[Myeongdong] Fooled by an Instagrammable photo? Honest, blunt review after waiting 45 minutes for the viral 'Sul-la-ke-jang' (cleanliness and value for money realities)
Reri
Affiliate
10 hours ago
About a 3 to 5 minute walk from Exit 8 of Myeongdong Station on Subway Line 4,I visited the Ganjang Gejang specialty restaurant “Sura Gejang / sura gejang”, which has been getting a lot of buzz on social media!
Even though it was a fairly late time, around 9 PM on a weekday, there was a long line of tourists in front of the restaurant,and after waiting about 45 minutes,I was finally able to get in.
This time, I’ll give an honest review, sharing what I genuinely liked and also the “straight-up negatives” that I really want anyone planning to go to know beforehand.
First, here are the positives, like my first impression of the restaurant and the service.
The interior was very stylish, clean, and had a nice vibe.
Ordering on a touchscreen is great too.
It could be switched to Japanese, so it was easy!
On the table, things like wet wipes and cups were neatly set out in just the needed amount, and they even had cute paper aprons.
Also, even though it was crowded, once we ordered,the food came out quickly,which was another plus!
※This photo is fortwo servings.
The main Ganjang Gejang itself was well seasoned, and I enjoyed it.
The presentation performance is great, so it definitely has that “photo-worthy” vibe.
That’s probably why it gets featured so often on social media like Instagram and TikTok.
But after actually going, my honest feeling was, “I didn’t feel it was worth waiting in line for.”
I’d like to share the reasons as candidly as possible.
First, I felt stressed starting from where you line up before entering.
The hallway is extremely narrow, and the area near the entrance is constantly packed.
It looked like people dining inside had a hard time getting through the line to go to the restroom, and when leaving, the exit got bottlenecked and seemed cramped and difficult to get out.
The line stretched all the way outside to the elevator area, and it definitely wasn’t a comfortable place to wait.
On top of that, in terms of overall satisfaction, unfortunately the negatives ended up standing out more.
The first issue was the set menu quality and poor value for money.
This place basically requires you to order a set menu,and the minimum price comes out to nearly 50,000 won per person (around 5,000 yen),which feels quite expensive.
Considering how pricey the set is,the amount of rice is small. (Refills require an additional 2,000 won.)
Also, the ganjang saeu (shrimp) that comes with the set was surprisingly bitter and not tasty at all.
And the set banchan (side dishes) felt like the kind of quality you’d get at a cheap izakaya in Japan,especially the Korean seaweed, which was thin and had apaper-like texture, which was really disappointing.
The second, and most shocking, issue was “hygiene”.
The restaurant looks stylish at first glance, but during the meal,three flieskept buzzing around us the whole time.
No matter how much we tried to shoo them away, it was endless, and worst of all, we even had an incident wherea fly got into the beer we were drinking.
On top of that, acockroacheven showed up near our table, and I couldn’t focus on enjoying the taste of the Ganjang Gejang anymore.
Also,the restroom hygiene was pretty serious.
It was the type of restroom often found in older buildings in Korea where you can’t flush paper down the toilet, butused paper was overflowing from the trash bin.
The staff seemed far too busy, and it didn’t look like they had any capacity to keep up with cleaning.
Because the food presentation is great and looks good on social media, it gets praised online, but after paying a high price and waiting 45 minutes in a narrow hallway only to end up with this, I honestly felt a bit misled.
If you want to enjoy truly delicious Ganjang Gejang in the same Myeongdong area with peace of mind, personally I overwhelmingly recommend going to “Odari Jib” instead.
If you’re thinking, “I want to eat delicious Ganjang Gejang safely on my first trip to Korea!”, I honestly felt this is a place where you should be a bit careful.
I hope this helps anyone choosing a Ganjang Gejang restaurant in Myeongdong!
