I ended up at Saerijae almost by accident. We’d spent the afternoon at Shinsegae Centum City looking at appliances, and by the time my feet hurt and my stomach was growling, I just wanted to sit down somewhere quiet. The basement food court was packed, so we wandered up to the restaurants on the 4th floor instead, and a plate of flame-grilled meat with warm hotpot rice sounded exactly right. ...
In Seongan-dong, over in Jung-gu, Ulsan, there’s a big restaurant that locals all seem to know by its duck bulgogi. It’s called Solbat Garden (솔밭가든). I went while trying to pick a spot for a family dinner — somewhere with private rooms and easy parking — and ended up really glad I did. I’m not usually a duck person, but the marinated duck here has zero gaminess and that sweet-spicy sauce won me over completely. ...
Tucked into a quiet residential lane in Daun-dong, Ulsan, there’s a little pork place that locals have been going to for ten, twenty years. It’s called Downmok Salgui (다운목살구이식당). A friend who lives in Ulsan kept telling me I had to try it, so one weekend I finally made the trip. The menu is almost comically short — grilled pork neck, spicy pork neck stir-fry, and a soybean stew. That’s it. Honestly, that kind of focus usually means a place knows exactly what it’s good at. ...
Damyang is bamboo country, and the one dish I really wanted to try here was daetongbap (대통밥) — rice steamed inside a length of fresh bamboo. There are a few places that serve it, but only one claims to have invented it. So on this trip I drove straight out to Wolsan-myeon to find Hansangeun Daetongbapjip (한상근대통밥집). ...
I keep finding myself in Ilwon-dong because of errands near Samsung Medical Center, and over time I’ve been working my way through the little restaurants in the Ilwon food alley one by one. This time it was Bokdaegam (복대감), a place that only does pufferfish — what Koreans call bok or, more formally, fugu. Pufferfish isn’t something I eat often, so I came in a little curious and a little excited. ...
I always get hungry after a loop around Taehwagang National Garden. That afternoon I’d been walking along the river, and right by the entrance to the little restaurant strip I noticed one place that just kept filling up. That was Halmeoni-ui Sondubu (할머니의 손두부), which roughly means “Grandma’s Handmade Tofu.” What pulled me in was finding out they make their tofu in-house every day. The food strip along the garden numbers each restaurant to make them easy to find, and this one is restaurant No. 3. Coming in from the Daun-dong side, it sits right near the entrance, so even a first-timer won’t get lost. ...
Eonyang (언양) has always been a tricky place for me to find lunch. You wander around Jakcheonjeong (작천정), the hot springs, or the amethyst cave, and then there’s nowhere obvious to actually eat. For a long time I just drove all the way home before sitting down to a meal. Then a new place opened up in Samnam-eup (삼남읍): Godam Sikdang (고담식당). I went once and now it’s the spot I think of every time I’m out this way. ...
Whenever I get a craving for kalguksu (칼국수, hand-cut noodle soup) in Ulsan, I end up thinking about Sinjeong Market (신정시장). The market is full of noodle shops, but lately I keep going back to one in particular: Somunnan Kalguksu (소문난칼국수). And once the weather warms up, their cold kimchi noodles are the thing I can’t stop thinking about. ...
There’s a red door tucked inside Ruby Plaza, deep in the youth district of Seongnam-dong in Ulsan. No sign, no name out front. If you don’t already know it’s there, you’ll walk right past it. I stood around for a while, second-guessing whether I had the right place. This is Eunsincheo (은신처), one of Ulsan’s better-known yakiniku spots. It’s a Japanese-style charcoal grill where you cook good cuts of beef one slice at a time over your own little brazier. ...
There’s one dish that starts calling my name the moment the weather warms up: a bowl of cold buckwheat soba with shaved ice floating on top. So this time I made my way to Bonyeoubonjeong (본여우&본정), right next to the Nam-gu District Office in Ulsan. If you like tonkatsu or soba around here, you’ve probably heard the name. The place has held a Blue Ribbon listing for eight years running. I dropped by after running some errands nearby, a little past the lunch rush. ...