When the owner of a popular restaurant in South Korea specializing in dwaeji-gukbap, a dish widely beloved in Korea but little known outside, visited Vietnam for vacation for the first time around a decade ago, he saw a real possibility of bringing and introducing this special Korean dish to Vietnam. Fast forward to today, his vision has materialized into the quite remarkable scene of a restaurant in Thảo Điền bustling with Vietnamese customers who come to enjoy the humble dish.

Dwaeji-gukbap (돼지국밥), which can be literally translated as pork soup-rice, is a dish served boiling in earthenware bowls, consisting of rich and delicious pork bone broth, various cuts of pork, spring onion, alongside a bowl of rice.

A humble wartime creation

What makes the rustic dish so beloved? Aside from its great taste, dwaeji-gukbap is relatively cheap, especially for how nutritious and filling it can be. Although different forms of gukbap — the genre of Korean food that, again, literally means soup-rice — have existed for a long time, it is said that the origins of dwaeji-gukbap date back to the Korean War, when locals and refugees used to take pork meat and bones from US military bases to make soup during times of food scarcity.

The milky appearance of the soup comes from simmered pork bones.

Besides, dwaeji-gukbap is extremely convenient. Though the actual preparation of the soup itself is no easy task, once it is prepared, serving the dish merely requires transferring the huge batch of soup to individual bowls, requiring very little waiting time for hungry and busy customers. It is for such reasons that dwaeji-gukbap has become somewhat of an iconic dish of Korea’s working class.

As for whether dwaeji-gukbap should be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, the answer is all three, but especially after a night out, as it makes for a great hangover breakfast meal. But the dish is also popular as dinner, where it is often consumed with some cold soju that serves as an excellent palate cleanser and contrast to the rich, hot soup. Some joke that they can drink continuously if bowls of dwaeji-gukbap are consumed in between sessions as a hangover remedy.

The Thảo Điền branch is one of Subyeon's five in Vietnam.

As you may have already guessed, this beloved staple is the centerpiece of this Hẻm Gem, Subyeon-Choego Dwaeji-Gukbap (or “Subyeon” for short) in Thảo Điền.

A do-it-yourself soup

For those who may be intimidated to try dwaeji-gukbap for the first time, it may help to know that there is no “right” way of enjoying it; over time, each person develops their preference for how they like to enjoy the dish best. Subyeon, though, does offer a useful guide to enjoying this dish, with recommended steps posted on its wall:

Step 1: Add salt or seau-jeot — salted and fermented tiny shrimp —to the soup according to your liking of saltiness.
Step 2: Add some dadaegi, or chili paste, to the soup.
Step 3: Add chives.
Step 4: Mix and enjoy!

Of course, these steps are by no means mandatory, but are simply recommendations. Personally, I like to add a bit of the saeujeot to the broth, a lot of the chili paste, and a healthy portion of chives. Depending on the day, I also like to put a spoonful of deulkkae-garu, or ground up perilla seeds (the same perilla that is often found in Korean BBQ restaurants, except in leaf form), which makes the soup more earthy.

A standard portion comes with the soup, banchan, condiments, and rice.

Subyeon offers several variations of the same dish, depending on what cuts of pork one may prefer. The version of dwaeji-gukbap perhaps most palatable for the general public is the version that contains only slices of pork neck and pork belly. But there are also other variations of the dish available, including ones with pork offal and sundae, a kind of Korean sausage stuffed with meat, veggies, and glass noodles.

Some perilla seeds to accentuate the soup.

Although one could theoretically eat the rice separately from the soup, that would defeat the whole purpose, or name, of the dish. I therefore recommend dumping the rice into the soup and eating it together, though make sure to try the broth by itself first. You may notice that adding the rice significantly changes the flavor profile of the soup, making it thicker from the starch in the rice and slightly sweeter — in a rice kind of way.

Diners can adjust their bowl using a range of different accoutrements.

Personally, I also like to dip my meat in the saeu-jeot for added flavor, and eat each spoonful of rice and soup with some tangy radish kimchi. Others may dip the meat in salt or ssamjang, and some even like to add a bit of kimchi juice to the soup itself. The customizability of dwaeji-gukbap is part of what makes the dish so great.

From Busan to Saigon

Originally based in Busan, Korea, one of two cities best known for the dish, Subyeon has enjoyed widespread success in Korea, with numerous branches across the country. Ten years ago, Subyeon opened its first restaurant in Vietnam in Hanoi. Fast forward to now, there are now five Subyeon branches across Vietnam, the latest of which opened around a year and a half ago in Thảo Điền, where Saigoneer went for this Hẻm Gem. The remaining three Subeyon restaurants in Vietnam are in District 7 in Saigon, and in Vĩnh Phúc and Bắc Ninh in the north.

The interior uses mainly wood accents.

Subyeon’s ambience has a distinctly modern Korean feel, from its wood-toned interior and shiny wooden tables, to the earthenware bowls used to keep meals hot throughout — hallmarks of a certain Korean restaurant aesthetic. The atmosphere is fitting for the comfort food that it serves: rustic, reliable, and warming to the heart.

After my most recent meal, I spoke to Jeon Sin-ho, the manager of the Thảo Điền restaurant. He explained that the stone pot in which the pork broth is made remains on and boiling at all times of the day, as evidenced by the meaty richness of the broth. Dwaeji-gukbap may be a quick and convenient meal, sure, but the amount of time and effort that goes into making it is simply astounding.

Sin-ho also explained that, while the restaurant’s customer base was mostly Korean when he first opened Subyeon in Thảo Điền, the customer base has shifted significantly since then and is now mostly Vietnamese. For Sin-ho, the growing popularity of dwaeji-gukbap is not a huge surprise, given that the dish shares many of the same characteristics as many of the most beloved Vietnamese dishes: hot, soupy, with a hearty mix of veggies, meats, and carbs. 

I visited the restaurant for a late lunch on a weekday when the restaurant was not too busy, but Sin-ho explained that, during weekends, there will often be a line of people waiting to eat. Apparently, several TikTok influencers and Vietnamese celebrities posted about the restaurant and popularized it for a broader audience.

Subyeon is often packed during the weekend.

Dwaeji-gukbap is Subyeon’s star dish; it is, after all, in the name of the restaurant. There are other dishes at Subyeon that are worth trying too, however. The milmyeon, or Korean cold noodles, for instance, is perfect for hot days in Saigon. It should be noted, though, that the milmyeon is only available at the Thảo Điền branch. Another dish that is also quite popular is the spicy pork udon, a spicy noodle version of the dwaeji-gukbap. It is, in fact, what Subyeon is best known for in its restaurants in Korea. Subyeon’s banchan, or side dishes, though quite simple, are also delicious and not to be overlooked. Its two kinds of kimchi — a fresher cabbage kimchi and a more fermented radish kimchi — serve as excellent accoutrements to its main dishes.

Korea’s culinary landscape is vast and endless. The dishes that Korea is famous for to foreigners — Korean fried chicken, Korean barbeque, tteokbokki — are all great, no doubt, but none of them come as close to the heart of ordinary working people of South Korea as dwaeji-gukbap. For those looking to diversify their horizon of Korean food, I cannot recommend enough giving Subyeon-Choego Dwaeji-Gukbap a try.

To sum up:

• Opening time: 10am–2pm, 4–9:30pm
• Parking: Bike only
• Contact: +84865200060
• Average cost per person: $$ (VND100,000–under 200,000)
• Payment: Cash, Transfer
• Delivery App: N/A