Anguk Yakbang
Ribs rested seven days
and seven nights

01

It all began in
a herb-medicine alley

Chef Kim Jeong-man spent his childhood in the herb-medicine alley of Daegu.

Herbs were always piled along that alley, and something simmered all day in the great cauldrons.

To the boy it was only the alley he walked every day, the smell that was always there.

Jeong-man. Rush a good thing and it never tastes right. You have to know how to wait.

ANGUK YAKBANG

02

He left the alley
and travelled thirty years

He became a cook and passed through kitchens and dining rooms all over the country.

He handled the meat, learned the fire, grilled and grilled again.

Thirty years of it.

Through all that time, one dish he never let go of: bakpo galbi, pork ribs.

The longer he worked, the more he felt there was something good meat and good fire alone could not fill.

ANGUK YAKBANG

03

Thirty years later,
back to the herbs

And a scent he had breathed long ago came back to him.

Medicinal herbs.

But adding herbs does not make food good.

A strong scent covered the meat, and nothing about the flavor could be given up for the sake of a fine ingredient.

How you bring good herbs into harmony with Korean flavor. I saw that as our strongest hand.

Chef Kim Jeong-man

ANGUK YAKBANG

04

The dish he shaped longest:
bakpo fresh pork galbi

The dish he shaped longest around that idea is bakpo fresh pork galbi.

The ribs rest in nuruk salt and water steeped with medicinal herbs.

The set time is168hours

ANGUK YAKBANG

05

What remained after
thousands of attempts

It was not 168 hours from the start.

He shortened it, lengthened it, changed the herb blend, and tasted again.

When the flavor went too far, he went back to the beginning.

He repeated that, and repeated it.

After thousands of attempts, the time that remained was 168 hours.

ANGUK YAKBANG

06

Only now does he understand
what his grandfather meant

Rush a good thing and it never tastes right.

To the boy it had been a line about herbs, nothing more.

Thirty years on, it sounds a little different.

Good food was like that. So were people, and so was one man's road.

Some things need time.

ANGUK YAKBANG

07

2026, opening
Anguk Yakbang in Bukchon

So in 2026, opening the doors in Bukchon, he gave it the name Anguk Yakbang.

Not to move that childhood alley here as it was.

A place where what he learned over thirty years of cooking and what had stayed in his body since childhood

are worked out again inside Korean food as it is now.

ANGUK YAKBANG

08

One rib,
seen through to the end

Chef Kim still runs the kitchen at Anguk Yakbang himself.

He opens the aging room and decides the herb blend.

When meat that has waited 168 hours reaches the charcoal, we take the last step as well.

So that no one misses the best moment, our staff grills them at your table.

ANGUK YAKBANG

09

One meal,
complete

Beside it we set yakseon sotbap, rice steamed with herbs, and yaksang, a spread of eight side dishes.

To carry a story that began with a single rib through to a full table.

A memory that began in a small herb alley in Daegu travelled the country for thirty years, and continues here in Bukchon.

For one man it took thirty years. For one rib it takes 168 hours.

Thirty years to prepare it. 168 hours to wait for it. This is Anguk Yakbang.

ANGUK YAKBANG