We are a family of soondae fans, the rest of us having acquired the taste for it from the missus. The classic sliced soondae with salt and spicy fish sauce is our favourite way to eat it (in Seoul we particularly recommend the version of this at Gwanghwamun Gukbap). But we like it in all its forms. And so when we heard that the neighbourhood of Sillim Dong has a place called Soondae Town, a building filled with vendors who specialize not just in soondae, but particularly in soondae bokkeum, or stir-fried soondae, we knew we had to eat there. We had a packed five weeks on our program in Seoul, however, and Sillim Dong is a bit of a haul from where we were putting up. And so, it wasn’t until the very end that we managed to finally make it to Soondae Town. The boys didn’t make it with us to this meal but we did take two soondae-loving students along with us. Here’s how the meal went.

The easiest way to get there is to take Line 2 of the Seoul subway to Sillim Station and emerge from Exit 4. It’s then a brief walk to Soondae Town. Now, given the name, you might expect this to be a sub-neighbourhood but it’s actually a building that houses a large number of soondae bokkeum vendors across several floors. Back in the 1970s and 1980s the vendors were distributed across a more conventional “food alley” in the area but at some point in the 1990s they became consolidated in this building. Each floor has a large food hall-style room in it that is informally divided between a large number of vendors. As in the more conventional food alleys (i.e the ones not housed in a building), the vendors all have identical menus and prices. So where you sit down is a matter of how persistent the vendors who see you come in are or if you have a particular vendor you’re a regular at or that a regular has aimed you towards.

For no particular reason, we went up to the third floor. We did not have any particular vendor in mind there and were happily persuaded by the first lot who told us their soondae bokkeum was very special (as I’m sure every other vendor would also have told us). The tables and seats are all very functional and menus likewise are just pasted up where convenient. There’s not much English on offer so if you don’t have a Korean speaker in your party, you’ll have to trust to a translation app. It’s not particularly complicated though as the menus are all brief. The main attractions are either the baek or white/unseasoned soondae bokkeum or the yangneom soondae, which is the same except seasoned with gochujang. There is also the option of getting gopchang/intestine bokkeum and things of that nature. Banchan is minimal. You get some kimchi and some sliced and seasoned liver with hot peppers and perilla leaves; plus more perilla leaves to make wraps of your soondae bokkeum with.

We kept things simple and just one each of the baek and yangneom soondae bokkeum. Once we’d ordered two high-output gas burners were placed on our tables and two metal casserole pans with the two types of soondae bokkeum came out in short order and were placed on them to cook up. This was more than enough food for four hungry adults. Other than us, most of the hungry adults eating at the vendors on the floor we were on seemed to be university students. The storied Seoul National University is not too far away and Soondae Town is apparently very popular with college students looking for hearty and inexpensive meals. Well, this was a hearty and inexpensive meal but it was also quite tasty. The baek soondae was our table’s consensus favourite, I think.

For a look at the place and what we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it cost and to see what’s coming next.

The place we ate at was named Mijanae, which translates as Mija’s Place. The food was very good and they were very nice to us but, frankly, I’m not sure how much variation you’re likely to encounter on either front at the other vendors. Cost? 49,000 won or all of $32.50. That’s very good value.

On the whole, I’m not sure if I would recommend going out to Sillim Dong just to eat at Soondae Town if you’re not a soondae fiend (as that’s pretty much all what’s on offer). If you are, then the baek soondae bokkeum is well worth it. And I don’t think you’ll go wrong picking a floor or vendor at random.

Alright, my next restaurant report will be of a dinner from my most recent Delhi trip in August. That’ll go up tomorrow.