Hadongkwan — Clear Beef Soup, Then Add the Kimchi Brine for a Second Flavour

An old Seoul institution serving gomtang — clear beef soup — with rice already in the bowl. The care in it shows.

What gomtang is, and what it isn't

Korea has several beef soups and travellers mix them up constantly:

• Gomtang — this one. A clear, light-coloured beef broth
• Seolleongtang — the milky white one, from simmering ox bones
• Galbitang — clear, but built around short ribs

So if you were expecting a white soup, this isn't that. The broth here is thin, clear and barely seasoned, because the broth itself is the point rather than a sauce or spice.

Your first spoonful may taste like very little. That's intended. Salt and pepper are on the table — season it to your own taste. The rice comes already in the soup.

The move: ask for the kimchi brine

This is the most useful thing to know here.

Eat it plain for a while. Then **ask for extra brine from the radish kimchi (kkakdugi)** and pour it into your soup. The colour changes, and so does the taste — it turns tangy and sharper, and cuts the richness.

One bowl, two different soups. Don't do it at the start; taste the clear broth properly first, then switch.

This isn't a tourist gimmick — across the reviews, kkakdugi is mentioned 69 times, second only to the soup itself. Locals do this. Nobody will think you're eating it wrong.

It opens at 7:00 AM

Gomtang is traditionally a breakfast dish in Korea, and this place is used that way. Arriving early means an easy seat.

Reviewers note food arriving within a minute of ordering. It is fast.

The flip side: service is brisk and impersonal. This is not a place for a warm welcome — it's a working old restaurant where you eat and go.

Closing time I could not confirm. If you plan to go late, call ahead.

On price — being straight with you

A basic bowl is ₩19,000, and the tier called "25" is ₩25,000. For a Korean rice-and-soup meal, that is genuinely expensive.

Hadongkwan names its dishes by price — "25" simply means the ₩25,000 version. Ask in store what changes between tiers; there is also an offal-mixed option.

This is where the ratings suffer. "Good, but small portions for the price" comes up repeatedly at both Myeongdong and Yeouido. The Myeongdong original sits at 3.6 — not because of the cooking, but because of this.

So, honestly:

• If you want a serious old-school Korean beef soup house — worth paying for
• If you want a cheap, filling rice-and-soup meal — this isn't it. Korea has those everywhere for a third of the price

One more thing: temperature

Some reviews note the broth doesn't arrive piping hot and that this divides people. If you expect a scalding bowl, you may find it merely warm.

There are several branches

Myeongdong and Yeouido — and note that Yeouido has two, which is easy to get wrong.

• Yeouido main branch — 3 Eunhaeng-ro, by National Assembly Station Exit 3. With 1,279 reviews, this is the busier of the two
• Yeouido Station branch — 50 Yeouinaru-ro
• Myeongdong original — 12 Myeongdong 9-gil, near Euljiro 1-ga Station and Myeongdong Cathedral. This is the one that fits a sightseeing day, and it takes reservations through the CatchTable app

Reviews at the Myeongdong branch mention Michelin 48 times, so it clearly has a reputation among guide-readers — though whether it currently holds a listing is (changes often — please verify).

Check the branch name, not just "Hadongkwan," when you search.

Who this suits

• ✅ You want a proper old-school clear Korean beef soup
• ✅ You'll try the kimchi-brine trick for a second flavour
• ✅ You want a substantial Korean breakfast
• ⚠️ Expensive for a rice-and-soup meal
• ⚠️ Brisk, functional service and fast turnover
• ⚠️ The broth may not arrive very hot