Anmok Seongsu, a Busan-style pork soup place near Seongsu Station

Anmok Seongsu (안목 성수점), a Busan-style pork soup place near Seongsu Station: eating alone in Seongsu-dong, paid for myself

[ ✔ Paid for it myself ] I paid for this meal myself. Nothing from the restaurant. Prices and hours are as of my visit in September 2026 and may change.

Hi, this is JoyStoria.

Today it's Anmok Seongsu, a pork soup place near Seongsu Station. It's a gukbap (soup with rice) restaurant from Busan. According to the restaurant's own intro, the brand started in 2021, and the main branch in Namcheon-dong, Busan has been in the Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand three years running since 2024. In Seoul there are branches in Yeoksam and Jamsil too, not just Seongsu. I went alone in the morning and had one bowl of dwaeji-gukbap (pork and rice soup). The place is set up for eating alone, so I wanted to tell people new to Korea about it.

'Location' guide

📍 8 minutes on foot from Seongsu Station Exit 3, down the side street Ttukseom-ro 13-gil

It's about an 8-minute walk from Exit 3 of Seongsu Station on Line 2. It's not on a main road. It's down a side street.

☑ How to find it Search "Anmok Seongsu" (안목 성수) in a map app and it comes right up. Naver Map or Kakao Map is more accurate than Google Maps here. Once you're on the street, look for a gray building with a brown awning that says Michelin Bib Gourmand in big letters. It's the ground floor. There's a separate sign upstairs that says THE BOUTIQUE. Different business.

☑ Nearby It's close to the Seongsu-dong café streets, so it's easy to go for coffee after.

'Hours' and info

🕙 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, order on the tablet and pay first

• 📍 Address: 34 Ttukseom-ro 13-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, 1F (서울 성동구 뚝섬로13길 34 1층)

• ⏰ Hours: 10:00 to 22:00, last order 21:15 (from the menu board; I didn't see a closing day posted)

• ☎ Phone: 0507-1458-0837

• 🚗 Parking: There's a valet parking sign in front of the building. I didn't see the fee.

• 👶 Kids and pets:

• ⏳ Waiting: The menu board says to register on CatchTable before coming in. There's a black kiosk to the right of the entrance that looks like it's for the waiting list. If you don't have a Korean phone number, use the CatchTable Global app, which lets you sign up without one. Lots of reviews mention a line at lunchtime. I went between 10 and 11 in the morning and sat right down.

• 📋 House rules: Order on the tablet and pay first, or the order doesn't go through. No takeout on any menu item (the notice card says it's for hygiene reasons). No photos of the staff. Food and the space only. Side dishes are self-serve. No smoking in front of the shop.

'Outside' view

🏢 A brown awning with three Michelin plaques

A long brown awning runs across the ground floor of a gray stone building. The left side of the awning says Michelin Bib Gourmand, the right side says Anmok × Boksoondoga (안목 × 복순도가, 安木 × 福順都家). Boksoondoga is a makgeolli (Korean rice wine) brand. On the wall to the left of the door there are three red Michelin plaques in a row: 2024, 2025 and 2026. The listing on the Michelin site is for the Busan main branch. Seongsu is that brand's Seoul shop.

There are six potted trees along the front, plus menu boards on stands. To the right of the door there's a black kiosk, which looks like it's for the waiting list. There's even a queue belt on the left, so I'm guessing a line forms at lunch. When I went in the morning, nobody was outside.

'Inside' look

🪑 Wood-paneled walls and a counter with a tablet at every seat

When you walk in, one side is counter seating in front of the kitchen and the other side is tables. The walls and ceiling are all wood paneling, with round pendant lamps. Each counter seat has its own tablet, water jug, cup, salt and pepper, toothpicks and napkins. The tables are a mix of two-seaters and four-seaters, and every table has a tablet. By my rough count, five or six counter seats and seven or eight tables.

I sat at the counter. I put my bag on the chair next to me and nobody said a word. At the tables next to me there was a group of three and a pair, and at the end of the counter someone else eating alone. It never felt cramped.

You order on the tablet, so you barely talk to the staff at all. The top of the menu board says K-Food Recognized by The New York Times, and the same article sits on the tablet's idle screen. The chopstick sleeve says 안목이 탁월합니다, roughly "you have excellent taste." Anmok is also the Korean word for having a good eye.

The self-serve bar is in the middle of the room. Kimchi, kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi), garlic chives, sliced garlic, salted shrimp, dadaegi (spicy seasoning paste), ssamjang (soybean dipping paste), mild green peppers, spicy chili peppers, pickled chili peppers. The labels are in Korean and English. The restrooms are at the back of the shop, separate for men and women.

'Menu & prices'

🧾 Soup from 13,000 won, ordered on the tablet at your seat

네이버맵 업체 등록 메뉴판 참고

The menu board is in four languages: Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese. You order on the tablet at your seat. Prices below are from the menu board in September 2026.

Soups (gukbap)

Sets

Boiled pork (suyuk) and sundae

'What I ordered'

🍲 One bowl of pork soup, finished down to the last spoonful of broth

Pork Soup (돼지국밥) 13,000 won

It comes in a black ttukbaegi (earthenware bowl) with a milky broth and big slices of pork on top. The rice is already in the soup, so there's no separate rice bowl. I had garlic chives, minced garlic, pickled chili peppers, kimchi and kkakdugi in front of me, and if you run out you get more from the self-serve bar.

The broth is rich but not heavy, and it finishes clean. No porky smell at all. The meat is thick-cut but tender, and some pieces have the skin on, which gives you something to chew. The restaurant's intro says you don't need to season it, but salted shrimp and dadaegi are at the self-serve bar, so add them to taste. It was my first meal of the day and it went down easy. I finished the broth too. Google had it at 4.9 when I went, and I get why.

I was alone, so I only ordered the soup. I didn't get to try the suyuk or the sundae. That was the one thing I regretted.

'One-line verdict'

✅ Go first as a solo gukbap spot, bring a friend for the suyuk

• ✔ A gukbap place where eating alone is no big deal. There's a tablet at every counter seat, so you can eat and leave without saying a word.

• ✔ The broth is rich with a clean finish, so it worked even as the first meal of the day.

• ✔ The menu board and the notice card are in four languages (Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese), and the self-serve bar labels have English too.

• ✔ No takeout and you pay first, so you sit down and finish paying on the tablet before the soup comes.

• ✔ Lots of reviews mention a lunchtime line, so going in the morning like I did is easier. If there's a line, you need to register on CatchTable.

• ✔ Going alone and missing the suyuk and sundae was my one regret.

• ✔ Next time I'm going with someone and ordering the suyuk and sundae too.