Hi Everyone! I’m Ice here in Korea for summer school in Yonsei! Previously, I went with my parents to Korea Samgyetang in the City Hall area because Korea Samgyetang has been chosen as “Hi Seoul, Korean Restaurant we are proud of” & “100 korean restaurants loved by local Koreans”, so it’s definitely not just a random restaurant.
There were like 8 options basically:
- Samgyetang (chicken broth with korean ginseng) – 16,000 won
- Sansam Samgyetang (chicken broth with korean wild ginseng) – 22,000 won
- Ogolyetang (black-bone chicken broth with korean ginseng) – 22,000 won
- Sansam Ogolyetang (black-bone chicken broth with korean wild ginseng) – 28,000 won
- Junbok Samgyetang (chicken broth with abalone and korean ginseng) – 22,000 won
- Sansam Junbok Samgyetang (chicken broth with abalone and korean wild ginseng) – 28,000 won
- Junbok Ogolyetang (black-bone chicken broth with abalone and korean ginseng) – 28,000 won
- Sansam Junbok Ogolyetang (black-bone chicken broth with abalone and korean wild ginseng) – 34,000 won.
We got the samgyetang and junbok samgyetang.
1st sip.. bland. I am someone who loveeeee Chinese herbal chicken soup or any herbal soup, and it should be gao gao (strong enough). but this was just bland. I couldn’t taste much of the ginseng.
They gave ginseng alcohol too, so I added in, 1 whole cup of it, and it became slightly better. But it was still bland in my opinion (and my mom’s). I wanted to taste the ginseng in the soup, but nope, there was none. So I started my task of trying to bring out the taste in the soup. I added salt and pepper, and after loads of salt, the sweetness of the soup is finally brought out.
However, after a while, the ginseng taste in the soup got stronger. We were like ???, what happened? then we realised.. the ginseng was hidden in the rice stuffed in the chicken!! So as we ate, the chicken and rice were broken apart and slowly the ginseng got seeped into the soup and the soup became REAL GOOD. So, I would recommend you guys to break up the chicken and the rice to release the hidden pieces of ginseng in it first, let the ginseng taste seep into the soup and bring out the goodness in it before eating.
The abalone, on the other hand, is pretty normal. I ate grilled abalone (will be writing it next time on my visit to noryangjin wholesale fisheries market), which tasted so good! So I think.. just skip the abalone and order the samgyetang!
It’s a huge bowl for 1 person. So share if you are with your friends and family. I went with my dad and mom, and we ordered 2 bowls, we couldn’t even finish it
Korea Samgyetang
No1. Seosomun-ro 11-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul
Seoul-si Jung-gu Seosomun-dong 55-3 (close to Deoksugung Palace)
Directions: Subway Exit 10 of Subway line 1, 2 Cityhall. From Korean Air head office proceed 50m toward Sinchon. Across from Shinhan Bank, next to Woori Bank
