Cycle 16 – Item 73
Post 5,552
19 (Wed) March 2025
Jeonguk Odae Jjambbong: The Yeongbinru
3.2
at Yeongbinru
-Sinjang, Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-
with MtG
TEJOJ (Try Every Jeonguk Odae Jjambbong)
Yeongbinru is a Korean-Chinese restaurant. Famous for jjambbong – one of the so-called “Big Five.” Founded in 1970 (at a different location).
Jeonguk Odae Jjambbong is a list purporting to designate the best (“odae = Big Five”) jjambbong restaurants in Korea (“jeonguk = nationwide”). The list was made circa 2011 by a local food blogger, who had toured the country in search of jjambbong and kept rankings of his experiences – however, I was unable to find the original post, so I have zero information about his methodology. In any case, the list somehow went viral and became quite a national issue, or so secondary sources say – in fact, it was so controversial that the blogger initially deleted the post and eventually shut down the blog because he was receiving so much hate mail. GMTD had launched in 2010, but I can’t recall anything about it at the time. I was introduced to the concept upon visiting a franchise branch of Gyodong Banjeom near home (see 11.356 Haemul Wang Jjambbong), then another branch near work (see 12.017 Gogi Wang Jjambbong), though the food from one didn’t resemble that of the other in the least – tellingly, both restaurants have since closed their doors – in fact, the restaurants have themselves complained about the pressure of living up to the hype, dealing with disappointed customers.
Jeonguk Odae Jjambbong [listed in order of distance from home]:
-
- Yeongbinru (Pyeongtaek) (50 km)
- Donghaewon (Gongju) (130 km)
- Bokseongru (Gunsan) (200 km)
- Gyodong Banjeom (Gangneung) (200 km)
- Jinheung Banjeom (Daegu) (280 km)
Out of nowhere, I was suddenly inspired to explore the restaurants and gauge them against my own rating system. I dragged MtG into the project, who was eager to join, so long as we did it on Wed/Thu (his days off). We started with Yeongbinru, the closest of the Big Five.
In a prior post concerning mandu at Korean-Chinese restaurants, I had observed: “Despite what the film Old Boy would suggest, where the distinctive taste of a specific restaurant’s gun mandu becomes a critical plot point, they all kinda taste the same. I would be surprised if any establishment made their own, rather them buying them frozen from a restaurant supplier.”
But here, for the first time ever, I was quite impressed with the mandu. Super crispy skins, which appeared to be hand-rolled, judging by their thick and pleasantly uneven texture. The filling was packed solid with juicy meat, perhaps a blend of beef and pork. And they were huge, twice the size of a standard mandu elsewhere. Total bargain at 6,000 won.
The jjambbong is graded on GMTD’s 4-point scale, applied to the dish’s 3 primary components. The final score is the average of the 3 subscores.
BROTH. Light in texture, not oily, clean pork flavor, very well balanced. Subscore: 3.5
NOODLES. Standard. Cooked to al dente. Subscore: 3.0
TOPPINGS. Plenty of sliced pork with bits of squid. Skimpy on the vegetables, minimal onions. Subscore: 3.0
CONCLUSION. Far from the best bowl of jjambbong that I’ve had in my life (see samseon version below), but solid. Not a bad deal for only 8,000 won. Worth the travel/cost/wait: not really. Final score: 3.2.
Meanwhile, the samseong jjambbong blew the basic version out of the water. Richer, deeper broth. More veg, including mushrooms + some kind of bitter green (kale?), which enhanced the complexity of the broth. Seafood toppings comprised jumbo shrimp + squid + octopus + scallop + abalone. This would be a far worthier contender for the Big Five title.
On the way there, we were fully agreed that expectations were low, not only for this particular place but for the list on the whole. With over a decade of focused attention, the consensus is now that the restaurants are hit or miss, subject to personal preference, and that many many other restaurants offer better jjambbong. If the initial returns were consistently underwhelming, we would not force ourselves to finish the list.
Fortunately, the positive outcome at Yeongbinru provides impetus to proceed.
Donghaewon is up next.
Afterwards, we walked a few blocks to Anjeong Rodeo Street, a cluster of alleys across from US Army Garrison Humphreys (formerly Camp Humphreys), now the largest US military installation in the world outside of the US, with around 45,000 personnel and their families.
Traffic goes both ways, apparently – while at Yeongbinru, several customers were clearly American soldiers.
At random, we dropped by Casa Del Mexicano for a second round.
The food was excellent. And authentic – the chef is Mexican.
Will probably never revisit Yeongbinru, but hope to be back at Casa del Mexicano someday, and certainly Anjeong Rodeo Street.
Surprisingly, Pyeongtaek had never previously been featured in GMTD history.
(See RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)
(See GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See HANSIK)
(See BOOZE)