Woomijip 1947 — Restaurant in Seoul

Hands down, best oxtail soup and braised oxtail / galbi-jjim I've ever had (comparing to Daeho in San Francisco and Miga in London). Potentially some of the best Korean food I've had.

Food here shows an unexpected amount of restraint for how good it looks. Everything here showcases masterful balance in flavours (and I don't use this term lightly or often) - beefy, sour, sweet, spicy and yet all light at the same time.

Braised oxtail / Galbi-jjim is deeply flavourful but super more-ish - I couldn't stop eating it! Medium size also feeds two although you will probably finish it with how good it is even with just one person.

Ox foot and sour salad was a big surprise in terms of how good it was. The beef tendons tasted clean and the acidity of the dish contrasted well with everything else.

Oxtail soup was just superlative - so very delicate and pure that it's obviously being made with a lot of skill and time.

I was underwhelmed by the overall state of food in Seoul the day before when we arrived but this place has single-handedly redeemed this city in my eyes.

The staff / owner is also super friendly and very patient. Also makes an effort to speak English so foreigners would be fine.

Atmosphere is also on point - very calm setting in a pretty neighbourhood.

A place like this shouldn't exist, and yet it does, and is one point of proof that life can sometimes be beautiful (if it looked like an oxtail).

Do yourself a favour and come here. It is entirely worth your time and money.

We ordered: braised oxtail, oxtail soup, ox foot and sour salad, yugwa and yoghurt ice cream for dessert...

We came here on a weekday for lunch and we were the only ones here. They mostly just sell oxtail so we got the lunch soup (yukaejang - a spicy beef soup) and their classic oxtail dish. Even though it looks like a lot, it's mostly bones. It's pretty good but I think I would have preferred it slightly saltier. We paired it with the garlic fried rice which was very garlicy. It's so good!

The waiter was very friendly though. Gave us lots of clear soup to combat the spiciness of our other soup and kept filling up our banchan which was delicious (they said it's all made in house!).

At the end of the meal, they gave us...

The ox tail soup is a must try!!

The soup is super clear that you can taste that it's freshly made from loads of ox bones. And the portion is enough for a girl as the ox tails come with quite many meaty parts as more than I expected.

For anyone that can't take spiciness, the sauce is made from red chilli but not spicy at all, however the sauce does elevates the taste of the ox tail, so 10/10...