My Korean Life #43: A Favorite Meal - 닭 한 마리

A Favorite Meal - 닭 한 마리

The map shown below is the restaurant's approximate location, it's actually closer to the CU convenience store than shown on the map.  The closest subway stop is Sinchon station (신촌역) Address in Korean: 서울 서대문구 연세로2길 77

One of my places to eat in Korea is not uniquely Korean food per se. The restaurant's name is simply "One Chicken" and its specialty is a chicken soup cooked with, you guessed it, one whole chicken. Actually the smallest portion you can get is a half-chicken.
The restaurant is quite easy to find. If you locate the large CGV movie theater in 신촌, keep walking and take the next street on your left, then turn right and you should see it. I've embedded the Google Map above but, as I stated, the location is approximate. I found this restaurant through my language school friends way back in the summer of 2014. Then, besides the outside temperature being super hot, the inside of the restaurant was also warm due to the gas burners on each table, regardless of how much A/C was pumping. But now since the weather is freezing cold outside, a warm restaurant with piping hot chicken soup is perfect.
The restaurant is quite popular with Chinese speaking tourists and some of the staff also speak Chinese. It also sits right in the middle of the Yonsei/Ewha/Sogang University area so many college kids also frequent the restaurant. The main dining area only has floor level tables and the area that has chairs and tables is not always open. Just be warned if sitting on the floor is not favorable to you.

닭 한 마리 specialty - the bowl gets screaming hot, be careful of burning yourself

Side dishes: cabbage/green onion, kimchi, peppers, and 된장

The basic chicken soup for 2 people starts at 19,000KRW and goes up in price for more servings. The dish comes out partially cooked and takes about another 10 minutes on the gas burner to finish cooking. The soup itself comes with the chicken, potato, green onions, rice cake, and mushrooms. What makes this place especially tasty to me is the sauce they provide to dip your chicken and vegetables (and whatever else you want) in. The sauce is a combination of garlic, red pepper paste, and vinegar/soy sauce mixture I think...you can adjust the sauce with the extra sauce ingredients provided.

Sauce after I mixed everything together. I dipped the cabbage side dish into the sauce - tasty!

Extra garlic and red pepper paste

You can also eat things like rice porridge and noodles for 2,000KRW each per serving. These two items are ordered after you finish your chicken soup. If needed, more broth is added and then the noodles or rice/egg/김 is added to the broth to be cooked. You can order however many servings you want, regardless of how many people are in your party. Rice is not included with the chicken soup but many people forego basic rice for the rice porridge after eating the chicken soup. On each table there is a small bin for trash or the chicken bones as you eat.

칼국수 (Noodles)

죽 (Rice porridge)

Overall, I would say it is reasonably priced for the food and the experience. This past visit I didn't drink anything other than water but I remember the beverages and alcohol being a fair price as well. If you need a hot meal to warm you up during these frigid winter months, I highly recommend 닭 한 마리. If there is anything you are curious about in regards to the restaurant, let me know and I can try and help! ~