Gonguk, Busan: Beef Bone Soup & Tendon
I came to Busan. For a business trip, as usual. It was a completely meaningless meeting and trip, but since my round-trip transportation was covered, I figured I might as well go and eat something delicious.
I was staying near WeWork BIFC, so I decided to grab dinner nearby. I had milmyeon (Busan's famous cold noodles) for lunch, but it wasn't good enough to write about, so I'm skipping straight to Gonguk, which left a strong impression.
Could Busan really satisfy my taste buds, coming from Seoul, the city of gomtang (beef bone soup)? I walked in with some doubts. First off, there were various certification stickers on the wall. In Seoul, you'd see Blue Ribbon or Michelin stickers, but maybe because it's outside the capital, I saw marks I had never seen before. Still, seeing them made me feel a bit relieved, as it meant the restaurant was maintaining a certain standard.
I ordered a bowl of gomtang and read through the menu, noticing they had suji suyuk (boiled beef tendon), which is hard to find elsewhere. Seeing that more than half the menu consisted of suyuk (boiled meat), it seemed like their best dish was the beef tendon. I worried it might be too much food for me, but I decided to order one gomtang and one suji suyuk just to taste it, even if I had to leave some behind.
The suyuk came out first. I set up my dipping sauce and kkakdugi (radish kimchi), then reverently picked up a piece of tendon to eat. Oh—it wasn't bad at all! It has a different vibe from Ujak Seolleongtang, a famous doganitang (ox knee soup) spot in Yangjae (Seoul), but both are delicious. Gonguk actually feels a bit more refined and nicely presented. Ultimately, I couldn't resist having some soju with it, so I ordered a bottle of "Good Day," a local Busan soju.
Soon after, the gomtang arrived. I took a sip of the broth, and it passed the test. I tossed in plenty of green onions and a couple of dashes of salt, creating the perfect soup to wash down a bowl of rice. There's another charming point about Gonguk: the rice is served as sotbap (freshly cooked pot rice). It was so perfectly sticky and delicious that it almost felt like a waste to mix it into the soup. Drinking soju with the gomtang and tendon like that made me want to spend the night in Busan instead of heading back.
When people think of Busan, they usually think of milmyeon and dwaeji gukbap (pork soup). But I personally dislike pork soup, and while milmyeon is tasty, it feels a bit too common. If you're getting a little tired of the usual foods, I highly recommend Gonguk's tendon and beef bone soup. It's hard to find places serving good ox knee soup in Seoul these days anyway, and the taste here easily rivals the top spots in the capital.