picky kids all ate their fill happily, and we were so sorry to leave that we packed some haejangguk to go for grandma too! If you're near Yeonan Pier and want to sit down with the whole family for a hearty, easy-on-the-stomach bowl of gukbap that pleases everyone, this is a genuine Yeonan Pier favorite well worth a visit.