By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
If you're looking for some great Korean food but nothing too fancy, Jin Go Gae might be just the right place for you. Founded in 1968, when the country was recovering from the catastrophic Korean War (1950-53), the restaurant has long established a name for serving homey but gourmet North Korean style meals, passed on from one generation to another.
Typical of any ``matjib,'' a reputed restaurant known for its own colorful dishes, Jin Go Gae explodes with hordes of guests during prime mealtimes. The spacious ground floor is always packed with one party filing in after another, and is rather hectic with servers scurrying back and forth, taking orders for additional side dishes.
But the wait is surprisingly short, so it's well worth it unless you are in a hurry. The private rooms on the upper level, where you can sit down for a relatively quiet meal, must be reserved in advanced.
Once seated, help yourself to the menu beneath the table. A myriad of meals might confuse you, ranging from various sauteed beef to noodles and soups, to the list of fish dishes and even sushi.
But for almost 40 years now, the core menu and unique taste of the place has not changed, according to the manager. The restaurant has been passed down from father to son, and retains its own taste combining spiciness with a touch of sweetness,
For your first visit, the manager recommends one of Jin Go Gae's most popular dishes, bulgogi (grilled seasoned beef; 14,000 won per serving) and a meal for each person such as naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles, 6,000 won) or ddeokmanduguk (rice cake with pork dumpling soup, 7,000 won). He also recommended the doenjangjjigae and pickled pickle-kimchi, but we didn't try that combination for our visit this time.
The bulgogi, which can only be ordered for two or more, is slightly pricey for the small serving. But it is freshly fired up right before you on a grill, along with a few pieces of pine mushroom, and tastes tender and savory. The spicy yet slightly sugary naengmyeon noodles won't burn your tongue either.
The beef broth soup of the ddeokmanduguk (also available without the pork dumplings), has a rich yet refreshing flavor. The dumplings are sumptuous little things, and even those who aren't pork lovers will find that they don't have that peculiar porky scent.