12 November 2022
We arrived at Hyeopjae after doing a scenic drive along the Sinchang Windmill Coastal Road. There are a few attractions in Hyeopjae such as Hallim Park and of course Hyeopjae Beach, with views of Biyangdo island.
We skipped all the attractions in Hyeopjae and told our driver, Mr Won, to bring us straight to Hyeopjae Ondajung (협재온다정) restaurant for lunch. I learnt of this restaurant from watching a YouTube video posted by Korean actress Jung So Min. This restaurant specialises in Black Pork Gomtang (rice soup) and I could tell that So Min enjoyed her meal very much.
Mr Won had not been to this restaurant before. He used the address I gave him in Naver map and the GPS in his car to bring us to a small single-storey house with a green roof that looked like the restaurant I saw in Naver map. However, a banner outside the house advertised a restaurant serving Chinese food!
Is this Ondajung?
And that threw me off and I thought that we had come to the wrong place or the restaurant had been sold to another owner that now serves Chinese food.
After a few minutes of wandering around looking for another house with a green roof, I came to the conclusion that Mr Won’s GPS was correct.
We stepped into the “Chinese” restaurant and discovered that this was indeed Ondajung! Apparently, the owner of Ondajung is also the owner of the Chinese Bistro and is doing some advertising for that bistro at Ondajung.
The restaurant is like a small house and there are only a couple of tables. Our group practically filled the whole dining area.
The staff does not speak English. It was a good thing we came with Mr Won. The menu is all in Korean but this is a restaurant with a very simple menu.
Menu posted on the wall. There is no English version.
Besides Black Pork Gomtang in a regular 10,000 KRW portion and a larger 14,000 KRW portion, the menu included the Cod Roe (저염명란) and Pork Dumplings (고기만두).
Larger size Black Pork Gomtang for 14,000 KWR.
Pork Dumplings for 6,000 KWR.
The Gomtang is served with thinly sliced pork in light pork broth and rice. It was fun peeling off the pork slices one by one, adding a little of the spicy sauce and then eating it on the spoon with some rice and broth. The pork was nicely cooked and it tasted best with a little of the spicy sauce that was provided. If only more of this sauce had been served, the meal would be perfect.
Paper thin slices of pork in the gomtang.
The broth was light, not salty and definitely no gamey pork smell. The broth was almost like the broth in a samyetang and was truly a comfort food after a morning exploring the windswept Jeju coast.
Everyone also agreed that the pork dumplings were very good too.
After the meal, I asked Mr Won (being a Jeju resident) how he rates the food from 1 to 10. He gave a thumbs-up and a perfect 10.
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