Geodae Gomtang, Seocho: the beef soup families near Gangnam come back to
Eating out with the family near Gangnam station is harder than it sounds. Cafes, brunch, wine bars and barbecue are everywhere; a Korean restaurant that serves a proper, filling meal is rarer than you would think.
After a run of spicy, heavy dinners I wanted something clean, and a friend who lives nearby suggested Geodae Gomtang. Twenty thousand won for a bowl of soup was a small shock, and I went partly to find out what a bowl could possibly do to earn it. My friend also mentioned it was somewhere you could take children, and on a Saturday morning that turned out to be the main story. If you have a child, anything spicy is off the list and the options narrow fast, and you usually end up at a department store food hall. Gomtang, a mild beef bone broth, is the rare dish the youngest person at the table can share.
Before you go
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Prices we saw | Gomtang ₩20,000 a bowl. Galbitang is also on the menu |
| Timing | Saturday around 10am was calm and full of families. By 11 the weekend lunch crowd arrives; 10 to 11 is the window |
| Parking | Register your ticket and it is free, with plenty of space |
| Getting there | Gangnam station exit 5, about five minutes on foot, near the Sinbundang line exit, before the Baengbaeng crossing |
| Korean name | 거대곰탕 서초점 |
A room full of high chairs
We arrived around ten on a Saturday, and the surprise was how many families were already there. Baby chairs at most tables, a child of seven or eight at the next table working steadily through an adult bowl, a couple in their thirties bringing in a toddler, an older couple with a newspaper taking their time. Around Gangnam station this had clearly become the family restaurant.
The interior is polished, the tableware is good, and none of it tips into luxury. It turns out the parent company is Geodae Galbi, a premium hanwoo barbecue brand from Haeundae, and the concept is a gomtang made with galbi know-how. A familiar dish, done over again by people who know beef.
Four seasonings
On the table is a tray of four black ceramic pots with Chinese-character labels: salt, chili paste, kombu vinegar and pepper. My first thought was that a gomtang place had gone to unusual trouble over the seasonings. The message is that the broth can stand on its own, and you tune it to taste. It reminded me of Ganso Aburado, my favorite abura soba chain from Japan, where eight seasonings do the same job.
Gomtang is a plain base, so you build on it. Chili for heat, vinegar for brightness, a little salt for depth. One bowl becomes two or three. I drank the first spoonfuls plain, added a touch of chili, and finished with a splash of vinegar, and each stage tasted like a different soup.
The bowl
We ordered two. The bowls are large, and the name, which means giant, explained itself the moment they arrived.
The broth is seriously rich. Milky white, and the depth spreads across the mouth in the first spoonful. Leave it a minute and a thin skin forms on the surface, which tells you how much bone went into it. The rice is glossy and separate, grain by grain, right for adding to the soup, and a gomtang place that takes this much care over rice is thinking like a proper Korean dining room.
The kimchi comes on the side, well fermented, with a clean acidity and not much heat, and it pairs with the broth better than anything else on the table. It would sell on its own. Not many Korean restaurants in Gangnam bother with kimchi at this level.
Inside the bowl are large pieces of hanwoo rib meat, still holding their texture, and you can taste the barbecue background in every one of them. I was full on soup alone, which surprised me.
We walked along Saimdang-ro afterwards, past the construction site for the new Acro Seocho apartments. It is a wealthy neighborhood, and even at this price the room was full of people who live nearby. Eaten, it is not really a soup at all. It is a good meal.
I’d recommend it to families who agonize over where to eat with children in Gangnam, to couples taking their parents out, to anyone with a Gangnam station appointment who wants a solid Korean meal, and to any group that includes someone who cannot eat spicy food. The broth is so rich that if you prefer light Korean food, one bowl may feel heavy. Next time I am bringing my parents and trying the galbitang, and I would like to bring friends from abroad too.
My rating: 5/5. For anyone who agonizes over family meals in Gangnam, this is the answer, and I have grown fond of it.