Dish guide · Soups and stews
Haejangguk
해장국
Hangover soup
The name means "soup to chase a hangover". It is not one recipe but a family of hearty soups that Koreans eat after a night of drinking, or simply as an ordinary meal with rice. Common kinds are made with pork backbone, ox blood, dried pollack or bean sprouts.
What it is
- The classic Seoul style is a soybean-paste soup in a long-simmered beef bone broth, with napa cabbage, bean sprouts, radish and seonji (congealed ox blood).
- Ppyeo-haejangguk is a spicy pork-backbone soup, a close cousin of gamjatang served one bowl per person. Bugeo-haejangguk is a mild, milky soup of dried pollack, often with egg.
- You don't need a hangover to order it: plenty of people eat it as an everyday meal.
How to eat it
- 1Taste it first, then add the chili paste, chopped chili or salted shrimp on the table if you want it stronger.
- 2Rice comes on the side. Eat it alongside, or tip it into the soup.
History
- Older Korean texts call hangover soups seongjutang, "sobering soup"; the word haejangguk itself only appears in modern times.
- A 1920s collection of verses describes hyojonggaeng, "dawn bell soup": simmered overnight near Namhansanseong fortress and carried to noble houses in Seoul by dawn. It is often called Korea's first delivered hangover soup.
Allergies and diet
Usually contains
- Which meat depends on the kind: ppyeo-haejangguk is pork, the Seoul style uses beef broth and ox blood, and bugeo-haejangguk is fish (dried pollack) with egg.
- Seonji is congealed blood. If you don't want it, choose another kind or ask for none.
- Pork-backbone versions are often topped with ground perilla seeds.
Recipes differ between restaurants. If you have an allergy, always ask the staff before you order.
🗣️ Allergy card for the staff
Pick your allergy to see the sentence in Korean.
📍 Where to try it
- 🍲
Cheongjinok 청진옥
Soups & stews · Jongno · Since 1937
Seoul's most famous hangover soup house, serving since 1937. Its yang-seonji haejangguk is a clear, savory beef broth with soft cubes of congealed ox blood, tripe and cabbage, eaten with rice and radish kimchi. It opens at 6 in the morning, near Gwanghwamun and Jonggak.
Try: Yang-seonji haejangguk (regular or large)
No wait - 🍲
Daehwajeong Jinjja Haejangguk 대화정 진짜해장국
Soups & stews · Dongdaemun · Since 1981
A hangover soup house in an alley behind the DDP, feeding Dongdaemun's wholesale traders since 1981. There is basically one dish: a nutty soybean-paste broth with dried cabbage, beef and seonji (congealed ox blood). It opens at 5 in the morning.
Try: Jinjja haejangguk (regular)
Short wait - 🍲
Haeundae Wonjo Halmae Gukbap 해운대원조할매국밥
Soups & stews · Haeundae & Gwangalli · Since 1962
A six-decade-old soup shop near Haeundae Market. Skip the pork here: this is Gyeongsang-style sogogi-gukbap, a clear, peppery beef and radish soup over rice, at a price that's rare by the beach. It's where locals stop for breakfast.
Try: Sogogi-gukbap (beef soup with rice)
Locals' pickShort wait - 🍲
Mugyodong Bugeokukjip 무교동북어국집
Home-style meals · Myeongdong · Since 1968
Since 1968 this alley restaurant near City Hall has served exactly one dish: a milky dried-pollack soup that Seoul office workers swear by for breakfast and hangovers. Sit down and the soup arrives almost at once.
Try: Dried pollack soup (bugeo haejangguk)
Short wait - 🍲
Eunhine Haejangguk 은희네해장국
Soups & stews · Jeju City & North Coast
A Jeju hangover soup brand, now with branches around Korea, and this is one of its original shops. A bubbling beef soup comes packed with meat, blood curd and bean sprouts, with a lightly spicy kick. A filling, low-cost breakfast, and solo diners are a common sight.
Try: Haejangguk (beef hangover soup)
Short wait - 🍲
Idaejo Ppyeodagwi 이대조뼈다귀
Soups & stews · Hongdae
A long-running gamjatang house a few steps from Hongik University Station: a bubbling pot of spicy pork-backbone stew with potatoes and cabbage leaves, finished with fried rice in the same pot. It is one of the places in Hongdae where you will see as many foreign diners as Koreans, and the menu comes in four languages.
Try: Gamjatang (pork-bone stew)
- 🍲
Woojin Haejangguk 우진해장국
Soups & stews · Jeju City & North Coast
Jeju City's most famous breakfast. The dish to order is gosari-yukgaejang: a thick stew of pork and bracken ferns cooked down until it's almost porridge. It's nothing like the red yukgaejang on the mainland. Jeju's seaweed soup, momguk, is the other local choice, and lines start before the door opens.
Try: Gosari-yukgaejang (pork and bracken fern stew)
30-60 min wait
Sources
We check every fact against at least two sources and write it in our own words. Last checked: 2026-10-28.