옥성반점
Ganjjajang from a TV-featured master, with house-pulled noodles and a runny fried egg
A long-running Chinese restaurant in a Bosu-dong alley, three minutes on foot from Bosu Elementary School, with a red sign that stands out from the street. It sat in the Bosu-dong book alley until about five years ago. There are only four tables on the ground floor, so a queue forms at lunch, but more seating is downstairs. The walls are covered in sticky notes left by customers.
The dish to order is ganjjajang (KRW 8,000), black bean sauce served separately from the noodles. The owner, Ha Hyeon-ho, appeared twice on the Korean TV show Master of Living as a ganjjajang master, and most tables order it. The noodles are pulled in house and are finer than commercial ones, topped Busan-style with a runny fried egg and green peas. The sauce is looser than usual, so it mixes easily, and despite the dark colour it is mild rather than salty and sits lightly afterwards.
Mini sweet-and-sour pork is the usual companion. It is generous for the name, and the sauce is clear but thickened with starch, leaning gently sweet rather than sharp, so soy sauce works with it too. Pork is combined with finely diced carrot, onion and courgette. Beyond the standards there are dishes rarely seen now, such as tofu rice and Guangdong rice. Sides are pickled radish and raw onion.
The shop runs its own delivery rather than using delivery apps. Open 10:00-19:30, closed Tuesdays. There is no car park, so drivers need to find a space around the alley.