Yangbokjeom, Sadang: lamb skewers with curry powder
Picking a place for a work dinner or a group near Sadang station usually means the usual barbecue or a chain izakaya, where the mood is stiff or the next table is too loud to talk over. A place with character that still works for four or more is not easy to find.
This week it was Yangbokjeom near Sadang. The name means tailor’s shop, and I assumed it was a clothes shop, until they explained it is a pun: eat lamb, yang, and good fortune, bok, comes. From the outside you can see it is a place that takes lamb seriously.
Before you go
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Booking | Catchtable recommended; weekend waits get long. A parasol-shaded waiting area outside keeps the rain and sun off |
| Deal | Weekdays before 17:00, all drinks were buy one get one when we went |
| Groups | A private section to one side for four to six |
| Getting there | About five minutes on foot from Sadang station |
| Korean name | 양복점 사당점 |
Copper hoods
We waited behind one group and got in quickly. Inside, the room surprised me: exposed concrete, dark wood furniture, warm yellow wall lamps, a modern take on a northeastern Chinese skewer house.
The ceiling is the impressive part. Thick silver ducts run across it and drop a copper-colored hood over every table. Smoke is the worst thing about a skewer restaurant, and here you barely smell it. If you have avoided lamb skewer dinners because of what they do to your clothes, this one is safe. Staff watched the skewers turning, kept everything topped up, and answered calls for more at once.
The table comes with pickled mustard greens, radish pickles and peanuts, and each place has cumin, a dipping mix, curry powder and salt. Empty Tsingtao cans are stacked as decoration, and lamb skewers with Tsingtao is the accepted formula, but I think Harbin fits better, lighter and cleaner against the fat. I ordered the Harbin, partly to look like I knew something.
Lamb, mapo tofu, curry powder
The lamb has no gaminess and is soft. You do not need the most expensive cut to be happy, and the portion was right for two. The mapo tofu is not the usual: it has pork in it, which gives it something to chase, and the tofu itself tastes clean. It works alone as a filling dish and as a palate cleanser between skewers.
The one real difference is the curry powder. Have you seen curry powder on the table at a skewer place? I had not. A light dusting on a skewer and the aroma changes completely. For a curry obsessive like me it was the best thing on the table, and a small detail that tells you someone here is paying attention. We ordered skewers, mapo tofu and Harbin on draft, and the photos came late because we were eating.
We stayed a while. At seven on a weekday there was room; after eight it filled, a full table of coworkers on one side and a couple on a date beside us. It works for a group and does not feel odd for two, which is rare. The name is a tailor’s shop and the whole place, from the facade to the menu, is one hundred percent lamb. The Blue Ribbon on the wall made sense.
I’d recommend it as the first choice for a work dinner or a group near Sadang station, and it suits a couple of friends or a date just as well. Next time I want the lamb fried rice with cubed radish kimchi, which I saw at the next table and skipped only because I was watching my diet.
My rating: 4.5/5. Curry powder, Harbin and lamb is a combination I will come back for.