Insaeng Seolleongtang is a Baek Jong-won franchise — the name means “the seolleongtang of your life”. Those who know, know: Baek Jong-won franchises are genuinely good if you catch them early. Hong Kong Banjeom 0410 was the same. Once the full franchise rollout kicks in there’s no telling what happens to the taste and the prices, so you may as well go plenty now.

seolleongtang

6,500 won gets you a decent bowl of seolleongtang. Next to the famous seolleongtang places you can see where it falls short, but at this price I’m fine with it. The strategy is to line up cheap dishes to pull people in and then turn their eyes toward the expensive ones — and even knowing that, I end up coming here more often than anywhere else.

siraegi doenjang seolleongtang

I wasn’t sure doenjang would suit it, but it has a sharp, peppery kick and it’s pretty good.

suji seolleongtang

It’s basically dogani-tang, beef knee cartilage soup. Most places charge over 10,000 won these days, but here it was 8,900. The amount of suji wasn’t stingy either.

suyuk, boiled beef

We set aside a day and ordered all sorts of drinking snacks. Eating them with soju, they vanished in no time..

yuksam miljeon, a wheat pancake topped with beef

This is what’s on it..

You roll it up to eat it.

This one goes well with soju too.. a bit spicy, though.

and mandu on top of that..

Well.. not bad.

I think I’ve worked through just about the whole menu here, and the value really is good. Being able to eat decent food at a reasonable price is a fine thing. If plenty more competitive places like this turn up, I’d like to think the general level of franchises will rise a lot too.

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