Sansarang sits up in the hills of Gogi-dong in Suji, Yongin, surrounded by the lower ridges of Gwanggyosan.
The short version: it’s the kind of place an older Korean relative will quietly love.
There’s no single show-off dish here. The whole point is a wild-greens set meal (산채정식, sanchae jeongsik) that arrives as a full table of small plates.
It got a fresh wave of attention after the YouTube show Ttogan-jip (또간집) ranked it No. 1 for its Yongin episode.
The TV history goes back further, though - it’s appeared on MBC and Y STAR food programs, and it made the 2025 Blue Ribbon list.
Still, it’s the YouTube feature that brings most of the crowds these days.
Who it suits
This is a family-meal restaurant first.
The seasoning runs mild and gentle, which is exactly why older diners tend to relax here.
Kids are fine too - there are high chairs.
If you live for bold, punchy flavors, this might read as a little plain.
The whole register is “home-cooked grandmother’s table,” not restaurant drama.
The drive is the real story
Let me be honest up front: the location is both the charm and the catch.
The last five to seven minutes climb a narrow, fairly steep mountain road - close to a single lane in places.
On busy weekends, cars meeting head-on sometimes have to reverse to let each other pass.
If you’re a nervous driver, brace yourself a little.
Public transit basically doesn’t reach it, so you’ll want a car.
A quick tip that applies all over Korea: Google Maps is unreliable for local driving and transit directions here. Use Naver Map or KakaoMap instead - they’ll actually get you up this hill.
Parking is less of a worry than you’d think.
There are two lots, lower and upper, and together they hold a good number of cars.
On weekends an attendant guides you in, almost valet-style. The upper lot is closer to the restaurant, so take it if they wave you up - it saves a climb.
The basics
- Address: 9 Saemmal-ro 89beon-gil, Suji-gu, Yongin-si (산사랑)
- Phone: 031-263-6080
- Hours: daily 10:40 - 20:30 (last order 19:30), no break time
- Parking: private lots with an attendant
- Good for: groups, families, kids; pets allowed
📍 View Sansarang (산사랑) on Google Maps →
The building is a converted house, so seating is split across small rooms.
It holds more people than it looks, which is why groups work here.
Don’t expect a modern, minimalist interior. It’s a bit worn and homey, in a good way.
A Ttogan-jip No. 1 poster and the Blue Ribbon plaque hang by the entrance.
One set menu, and a self-bar to start
There’s effectively one thing to order: the Sansarang set meal (산사랑정식).
You just order by headcount and a full spread comes out per person.
[[FIXME: confirm current per-person price for Sansarang jeongsik - recently raised to 23,000 KRW]]
You can add tteokgalbi (떡갈비, grilled short-rib patties) on the side if you want a bit more meat alongside all the greens.
Ordering doesn’t need any English, by the way.
Staff may speak little to none, but with a single set menu you essentially just hold up fingers for how many people - it’s about as easy as ordering gets.
Because the rice is cooked fresh in stone pots, there’s a short wait before food arrives.
Use it to hit the self-bar.
The self-bar has barley rice (보리밥), seaweed soup (미역국), lettuce for wraps, and two soybean pastes - all free and unlimited.
Spoon barley rice into a lettuce wrap with a little sesame oil and ssamjang and you’ve basically got a meal before the meal.
The seaweed soup is light and not salty, easy to sip while you wait.
The spread, plate by plate
Then the table fills up fast - so many small dishes you end up stacking plates. Easily more than twenty.
The heart of it is the namul (나물, seasoned wild greens).
Aster, eggplant, dried radish-greens, soybean-sprout japchae - a wide range, each seasoned gently.
You taste the vegetables, not seasoning powder, and if you like greens you’ll lose track of how much you’re eating.
The pickles (장아찌, jangajji) are a strength too - cucumber, radish, chili, perilla leaf, none of them aggressively salty.
The perilla-leaf jangajji in particular is a frequent takeaway buy; they sell same-day side dishes to go and will even ship them.
Two warmer mains round it out: stir-fried pork and braised mackerel.
The pork (제육볶음, jeyuk-bokkeum) is stir-fried with kimchi, so it carries a mild heat.
A heads-up for non-Korean diners: “mild” here still means Korean-spicy, which can land hotter than you expect - good to know if you’re sensitive to chili. It’s the savory anchor when the greens start to feel light, and it’s nice in a wrap.
The braised mackerel (임연수조림, imyeonsu-jorim) is simmered red with greens until the flesh goes soft - a fun change from the usual grilled version.
A soft-tofu stew (순두부찌개) comes too.
It looks watery at first, but you let it bubble at the table and it deepens. The tofu is made in-house.
A couple of honest letdowns.
The grilled croaker comes one per person but it’s small, so there isn’t much to it.
Some diners note the grilled fish can arrive pre-cooked and lukewarm.
And since many namul share a similar doenjang seasoning, the flavors can blur together once you’re full.
Stone-pot rice, finished as nurungji
The rice here is the real thing - cooked in individual stone pots (돌솥밥, dolsotbap), not an electric cooker or a plain bowl of white rice.
Scoop out the rice, pour warm water into the pot, and by the end of the meal you’ve got nurungji (toasted rice) and a soothing rice tea.
With a little namul and that perilla pickle, it’s a satisfying way to close.
For two people, two sets plus the self-bar is genuinely filling.
Prices have climbed a lot over the years, though - the set used to sit around 13,000 KRW and has moved up through 15,000, 17,000, and 19,000 to where it is now.
You’ll find both “great value” and “not worth it anymore” opinions at this price.
A practical note: nearly every restaurant in Korea takes cards, so an internationally accepted card is fine here, and there’s no tipping culture - leaving a tip can actually confuse the staff. You pay yourself at a small self-checkout card terminal on the way out.
Linger in the garden
The yard is the other reason people come.
Old iron cauldrons are repurposed as flower planters, and there are rows of onggi jars, a small kitchen garden, and a little pond.
If you’re not ready to leave right after eating, a slow loop of the garden is lovely.
The flowers change with the season, so clear spring and autumn days are especially pretty.
There’s a self-serve coffee corner in the yard, so you don’t even need to find a cafe afterward, and the restaurant sells ice cream for dessert.
A museum-cafe, Museum Ground, sits one to three minutes away by car if you want to stretch the afternoon.
Before you go
- Weekend and holiday lunches bring a 15-30 minute wait; while you wait, there’s makgeolli and pickled radish set out.
- After the weekday lunch peak (noon-1pm), you can usually walk right in. Reservations are accepted.
- You register by phone number for the queue, so wander the garden while you wait.
- Refills: namul are free; the pork, braised fish, and tofu mains cost extra.
- Confirm hours before a long trip, since it’s remote and seasonal weather (summer rain, winter ice on that hill) can affect the drive.
Final thoughts
Sansarang is the kind of place worth a deliberate trip once, even if that road keeps it from being a regular spot.
The mix of mountain calm and a healthy spread of greens delivers, and it earns a return when you’re hosting parents or older relatives.
Just go in knowing the price keeps creeping up and the grilled fish is the weak link.
Come for the namul, the stone-pot rice, the self-bar, and the garden as one whole experience, and you’ll leave happy.