While wandering around Gasan, I spot a curious place tucked into a corner. It is called Sampal Yangkkochi.

The entrance looks like this

What makes it curious is that it sits in a complete backwater, with almost nothing you could call advertising. But look closely and it says it is a famous restaurant, and if so, one place comes to mind: the celebrated Sampal Gyojagwan. It must be a good twenty-odd years by now, but back when people who had come over from China were settling in Garibong-dong and serious Chinese restaurants were arriving in Korea, this was the first name anyone knew. It was already famous before I even started blogging, and here it still is, carrying on.

Lamb skewers

They grill them properly for you. All you have to do is eat, and the doneness is very satisfying.

Banchan and Yantai kaoliang

Lamb skewers call for Yantai kaoliang.

The menu

For a lamb-skewer place the menu is remarkably full, and these are not simple plates but proper cooked dishes.

Jjamppong broth

The broth is clean and bracing too.

There are rice and noodle dishes as well.

Thoroughly Koreanized, I see.

Seafood crispy rice soup

Grilled lamb chop

This one you do not grill yourself either. It arrives already cooked, and it is exquisite. Less a grill than a proper dish.

Candied sweet potato for dessert

The kind of taste you keep reaching for. Best eaten while it is still hot.

It calls itself a lamb-skewer joint, but the DNA of a proper Chinese restaurant is entirely intact. They added the skewers, and even so they cook everything themselves, which is impressive. They know what flavor is.

Inside

Inside

On KBS “Saengsaeng Jeongbotong”

To think this place is still around…

The street sign

Honestly, the food is good, and the problem, I think, is that it is far too easy to miss. The street sign is what it is, and once night falls it goes pitch dark. But a lamb-skewer place is exactly what you want in the evening, and having the outside sign invisible after dark feels like, how to put it, the basics of promotion have not been covered. I have walked this area an enormous amount and I did not even know that sign was there. Being a good restaurant, people do keep finding it, but with just a little better promotion they would make a lot more money, which is a bit of a shame.

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