Family-friendly Korean restaurant in Daegu: Hyangtaek yukhoe bibimbap

Usually for Chuseok I drive to my parents' house, but this year was a little different. My husband had a business trip to Ulsan, so this time I was taking the kids on the train by myself.

Train tickets for the Chuseok holiday are famously hard to get, so of course finding a slot at the time I wanted wasn't easy. The only ticket I could snag was two days before the holiday, to Dongdaegu. I had to transfer trains there, so I decided to look for somewhere to feed the kids dinner during the layover.

I was searching for something easy to eat with kids near the station, not too spicy or intense, and that's when I found Hyangtaek.

How long is the walk from Dongdaegu Station to Hyangtaek?

Hyangtaek is about a 5-minute walk from KTX exit 2 or 3 at Dongdaegu Station.

Honestly, there are tons of places to eat right inside Dongdaegu Station or at Shinsegae Department Store.

But since I'd come all the way to Daegu, I didn't want to just eat at a familiar franchise or department store restaurant — I wanted something a little special.

I wanted somewhere good for eating with kids but a bit different from our usual meals, and that's when Hyangtaek caught my eye. Not far from Dongdaegu Station, tucked in the alley across from Shinsegae, it seemed perfect for a quick stop before our transfer. So our first Daegu meal of this Chuseok train trip was at Hyangtaek.

Inside Hyangtaek: a wood-toned room to rest in

Walking into Hyangtaek, the first thing that caught my eye was the warm, wood-toned atmosphere overall. Traveling tends to keep you rushing around, so stepping into such a relaxed-feeling restaurant felt like a little breather.

There were table seats and bar seats too, so it looked good for solo diners as well as families.

Near the entrance there was also a waitlist kiosk — you enter your waiting number and phone number and get notified through KakaoTalk.

Hyangtaek's menu and the side dishes that come with it

Hyangtaek's menu includes yukhoe bibimbap (raw beef rice bowl), mackerel gondre rice, eggplant doenjang rice bowl, chamnamul squid rice bowl, and herring roe bibim noodles.

For sides there are grilled short ribs, grilled mushrooms, and Cheongsong-style dak-bulgogi (grilled chicken).

Drinks include Hanmaek draft beer, soda, and traditional teas like omija tea, sikhye, and sujeonggwa. I wanted omija and sikhye, but they were sold out... a bit disappointing, so I ordered soda instead.

Before the food arrived, the basic side dishes placed on the table caught my eye too — gopchang gim (seasoned seaweed), gungchae jangajji (pickled aster stem), bibim jeotgal (seasoned salted seafood), and even an egg yolk. It was a bit different from the usual handful of plain side dishes, so I was curious how to eat it all from the start.

You could also add extra rice, so finishing off the doenjang soup and a bowl of rice was totally doable!

What we ordered at Hyangtaek with two kids

My kids aren't big vegetable eaters, so instead of ordering several main dishes, I got just one yukhoe bibimbap plus a grilled short rib set the kids could eat, and

extra rice.

Hyangtaek's yukhoe bibimbap was more generous than expected

The yukhoe bibimbap finally arrived. What caught my eye first was how generous the lettuce and yukhoe were — more than I expected. The bowl was packed with fresh lettuce, with seasoned raw beef piled in a neat mound in the center.

On the side there was an egg yolk, a special sauce, and gopchang gim, all ready to be added in. In photos, with everything served separately, it can look a bit sparse, but once you start mixing it in, you really feel how generous the ingredients are.

Tasting the raw beef first, then mixing the bowl

At first, I wanted to taste the ingredients on their own, so I picked up a bit of yukhoe and ate it plain.

Then I mixed the rice, lettuce, and yukhoe together evenly and added the sauce. The crisp texture of the lettuce with the soft yukhoe made it much lighter to eat than I expected. Since we were traveling with the kids that day, a dish like this — not too spicy or intense — suited us much better.

Hyangtaek hours, parking and address

• 📍 158-7 Dongbu-ro, Dong-gu, Daegu, South Korea
• ⏰ 11:00–20:00 (Break Time 15:30–17:00)
• 🚗 No dedicated store parking
• ✔ Naver review event – free mushroom platter (weekdays only)
• ✔ Discount at neighboring café Anouk – 20% off drinks with a Hyangtaek receipt

Why Hyangtaek suits a Chuseok train stopover in Daegu

Around Dongdaegu Station, you often end up looking for something quick to eat, but this time I enjoyed a Korean meal I could take slowly, changing up the flavor with each ingredient. Especially the process of mixing the yukhoe and lettuce, adding the yolk and sauce, and finally wrapping a bite in gopchang gim at the end — even though it was just one bowl of bibimbap, I could taste something a little different depending on how I ate it.

If you're looking for a clean, satisfying Korean meal near Dongdaegu Station, Hyangtaek is worth remembering. Next time I go, I want to try the mackerel gondre rice or the eggplant doenjang rice bowl that I missed this time.