Insadong Maneul Bossam — Restaurant in Seoul

A small unassuming restaurant with what is certainly the best Bossam I’ve ever had. The set meals are quite worth it - 80000won for 4 pax.

Do note that you may have to take a queue number and wait. But trust me - this place IS worth the wait.

The set comes with a Rice Makguli, Pork Bossam, Stir fried octopus, leek pancake.

The meal starts with a serving of the Rice Makguli. We weren’t sure at first if we should get the Makguli but decided it was worth the try. NO REGRETS. The Makguli was reallllly good!

Then the Bossam came - it was a party in the mouth. The pork was tender and had no pork smell. It was tasteful and went well with the side dishes of gochuchang bamboo shoot, lettuce and pickled onions and lettuce. Oh my it was truly the BEST.

The leek pancake is also worth shouting out for. Definitely the best leek pancake I’ve ever had. I merely wonder how I’m going to be able to tolerate anything less than this in the future now 🥹

This was lovely. Thank you to the lovely ahjumma...

Venue is located within a network of back alley restaurants. It's prominent to locate but the map marker is slightly off.

We had the 2 persons set that comprise bossam, leek pancake and chestnut makgeoli.

The bossam is indeed their signature dish. It's one of the best dishes we had during our time in Korea. It's well brined and steamed to perfection. Each bite is not oily nor fatty despite being the pork belly cut. The ginger garlic sauce is the best accompaniment for it. It tastes great no matter by itself or with the lettuce wrap.

The leek pancake is just as delicious. It's not floury with a very thin batter, almost similar to tempura. The crispy exterior and chewy leek makes for a fantastic appetiser and snack to go along with the chestnut makgeoli that we ordered.

Venue is somewhat baby friendly. They have booth seats that allows for more depths to manage the little one.

English is limited but functional.

Visited...

The restaurant was a bit hard to find because it was in the little alley and there was no English written anywhere. Make sure to take a picture of the restaurant if you don't speak or read Korean. It is really worth it. Non smoking restaurant. Smokers went outside.

There is English menu. We got the medium set cost $48,000 that included the fantastic pork, the crazy good giant scallions pancake, a gigantic tureen of chestnut makgeolli that is delicious and it is too much for two people. Large lettuce leaves, daikon radish pickles and napa cabbage fermented(not typical kimchi) provided with the meal. I ordered an instant ramen just to have an experience of eating out of a pot like it was done in a k-drama. We enjoyed every bit of it. Our waitress was very nice. Definitely worth the trip if you didn't stay in insadong...