Dukkebi in Seocho: Budae Jjigae & Korean Steak
Today, I'd like to introduce a restaurant near my office that I used to visit often. It's Dukkebi Budae Jjigae, where we usually eat budae jjigae (Korean army stew) for lunch and grab a glass of soju with Korean-style steak for dinner.
Everyone knows budae jjigae, but you might be wondering what exactly "Korean-style steak" is. I had no idea about it either, but a coworker who is quite the foodie explained it to me like this:
In Korea, there are two main types of budae jjigae: Uijeongbu-style and Sukdae-style. Since there were US military bases nearby, people mainly used the meat from there to make the stew. But they didn't just make stew—they also grilled the meat with various vegetables and butter, and simply called that dish "steak."
I looked up Sukdae and Uijeongbu steak, and sure enough, there are steak places that grill the meat themselves but flavor it with vegetables and butter. Having heard all this, I went in with high expectations.
Since I've been here many times, the photos are a mix from different days. First, let's start with the budae jjigae we often have for lunch. To be exact, it's budae jeongol (hot pot). I also learned the difference between jjigae and jeongol for the first time: jeongol has more solid ingredients and is meant to be eaten for those chunks, while jjigae is more about eating the broth. Since we are always hungry office workers, we ordered the budae jeongol.
It doesn't look like anything special in the photos. Budae jjigae is still just budae jjigae no matter how good it is, so as long as it isn't made poorly, it's fine. But they give you so many ingredients and it's seasoned so well that we always scrape the bottom of the pot.
One of our members fell so deeply in love with this place that they demanded budae jjigae once a week, to the point where we had to temporarily ban it. It's that good, so if your office is nearby, it's definitely worth recommending. The price is 8,000 KRW for budae jjigae and 9,500 KRW for budae jeongol. Oh! And the ramen noodle add-on was 2,000 KRW? Or something like that.
Next up is the assorted steak. The people at work who like to drink started meeting up here and there, and at some point, we just became a group. Even when we say let's grab dinner, we order anju (drinking snacks) and get beer and soju instead of rice. Today, as always, it's alcohol instead of food. At least we originally set out to eat a meal, so I think we only had one bottle each. The reason our health checkup results keep getting worse isn't hard to find.
It goes without saying that the meat is delicious, but to make your mouth water a bit more, the potatoes and onions are really amazing. Like I keep saying, "Korean-style steak" is grilled in butter, so that flavor seeps right into the onions and potatoes. I hate carrots so I don't eat them, but my coworker next to me said, "The carrots and onions here are so good," and ate all the carrots. And all the alcohol, of course.
It's not a traditional neighborhood restaurant, but it's quite charming in that you can taste a style of steak only found in Seoul, and enjoy a sweet, buttery meat stir-fry. It's a very solid spot near Gyodae and Seocho stations for eating budae jjigae at lunch, or for filling your stomach with a glass of soju during the first round of drinks at dinner.