Jinju House -진주집

I have been wanting to try soy bean noodles from Korea for at least 2 years and it is always not the right time when I visit or we just did not have any time to visit. On my last trip, my feed popped up with a recommendation of the best soybean noodles in central Seoul so I made sure I planned a visit this time

Located in the Yeoido Department Store which is surrounded by many office buildings, this is a popular place for lunch. It was not so easy to find on the maps so look out for this building as the restaurant is located in the basement

If you take the lift, just turn left and the restaurant with the blue sign is the restaurant. When we arrived at lunchtime, there was a long queue of about 20 groups in front of us. We decided to give it 15mins to decide if we wanted to continue waiting and surprisingly the queue cleared in less than 10 minutes

There were 2 areas for seating and we were led to the one on the right side which is like a huge restaurant filled up with tables and chairs to cater to the lunch crowd

There were only 4 items on their menu which is framed up all over the restaurant. You can also ask for an English menu from the staff. The chicken soup knife-cut noodles, spicy dry noodles, soy bean noodles and steamed mandu ( dumplings). All noodles are at KRW 11,000 except the mandu at KRW 14,000

We were served cabbage kimchi as well as dried radish kimchi to be eaten together with the soybean noodles. The noodles came in a huge metal bowl of creamy thick soy bean soup with the noodles placed right in the centre. You can ask for noodles to cut the noodles for easy eating or choose to slurp them like locals. As the soup is thick and heavy, it is not easy to pick up the noodles. The noodles were chewy and springy with a nice texture while the soup was like a thicker version of our non-sweetened fresh soy bean drink. I absolutely loved the soup as it has a strong natural bean flavour which is extremely fragrant and delicious. It reminded me of the pure tofu I ate in Kyoto which any other flavourings were unnecessary. The soup was chilled so it was great to have it on a hot day. On its own, I find it delicious enough but eating it with the kimchi gives it a different spicy and savoury flavour which also helps to cut the heaviness of the soy milk.

Overall, Jinju House has become one of my MUST-visit places in Seoul whenever I visit as the soybean noodles are the best I have tasted ( I tried another 2 in Singapore subsequently). I wish this was available during all the seasons so I can eat it regardless of the time I visit Korea. One note is you must already love soybean milk which is unsweetened to really appreciate the beauty of these noodles.

Address: 33 Gukjegeumyung-ro 6-gil, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Operating hours: 10 am to 8 pm ( til 7 pm on Sat and closed on Sun)