Somunnan Seongsu Gamjatang (Pork Bone Soup) — Restaurant in Seoul

Very good. Went on a Sunday 5pm, line went up to the corner. It’s very quick and there are even seats on the side leading all the way to the door. The line goes quick because their service is lightning quick.

The moment you sit down and order, the sides, water and main are all there within the first minute. The meat was tender and only slightly overcooked. This process of pre-cooked main is quite standard and must be done to ensure customer flow and satisfaction. The food is standard for me but to see it done in practice is very rare though which is why they deserve the 5 stars.

The speed is also quick because there is only 1 dish - the pork bones. I read some people complained about the meat quantity but for pork bones, you must understand that the meat is coming from the BONE. So the amount of meat we had it was ample.

With only 1 dish, all the waitresses are all veterans and most can even speak Mandarin. Only a small few can speak English so there may be some communication barriers unless you use a translator app like Papago to help you.

How to eat: Order the size appropriate to your party (small, medium, large). When eating most of the pork bones, order noodles or rice (we ordered noodles and then rice).

At first you enjoy the meat with the sides and wasabi sauce. Then when you have eaten the majority of bones, you should order noodles or/and rice.

The rice and noodles absorb more soup and allow you to enjoy the dish further. The more time passes, the taste of the soup develops (as it is not that developed in the beginning).

We didn’t ask but we would ask to spice up the soup cause it didn’t have any kick to it.

Forgot to mention we paid 34k won total for 2 people (small pork bones, rice and noodles).

Overall won’t go back again but was worth the experience...

We came on a rainy Monday night and had to wait about 30 minutes or so. After you’re seated someone will come by and basically order for you based on the size of your party.

The flavour of the gamjatang was pretty much expected, hearty and warm and not too spicy as it should be. However the bone pieces were kind of lacking in meat and it was a struggle to pick it off the bone with whatever pieces we were given.

After finishing the bone pieces we had to flag down two different servers to get sujebi added to our pot to finish off our meal. The first lady nodded when we asked but never came back to actually give us sujebi. We probably sat there for a good 15 minutes before realizing she wasn’t gonna do it so we had to try and flag a different person. He also kind of was running around bustling but finally flagged down someone else to get us the sujebi. I’m not sure if it’s because we’re foreigners that they kind of were hoping we’d give up but my friend and I are stubborn and sunk cost fallacy set in so we never gave up until we got the dang sujebi lol.

This made the effort worth it with the chewy hand torn noodles to finish off the great broth (which the server had to top up since it boiled down so much from us waiting around so long for the sujebi). We saw that the Korean locals would actually get fried rice after the sujebi but considering how long it took to even get the sujebi we just took what we could get and...

Went at between 6pm and 6.30pm and got a seat for two within 5 minutes. The potato pork stew was delicious and hearty. The meat was fall off the bone and you can add sujebi (similar to mee hoon kueh), ramen or fried rice when you are halfway done with the stew. We tried with ramen and it was so satisfying. Saw another table with the fried rice with seaweed and it looked great too.

There are some staff who can speak Chinese, so no worries if you can’t read the Korean menu. The shop only sells the gamjatang (potato pork stew) and the order was placed for us immediately after we were seated (we didnt even manage to digest the menu fully). 😂

From what I remembered, a set for two is 29k won, the medium set is 39k, and big is 49k. You can also dine alone! The basic hot stone pot bowl for one is 11k won.

Cons: I wish there are more potatoes in the stew since it’s called gamjatang.

Pro tip: try to go before 6.30pm. By the time we were done at close to 8pm, there was a long line. You can also ask for gloves if you want to enjoy the pork with your hands. :) try the pork with the special dip w onions and green chili. The cucumber with the sauce mix is refreshing too.

10/10 would...