Bongchu Jjimdak

Jjimdak is a popular Korean braised chicken and it originated in the city of Andong. I have been hearing about Andong Jjimdak for a while now but have not had the chance to try it. There are also limited Korean dishes which is made of chicken so this was perfect as it can be eaten by both myself and my colleague since neither pork nor beef is included in this dish at all

We were searching for a restaurant for lunch when we passed by Bongchu and there were fortunately enough seats for all of us to settle in for a quick meal

The restaurant layout is quite narrow with tables on both sides of the walkway making the path quite tight to pass without knocking into someone or something. We were lucky the tables at the side of the glass panels were not taken so we could walk with ease. The decoration of the restaurant is simple and fuss-free

The menu included a short history write-up of the restaurant as well as the dishes served in Bongchu. As there was only 1 dish, the menu was fairly easy to understand. There are 2 versions, the spicy and the non-spicy version. Next, you choose if you wish to have the bone or boneless version. Under step 2, you can add cheese, rice cakes or noodles and in step 3 you can choose to add an additional nurunji rice ( scorched rice). There are also different sizes of the dish from small, medium to large

There was only cabbage kimchi served as a side dish since the Jjimdak is packed with ingredients. We also had a small bottle of Makgoli to share to keep ourselves feeling warm

The Jjimdak itself came with potatoes, vermicelli, carrots, cucumber and spring onion and we added additional rice cakes. For convenience, we went for boneless and non-spicy ones as we had work after lunch. The Jjimdak taste very similar to our braised chicken with chestnuts and potato with the same soy-based flavours but it is slightly sweeter than the Singapore version. The potatoes and chicken meat were braised till soft and tender and paired perfectly with rice. The vegetables were also soft and great to chew on with the chewy rice cake

What we did not expect was the scorched rice actually stealing the show away from the main dish. The rice was patiently scorched on the pan and brought out to us when it was crispy on the surface and new and chewy inside. The nurunji was topped with seaweed, kimchi and sliced lettuce but the best way to eat it was to soak it in the Jjimdak gravy with a mashed up potato. I could continuously eat at least 4 plates of this scorched rice if we were not rushing for work. I declare this a MUST to order when you visit any Jjimdak restaurant and eat it with the Jjimdak. You will never regret it

Overall, the meal at Bong Chu was fabulous and I am definitely adding this to my list of must-visit restaurants in Seoul. While the flavours were strangely familiar since I am Cantonese and we love braising our meats, they still have a distinctive Korean flavour which makes it different. The nurunji is like adding the star to the tree so it is a must-visit and I would omit the rice cakes next time as it doesn’t really go that much with the dish. I remember the restaurant also gave us a bowl of radish water kimchi to cleanse our palate of the heavy-flavoured meal which was a nice finishing to the meal

Address: StarCity Mall, 262 Achasan-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, South Korea ( Under City Zone B1)

Operating hours: 10.30 am to 8.30 pm