오향가 (Oh Hyang Ga) is a very popular dining institution near Jamsil. Technically, it’s in Karak Dong. It’s at the National Police Hospital Intersection in Songpa-Gu. There is ALWAYS a wait. They do not accept reservations. Once you get there, you put your name down on the white board.
I am not sure how to describe this restaurant. It’s a hybrid of a Chinese restaurant that also serves 족발 (pig trotters). There are four popular dishes that almost everybody are ordering: (1) Pig trotters (two variations) (2) Sweet and sour pork – 탕수육 – tangsuyuk (3) Jambong – Spicy seafood soup (4) Kimchi fried rice.
They have other dishes – 오향장육 which is slices of marinated samgyubsal; ma-pa tofu with rice
For the jambong, there are two versions – the individual bowl size and the 술안주 (cooked at your table in the black stone pot). You can ask for noodles to accompany this 술안주 version if you have room at the end.
For 3 people, we ordered one medium order of the 오향족발 + 술안주 짬뽕 + medium order of the sweet and sour pork. They ran out of the kimchi fried rice. It was more than enough. Too much food in fact.
It’s good and I would recommend. However, I don’t think it’s a 40-minute wait place. It’s a 20-minute wait. But if you come all the way out here to eat at this restaurant that doesn’t take reservations, then you probably are going to wait. If I see that it is going to be a more than 40 minute wait, what I have done is go across the street to a fried chicken joint and drink some beers and munch on the dried snack plate while waiting.
This place also does A LOT of takeout business. While we were waiting, we saw a lot of people pick-up for takeout.
