Family Chinese meal with kids: shrimp fried rice, jjamppong: Bueokgan

Whenever we eat out as a family around Haeundae, we end up looking for somewhere the kid can eat comfortably while still hitting the mark for the adults. One place we keep coming back to for that is a spot where every Chinese dish is good, but they're especially great at the cooked dishes — Bueokgan, a Haeundae favorite.

I've been here a few times now and it's always packed with customers. This time too, almost every table was full, so I couldn't casually snap interior photos haha. It really felt like a Haeundae Chinese restaurant with a steady stream of regulars — clearly not just my secret find.

Location and parking at Bueokgan Chinese Haeundae Branch

The address is 1F, 200 Dalmaji-gil117beon-nagil, Haeundae-gu, Busan, South Korea. The parking lot itself isn't huge, but we've managed to find a spot every single time we've visited, so driving there works out fine. The lot connects directly into the building and you take an elevator up, which makes it easy even when you're with a child.

Restaurant atmosphere and kiosk ordering

Walking in, you get a different vibe than a typical Chinese restaurant! It's warm and cozy overall with clean interior design, which is exactly why we keep coming back for a relaxed meal.

Sunlight comes in near the windows, and the lighting and furniture are styled nicely — so even though it's a Chinese restaurant, it has a fairly aesthetic feel and photographs well! The place is kept clean too, so eating there with a kid never felt stressful. Ordering is done through the kiosk at each table, so you can take your time browsing the menu without having to call a staff member over. Feels like almost everywhere orders from the table these days, right?

That day we visited with our kid and ordered three things: shrimp fried rice, seafood jjamppong, and sweet and sour pork.

One thing that's great about this place — the dishes come out with barely any time gap between them! When you're dining with a group, having everything laid out at once to eat together beats waiting on one dish at a time, and it makes for better photos too haha.

Shrimp fried rice and egg drop soup, picked for the kid

We started with the shrimp fried rice ordered for our kid — the shrimp were bigger than expected, and it looked appetizing at first glance.

The rice grains were fluffy and well fried, with generous chunks of shrimp scattered throughout — one bite in and I knew this was good.

The fried rice wasn't overly greasy or heavy-handed with seasoning, so it kept being easy to keep eating, and it was nice being able to add the jjajang sauce that came alongside.

An egg drop soup came with the shrimp fried rice too, and our kid really loved it haha. A bite of fried rice, a spoonful of egg drop soup, then sipping the broth — I was glad we'd picked shrimp fried rice for the kid's menu.

How was the seafood-packed jjamppong broth?

If you're looking for a Haeundae Chinese restaurant you can bring a kid to, I'd recommend the shrimp fried rice without hesitation. And then there was the one I was especially looking forward to — seafood jjamppong! Doesn't it look seriously loaded just from the visual?

Seafood was piled on top, so every time I dipped my chopsticks in, out came shrimp, mussels, octopus, and more.

With that much seafood packed in, the broth was genuinely refreshing!! Spicy and sharp but with that cooling flavor that comes from seafood — the kind you keep spooning up. The noodles soaked up the jjamppong broth well too, and there was plenty of cabbage and onion, so the texture with the noodles was really good.

Sweet and sour pork: the fry and the sauce

Picking out the springy shrimp and the octopus one by one, even one bowl of jjamppong felt quite substantial. And whenever we come to Bueokgan, we always end up ordering one of the cooked dishes too — this time we went with the sweet and sour pork made with glutinous rice (chapssal tangsuyuk)!

Honestly, I feel this every time I come — they're especially good at the cooked dishes. Of course everything else is good too haha. The sweet and sour pork came out generously portioned right from the start, and it really felt like ordering a proper main dish.

The batter wasn't too thick, crispy on the outside and juicy meat on the inside — exactly my kind of fry. It came topped with onion and wood ear mushroom with sauce poured over, and the sauce itself wasn't overly sweet or sharp, so it never felt like too much even after a while — the kid especially loved this dish, so it was a hit with everyone!!

They'll bring soy sauce and chili flakes for a dipping sauce if you ask

The chewy-yet-crispy texture unique to this glutinous-rice sweet and sour pork paired perfectly with the sweet-and-sour sauce. We also like dipping our sweet and sour pork in a soy-and-chili-flake sauce, so we asked for it separately.

They brought out soy sauce and chili flakes as soon as we mentioned it, so we made our own dipping sauce and ate it alongside. Switching from the sweet sauce to a light dip in the soy sauce completely changed the flavor and it was delicious haha.

Picking off pieces one at a time, the pile disappeared fast even though the portion was pretty big. The kid ate the shrimp fried rice with us while the adults paired the seafood jjamppong with the sweet and sour pork — the combination was just perfect!

In the end we cleared nearly every plate again haha. No matter how many times we come, the food is satisfying enough that we keep thinking about coming back.

How was it as a family meal with a kid?

The restaurant is clean, and there's a good range of Chinese dishes a kid can enjoy too — from fried rice to jjamppong to sweet and sour pork — so I'd recommend it as a family dining spot. The shrimp fried rice with its big shrimp, the seafood jjamppong with its cooling, seafood-packed broth, and the crispy-chewy sweet and sour pork were all more than satisfying again this time! If you're looking for somewhere to eat comfortably with a kid around Dalmaji-gil, or a good Haeundae Chinese restaurant, keep Bueokgan in mind.