When I first checked in to my hotel at Dongdaemun, I walked past this shop and found the signboard really interesting but had no time to check it out. In the subsequent days, I walked past at least once and decided to check on their menu
I remember seeing a Gimbab place near the hotel when I was doing google research and I gathered this was the place since the logo was a hand grabbing onto a gimbab. I had initially thought that the restaurant serves only gimbab but turns out to serve a variety of Korean dishes
The restaurant is not very big with a layout similar to a fast food restaurant. It was extremely crowded during meal times as the working crowd swarms in for their lunch. It feels like a Korean dish fast-food restaurant as it is a fully self-serviced restaurant and the speed of service is also matching to a fast-food outlet
There was a paper pamphlet menu on every table and the order is taken at the cashier where you will be given a buzzer to collect your food once it is done. The EN menu is kept at the order counter so you have to ask the cashier for it. They have a wide variety of items on their menu; from cutlets to rice to noodles and rice bowls. For a guide on their menu, you can check here. They have over 70 outlets across Korea and you can find one in almost every tourist area and is quite affordable as every dish is less than KRW10,000
Since this is a fully self-serve restaurant, there is a side dish station where customers can get free-flow servings of pickled radish, kimchi, seasoned fish cakes and spring onion. There is also a soup station where you can get a small bowl of clear soup to go with your meal. The side dishes are quite decent in flavour while the clear soup tasted a lot like instant noodles MSG soup
I ordered the seafood soft tofu stew ( soon dubu) which looked extremely spicy from the colour but was at an acceptable spicy level for me. The stew came served with a bowl of rice and a packet of dry laver seaweed to be eaten with the rice. The stew was decent with an acceptable amount of ingredients but you can almost taste the “instant” flavours from the soup which I would say is 1 grade better than those found in Singapore hawkers and foodcourts but definitely not a match for proper Korean restaurants
You also have the option to add a fried egg to your meal at an extra cost. My nephew had the kimchi stew which was quite mediocre accordingly to him as the flavours were quite flat with only the sour and spicy flavours from the kimchi and no depth in the flavours
Lastly, the gimbab was indeed the nicest item we had during lunch at the shop. The rice was soft and nicely seasoned and the roll was packed full of ingredients with the lingering fragrance of the sesame oil brushed onto the seaweed. The gimbap was a meal in itself and just 1 roll is enough to fill you up. There are different fillings to choose from and my friend chose a tuna version
Overall, if you need to settle your meal quickly, Ssada Gimbab can be a choice for you and it is a fuss-free restaurant with a wide variety to satisfy all kinds of cravings. While it is not as tasty as the traditional Korean restaurants, it is still not that bad a meal in my opinion
Address: 249-28 Jangchungdan-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Operating hours: 11am to 11 pm
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