한솥, Hansot Dosirak

Straight up, this is no fancy meal. This is the epitome of the end of the month type of food. Hansot is a huge chain that does crazy cheap lunch box style meals. Everything is lunch (도시락, dosirak) despite the fact that the branch we went to was open until 9pm. They have a huuuuuuuuuuge menu, luckily, all with pictures!

We ended up getting 칠리포크도시락 (chilli pork lunch) and 빅제육볶음도시락 (which google translate tells me is "the big six stir lunch", I think it was just bulgogi). These came to a WHOPPING 3,400KRW each! They were pretty damn tasty too. Obviously for that price you're not getting the fanciest food, but can you really argue for that much? 

This is definitely the most casual food I've had in Korea. Whilst we were eating several people came in and got take out. It's like student food meets airplane food, and I really enjoyed it. If you're on a bit of a budget then it's actually kind of perfect. 

We will definitely be frequenting one of the many branches in Seoul when we're low on cash.

신선설농탕 Sinseon Seolnongtang

Sinseon Seolnongtang (신선설농탕) is a really big seolleongtang (설롱탕) chain restaurant. We had never tried this dish before, so it seemed like a good place to start!

Seolleongtang is a soup made from cooking ox bones for a really long time and, from what I can tell, usually adding brisket. Seeing as we were giving this soup a go for the first time we just got the original to see what it was all about. However, this place has a ton of other kinds. As you can see on their menu.

We got a small each (7000 KRW) and this came with rice. We also got a side of mandu (6000 KRW) which were about the size of my face and pretty tasty. The mandu casing was thin so there was a really good amount of filling.

The soup is kind of bland for my tastes, but we both loved it with a bit of pepper. You can also put cut up kimchi in there to spice things up, which leads me to possibly my favourite thing about this place…

THREE KINDS OF KIMCHI. ON YOUR TABLE. No yogiyo-ing for this girl. Not to mention that they were all really really good kimchis. Another great thing about this place is that they serve makgeolli, which comes in the most awesome traditional bowls. 

All together this came to 12,000 KRW each which was awesome seeing as we got a side and makgeolli!

Here is a link to all their branches!

방이 칼국수 Bangi Kalguksu

This place is freaking tasty and it's always busy.

We assumed that as it's in Bangi Dong (방이동), and it's called Bangi Kalguksu (방이 칼국수) that it was an independent restaurant. However, after some extensive research (a naver search) we found out that it's a decent sized chain with branches mostly around Songpa-gu (Bangi and Jamsil station) but spread as far as Gangnam, Gangdong and Seongbuk. It may have more branches but seeing as their website (www.bangi.co.kr) doesn't work we can't be sure!

Here're the ones we found:

서울특별시 송파구 방이1동 213-8 
서울특별시 송파구 송파동 29
서울특별시 강남구 대치동 1019-12
서울특별시 성북구 동선동1가 123
서울특별시 강동구 암사동 447-27

We forgot to take a picture of the menu, but this will do for now:

전주비빔밥 - Jeonju bibimbap 6000

돌솥비빔밥 - dolsot bibimbap 7000

버섯칼국수 - mushroom kalguksu 6500

칼국순굥샤브샤브 - beef shabu shabu 6500

국수 - noodles 1000

볶음밥추가 - fried rice 2000

We'd never had DIY Kalguksu and had no flipping idea what we were doing. So we boshed together an order of 2 mushroom kalguksu and 2 shabu shabu, which gives you soup, a crap ton of meat, noodles and fried rice at the end. Turns out this is way too much for two people. 1 shabu shabu is enough.

So you get your pot with soupiness and mushrooms etc. You let that cook a little  then put in some meat, which is sliced reeeaaaallly thin so cooks very quickly. So eat the meat and vegetables and then when you want, put the noodles in, cook for a while and eat! TIP: vegetable refills are free. Then at the end they put all that glorious tasty soup in a separate bowl and make the fried rice for you.

Our meal came to a pricey 13000 KRW each, but if you don't order an excessive amount of shabu shabu it should only be around 9750 KRW per person. The next day we were considering going back, so definitely felt that it was worth it.