Beef tripe restaurant near Omokgyo Station: 119,000-won family set

Today was a day to grease up the belly — I hadn't seen my friends in Omokgyo in a while, so I headed out. Omokgyo Gopchang is famous for its garlic gopchang, and honestly, what Korean who loves garlic wouldn't love that!? Here's my review after properly stuffing myself at Omokgyo Gopchang, a well-known Omokgyo meat restaurant.

• The signature garlic gopchang, made with same-day slaughtered beef tripe packed full of garlic
• The family set with its generous lineup — mixed gopchang, hot pot, and fried rice
• A free self-photo booth in the store, great for making memories with friends

Omokgyo Gopchang Mokdong Main Branch: location, parking and the Saturday night wait

Omokgyo Gopchang Mokdong Main Branch is a gopchang (beef tripe) restaurant about a 3-minute walk from Omokgyo Station Exit 1. There's no parking on-site, but the nearby E-mart parking lot or public parking lots work fine. Anyangcheon Stream is also close by, so it's nice for a light walk after the meal.

It was 9pm on a Saturday and the place was full of people happily enjoying their gopchang. Luckily there was no wait, though. This is a restaurant that's been on TV multiple times and had plenty of celebrity visits.

What comes with the 119,000-won family set?

We ordered the ₩119,000 family set (mixed gopchang for 3, beef brisket for 1, gopchang hot pot, fried rice) plus four ₩5,000 bottles of alcohol. The set came with a hot pot and fried rice on top of everything else — a genuinely generous spread. By the end there was barely room on the table, we were basically playing Tetris with the dishes.

Side dishes: cheonyeop and green onion kimchi

These are the standard side dishes, and the cheonyeop (beef tripe) looked super fresh. Dip it in sesame oil sauce and it's chewy and nutty — so good, haha. The homemade green onion kimchi, chive salad, and regular salad were all tasty too. Apparently the green onion kimchi is made with chili powder grown by the owner's mother herself.

Another standard side: spicy sundubu-jjigae (soft tofu stew). Honestly, this alone could carry a bottle of soju. Simple ingredients but so tasty — perfect for slurping down before the main course.

Mixed gopchang for 3, beef brisket for 1 and the tableside fire show

Before we even got through the side dishes, the family set arrived — mixed gopchang for 3 and beef brisket for 1. Onions, chives, mushrooms, and bean sprouts came piled on top too, and the vegetables soaked in beef fat were savory and delicious.

Then came the fire show to remove any gamey smell. Great little performance. Since it's same-day slaughtered gopchang there probably wasn't much smell to begin with, but this took care of any that remained.

What does Omokgyo Gopchang's signature garlic gopchang taste like?

The signature garlic gopchang is stuffed full of minced garlic with a whole clove sealing each end — it was incredibly savory and sweet, with no gamey taste at all. The more you chew, the more the sweetness of the garlic blends with the nutty flavor of the tripe.

Gopchang hot pot and beef-fat fried rice

The gopchang hot pot came as part of the family set bundle. Packed with vegetables and gopchang, the broth was savory and rich. A bowl of rice with this hot pot would be perfect. It was loaded with perilla seeds too, right up my alley.

Fried rice, the classic Korean finale to a meal. It came out on a fresh grill pan — they didn't just fry it on the pan we'd been eating off of! Made with domestic chili powder, antibiotic-free eggs, and Korean beef fat, apparently. The owner is serious about ingredients. There was no gopchang in it, but it somehow tasted like gopchang — turns out that was the beef fat, haha.

The free self-photo booth inside Omokgyo Gopchang

There's even a self-photo service so you can properly remember a fun meal, haha. It's a great way to commemorate a fun day with friends. From the spicy sundubu-jjigae at the start to the fried rice at the end, we enjoyed the whole thing like a full course.