Gyeongju Korean restaurant for yukjeon and rice bowls: Dongyang

When you want a proper Korean meal in Hwangridan-gil

While visiting Gyeongju, I was looking around Hwangridan-gil for something to eat, and this time I wanted a proper Korean meal, so I went to Dongyang Baekban Gyeongju Hwangridan-gil Main Branch.

Hwangridan-gil has lots of pretty cafés and Western restaurants, but when you travel, there are times when you just crave Korean food, right? Haha. I especially love ordering several dishes and sharing a little of everything, so I picked a Korean restaurant this time ><

I found this place while searching for good restaurants and Korean food restaurants in Gyeongju, and while writing this post I found out that it has branches all around the country, including Busan and Starfield Suwon, haha.

When I arrived in front of the restaurant, there was a haetae statue? Is that right? Haha. Anyway, the stone statue in the little garden gave it that distinctly Gyeongju-like feeling.

The person I went with said they had been here before. They had gopdoritang (chicken stew with tripe) then and said they were happy with it too, so naturally I got excited, haha.

The interior looks like an old traditional house that has been renovated, and there was even a cute cat in the courtyard(?), haha.

The building in the photo below is the restroom. Maybe because of the trees, it somehow looked even fresher and more pleasant...? Hahaha.

A window seat after break time and a varied menu

We sat right by the window looking out at the haetae statue I mentioned earlier! We visited just as break time ended, and even though it was a weekday, another group came in not long after we did, haha. (It looks like weekends can involve quite a wait, so keep that in mind!)

Looking at the menu, there was more variety than I expected. From rice dishes to dakbokkeumtang (spicy braised chicken stew) and yukjeon (pan-fried battered beef), it was a lineup that felt perfect for a group to order several things and share.

We ordered caviar roe rice for ₩7,000, spicy chili rice for ₩5,000, Sumi dakbokkeumtang for ₩28,000, and mini perilla-oil yukjeon for ₩9,000!

Honestly, there were so many menu names I was curious about. What even is caviar roe rice? Haha. The spicy chili rice sounded hot just from its name, and then there was dakbokkeumtang and yukjeon too... In the end, we ordered everything we wanted ^^

Starting with caviar roe rice and spicy chili rice

Not long after ordering, the banchan (Korean side dishes) and rice arrived first! We were hungry, so we started with the rice dishes.

Caviar roe rice, ₩7,000. The name sounds fancy, but the price was more affordable than I expected, which made it one of the dishes I was curious about. The little roe had a pleasant pop, so the rice was delicious and never boring on its own.

And the spicy chili rice we ordered too! At ₩5,000 it was easy on the wallet, and the rice had the flavor of spicy peppers plus beef, so it was tasty even by itself.

Sumi dakbokkeumtang with rice mixed into its rich sauce

Sumi dakbokkeumtang, ₩28,000. And then came the dakbokkeumtang, which was basically the main event that day!

They said it had already been cooked once and was ready to eat, so I tasted the broth first. It had that delicious dakbokkeumtang seasoning—exactly the kind of flavor that goes well with rice!

The sauce was the type that pairs so well with rice, so we added sesame oil to the bowl of gim garu (seasoned seaweed flakes) that came with it and mixed it in!

It was seriously delicious mixed together. Especially when you are eating something strongly seasoned like dakbokkeumtang, taking a spoonful of rice with it makes you think, yep, Koreans really run on rice, haha.

In the end, it was even better mixed together, so we really dug into the caviar roe rice and spicy chili rice with the dakbokkeumtang sauce too, haha. And the dish I liked more than expected was the yukjeon!

Perilla-oil yukjeon that was perfect on the side

Since we had ordered dakbokkeumtang and rice dishes, I planned to have the yukjeon lightly as a side, but it was delicious too.

Maybe because it had perilla oil in it, the nutty aroma really came through. The yukjeon itself was not heavy either, so it was nice to pick up a piece between bites of saucy food like the dakbokkeumtang.

With Korean restaurants like this, I think it is always tastiest to order several dishes and share rather than have just one! Everything we ordered was good overall, so there was not a single dish that made me think, “This one was disappointing.”

Next time, I think I would stare at the menu for ages deciding what else to try, haha. Recommended if you are craving Korean food on a trip to Gyeongju ><