Beef bone kalguksu before closing in Jung-gu, Daegu: Donggok Jemyeon

A recommended restaurant in Gyodong, Daegu — Donggok Jemyeon (동곡제면). It's open daily from 11:30 to 21:00 with last order at 20:30. Naver reservations are available after 4pm, and if you reserve you get a coupon for a free chicken salad (닭무침).

These days the sun is still warm during the day, but the mornings and evenings have gotten noticeably breezy. As the weather started turning chilly, I naturally craved something warm and soupy, so I headed to Donggok Jemyeon for kalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup) after a while. I've always liked noodle dishes and love hunting down good kalguksu spots, and since this place makes its own fresh noodles by hand every day, I had high expectations. Let me tell you about it~

Where is Donggok Jemyeon, and where do you park?

Donggok Jemyeon is located at 629 Gukchebosang-ro, 1F, Jung-gu, Daegu, right on the main road near Jungangno Station's Gongpyeong intersection and 228 Memorial Park. Since it's on a main street, it wasn't hard to find even on a first visit haha.

We parked nearby, but you can get parking support if you use Dongseong-ro Parking Lot, which is about a 3-minute walk away!

There's a menu posted outside the restaurant so you can decide what to order before going in haha. For this summer season, they also had kongguksu (chilled soybean noodle soup) and chicken-based kalguksu on the board~

Inside Donggok Jemyeon: atmosphere and wait time

Inside, Donggok Jemyeon is decorated mainly in white and wood tones, giving it a clean and comfortable overall feel. There are baby chairs too~ During lunch hours there are a lot of diners, so depending on the time you might have to wait — we came late in the evening, so we ended up being the last customers of the day.

You order easily through a tablet at the table, and we ordered the hanwoo beef bone kalguksu, chogye bibim kalguksu, and a half plate of pork suyuk (boiled pork).

Noodles pulled fresh every morning at Donggok Jemyeon

Donggok Jemyeon apparently kneads and rolls out its own noodles by hand every morning, and you can actually see the dough resting inside the restaurant. Since the noodles are made with just flour, water, and salt, they have a chewier texture that's different from typical kalguksu haha.

I personally believe that if the basic side dishes are good, the main dishes are bound to be good too — and everything from the kimchi to the cucumber salad was tasty!

And here came the dishes~~ We picked one warm soup dish and one tangy-spicy bibim (mixed) kalguksu, which turned out to be a great combo for sharing since they're such different styles — and the suyuk was just the right amount too.

Hanwoo beef bone kalguksu: rich broth and free extra rice

We started with the hanwoo beef bone kalguksu at Donggok Jemyeon. On a cooler day like this, this warm soup dish is the best~~ haha. The broth, made from hanwoo (Korean beef) bones, was rich and savory, and it really seemed like they'd simmered the stock themselves. It tastes completely different from store-bought broth.

For kalguksu, I think the broth matters, but the noodle texture makes up a big part of the experience too — and at Donggok Jemyeon the noodles themselves have a nice springiness, so eating them with the broth felt great. Add salt and pepper to your own taste~~

Extra rice is free!! Imagine how good it tastes mixed into the beef bone broth.

Chogye bibim kalguksu: young radish greens and sesame make it

And then the chogye bibim kalguksu, where the sesame seeds really are pouring out. You mix the noodles into a tangy, spicy sauce, and it's the kind of flavor that wakes up your appetite! Alternating bites with the hanwoo beef bone kalguksu was such a good combo~~

If you like bibim noodles, I think this bibim kalguksu will really suit your taste. The noodles themselves are chewy so they held up well against the sauce, with no sense of the two not going together! Personally, the bibim kalguksu was more to my taste. Especially the crunchy, tangy young radish greens (yeolmu) and the huge amount of sesame seeds on top — so nutty and delicious, I'm obsessed...

Half plate of gabrisal pork suyuk: enough for two?

It felt like a waste to only order kalguksu, so we also got a half plate of bossam (boiled pork) as a side. It came with pickled radish, ssamjang (dipping sauce), and salted shrimp on the side — Donggok Jemyeon's bossam is made with gabrisal (pork shoulder blade), so you get to enjoy a more premium flavor.

You could really taste gabrisal's distinct clean, nutty flavor, and since it's not a lean-only cut but has just the right amount of fat, it stayed moist rather than dry haha. It's also great eaten with kimchi. There's a yogurt dessert too, but I forgot to take a photo of it..haha.

Next time I visit, I'd like to try the other kalguksu menu items one by one. I'll definitely be back! If you're looking for a solid, filling meal in Gyodong, Daegu, I recommend Donggok Jemyeon, a restaurant in Gyodong, Daegu where you can taste chewy, house-made noodles s2