Dapsimni Byeolmi Review: The Black Soybean Kongguksu I've Eaten for 7 Years
There's a Korean word, byeolmi (๋ณ๋ฏธ). It means a special taste — something outside your everyday eating, the dish you go out of your way for. It's also the name of a small restaurant in Dapsimni, in Seoul's northeast, where I've been eating for about seven years. Naming your shop "Byeolmi" is a bold promise to make.
This one keeps it. In summer, at least, when the kongguksu comes out.
> What makes it different: the broth is made from seoritae, black soybeans — it pours out grey-green and seriously thick.
> Price: kongguksu 10,000 KRW. The spicy stir-fried pork (jeyuk) we added was 14,000 and generous.
> Also on the menu: regulars swear by the potato pancake, bibim-guksu, and braised pollack.
> Worth knowing: this is a local's neighborhood spot, not a tourist stop — which is exactly the appeal.
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| Grey-green, not white — that's the black soybeans talking. The cucumber is the only interruption. |
Full honesty about how I know this place: it sits right next to Seongcheon Makguksu, a noodle shop I love so much it deserves — and will get — its own post. Byeolmi is close to home, close to Seongcheon, and for about seven years it's been part of my neighborhood eating rotation. Usually I'm on that street for the makguksu. But in summer, Byeolmi wins.
That's the context you should read this review in: not a place I hunted down for the blog, but a place that's been quietly feeding me for years.
What Seoritae Does to Kongguksu
Most kongguksu broth is made from yellow soybeans and comes out ivory-white. Byeolmi uses seoritae (์๋ฆฌํ) — black soybeans — and the difference announces itself before the first spoonful: the broth is a soft grey-green, flecked and dense, like someone ground the whole bean into the bowl and left nothing out.
And it is thick. This is not soybean-flavored water — it's a broth with real body, deeply nutty, the kind you end up drinking with a spoon after the noodles are gone. If your image of kongguksu is something thin and watery, this bowl argues otherwise.
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| Thick enough that the noodles barely surface. This is the whole argument. |
What We Ordered
Kongguksu, 10,000 won a bowl. We also added the jeyuk-bokkeum — spicy stir-fried pork — which at 14,000 won arrived in a portion clearly sized for sharing over drinks. The pairing works better than it sounds: cold, nutty, calm broth on one side; hot, red, loud pork on the other. You alternate and both get better.
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| Cold and calm meets hot and loud. Alternate bites — trust me on this. |
I haven't worked through the rest of the menu myself, but the recommendations I keep hearing from people who have: the potato pancake (gamja-jeon), the bibim-guksu, and the braised pollack (kodari-jjim). Given how the kongguksu turned out, I'm inclined to believe them.
Who Should Come Here
Dapsimni is not on any tourist route, and Byeolmi isn't performing for visitors — it's a neighborhood restaurant doing summer the way Korean neighborhoods do it: with a seasonal dish that shows up when the heat does. If you want to taste what kongguksu means to the people who grew up on it, and you'd rather sit where the regulars sit, this is that place.
The famous version of this dish — the sixty-year line at Jinju Hoegwan — is a different experience, and worth having. This is the one people actually eat.
And if you're wondering what kongguksu even is, or why Koreans argue about salt and sugar over it — I've written a full guide to the dish. The short version: come in summer, because when the season ends, so does the bowl.
Dapsimni Byeolmi (๋ต์ญ๋ฆฌ๋ณ๋ฏธ)
- ๐ Address: 98 Dapsimni-ro 48-gil, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul (์์ธ ๋๋๋ฌธ๊ตฌ ๋ต์ญ๋ฆฌ๋ก48๊ธธ 98)
- ⏰ Hours: roughly 11:00 AM – 8:30 PM (listings vary — call ahead if you're making a trip)
- ๐ Phone: 02-2248-1419
- ๐ Note: kongguksu 10,000 KRW, summer only · jeyuk-bokkeum 14,000 · cash or card
New to this dish? I wrote a full guide — what kongguksu is, and why Koreans fight about salt and sugar over it.
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