Itaewon restaurant for soy-braised bones: Nuri Maeul Gamjatang

I found Nuri Maeul Gamjatang Itaewon Branch while looking for somewhere to have an early lunch with my mom in Itaewon!

It’s on the second floor at 176 Itaewon-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. First of all, I loved that it was seriously close to Itaewon Station! It’s only about a one-minute walk from Exit 4 on Line 6! It’s right across from Hamilton Hotel~ When you make plans in Itaewon, you somehow end up walking a lot, so being this close to the station is honestly the best...👍🏻

Can you see the menu and prices outside?

Nuri Maeul Gamjatang is apparently a gamjatang (pork bone soup) specialist brand with 22 years of history! It’s a chain with several branches, so I think quite a few people may already know it. There’s one thing I quietly find important when I go to a restaurant: whether I can check the menu and prices before going in! This place had a large menu board outside, which was nice because I could look it over before entering.

The weekday lunch atmosphere

The restaurant is on the second floor, and it was much bigger and cleaner than I expected! I visited a little after 11 a.m. on a weekday, and by the time I left, around two-thirds of the restaurant was already full!

These photos were taken after we finished eating and people had left, so it looks a little quiet, but there were quite a lot of people while I was eating! There were plenty of tables too, so it looked good for families, lunch with coworkers, friends, or couples :)

Ordering soy-braised bones and extra-large gamjatang

Looking at the menu, I saw they didn’t just have gamjatang—they also served braised bones and grilled bones as main dishes! They even had sides like dumplings and naengmyeon (cold noodles), so there were more choices than I expected! After thinking it over, we ordered the small soy-braised bones for ₩36,000 and an extra-large gamjatang for ₩15,000!

A spotlessly maintained self-serve bar

After ordering, we went to the self-serve bar to pick up banchan (Korean side dishes). There was fresh kimchi, kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi), cucumber peppers, pickled onions, and more—and here’s another thing I liked! The self-serve bar was really kept spotless~

The complimentary broth with an order of braised bones

They told us the braised bones would take around 15–20 minutes when we ordered! So while we waited, we picked up side dishes from the self-serve bar and chatted about this and that, but it came out faster than I expected, haha. And when you order the braised bones, gamjatang broth comes with it! Amazing, right!? When the braised bones feel a little spicy or your mouth starts to feel coated, a spoonful of hot gamjatang broth... the combination is seriously the best 🤤 Braised bones + hot broth is just impossible to resist...

And the small braised bone portion was enough for two people. It had about six large bones, plus glass noodles, rice cakes, and sujebi (hand-torn dough soup pieces), so it was fun picking through everything 🤤 It was especially delicious eaten with the sauce!

My honest final thoughts on the regular soy sauce flavor

The meat clinging to the bones was so tender that it all came right off with chopsticks. The glass noodles were completely soaked through with the soy sauce seasoning—so good~~ You can choose regular or spicy soy sauce flavor, but the regular one was a little sweet, so I got a bit tired of it toward the end.!.! Next time, I’m going for the spicy flavor~~~

I’ll add a photo of us absolutely demolishing it too, hahaha. That’s how delicious it was.!.!! It seems like a great place to stop by when you’ve been out late in Itaewon and want something with hot broth! Next time, I want to try the gamjatang itself instead of the braised bones 😋