Soy crab and dried corvina set with dog-friendly annex: Kkotgeok

• [Hours] 11:00 - 21:00 (Last Order 20:00)
• [Address] 204 Yuryang-ro, A-dong 1F, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan, Chungnam, South Korea
• [Parking] Available
• [Amenities] Wi-Fi, reservations, group seating available

I found the top-tier soy crab in Cheonan

Everyone, I found it!!! The top-tier ganjang gejang (soy-marinated crab) spot in Cheonan!! Actually this wasn't my first time here — last time the wait was so long I thought "crab places are all the same anyway" and went somewhere else. But wow, that was wrong... Even if you have to wait, you need to come here for crab!

We came a bit early at 11:30am expecting a wait, and there were already a lot of customers!

The main hall, private rooms, and a dog-friendly annex

The main hall has high ceilings and generous spacing between tables, so no crab from the next table was going to fly onto me!

What is this, café-like interior with a view... The wooden tables give it a proper upscale hanjeongsik (Korean set-meal restaurant) feel.

There are also private rooms — several of them, spacious inside, with room for about 8 people.

Before you go in, the annex-like building on the right allows dogs, so pet owners take note!

How to pick your set

Every table has sesame oil, paper cups, napkins, and plastic gloves. Water comes as barley tea. The set menu is fixed with soy crab and spicy crab, and you choose one of dried corvina, boiled pork, or crab stew. We went back and forth with boiled pork but chose dried corvina.

Before the main dishes come out, side dishes, seaweed soup, and green tea arrive — the sides are japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), gim (seaweed), zucchini, seasoned bean sprouts, mu-saengchae (radish salad), stir-fried miyeok stems, white kimchi, and green onion kimchi, and the green tea comes cold so you can pour it over rice to eat with the dried corvina.

The table fills up completely — the visual is overwhelming.

Egg-filled soy crab, minari spicy crab, and dried corvina

The soy crab comes as 2 crabs, and they're egg-filled female crabs packed with roe, the shells full of innards too. The spicy crab was, for some reason, 1.5 crabs — 3 pieces. The kicker is that minari (water dropwort) is mixed right into the crab seasoning. The dried corvina comes with about 90% of the flesh already picked out for easy eating, and the meat is plump and generous.

The crab is so full its roe and meat practically burst out, and the soy sauce isn't salty even if you just scoop and eat it plain — it's sweet. This was the first time I've sucked on crab leg hairs and everything.

Picking out the meat and making little seaweed sushi bites with it — pure paradise. Mixing rice into the shell tastes like the kind of thing that makes you think, who should I bring here next?... it's a bit cheesy but I genuinely wanted to bring my parents.

The kicker for this spicy crab is the minari mixed in — the seasoning is delicious and the minari is so fragrant it makes you polish off a whole bowl of rice. I wanted to take the leftover sauce home and mix more minari into it.

The spicy crab wrapped in seaweed like this is also paradise. Perfect, aside from the slightly awkward 3-piece portion!

Dried corvina is usually the main dish at hanjeongsik places, but this one is much better than other restaurants' mains... and it's just a side option in the crab set here, yet the quality could hold its own as a standalone dish.

Pairing it with the cold green tea is the perfect finish... Bring your parents here and you'll definitely get praised!!

Wrapping up

On the way out, we had plum and pomegranate drinks, and I was impressed they even added ice — a nice touch. Everything, from start to finish, impressed me with its thoughtfulness and flavor — in my book, the number one crab restaurant in Cheonan. That's the end of my review of Kkotgeok Cheonan Yuryang-dong Branch, a great spot in Yuryang-dong, Cheonan!

Kkotgeok Cheonan Yuryang-dong Branch / 11:00 - 21:00 (Last Order 20:00) / 204 Yuryang-ro, A-dong 1F, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan, Chungnam, South Korea