Gaegeum Milmyeon

Notes

• Compared to Gaya Milmyeon, it's less sweet and sharper/spicier.
• It keeps to the fundamentals of milmyeon while elevating them a notch higher, a masterpiece among masterpieces.
• Honestly, if it were close by, I think I'd split my visits about 6:4 between Gaya Milmyeon and Gaegeum Milmyeon.
• If anything, unless you have a kid's palate, this place is probably far more delicious than Gaya Milmyeon.
• History Busan milmyeon broadly splits into two lineages, Gaya Milmyeon and Gaegeum Milmyeon (honestly, there are now so many milmyeon shops carrying one name or the other that the distinction has stopped meaning much). Milmyeon itself actually got its start at a restaurant called Naeho Naengmyeon. The original Gaegeum Milmyeon shop opened as a meat restaurant that sold meat and milmyeon together, and once the milmyeon became famous, they switched their business over to it entirely. That's how the Gaegeum Milmyeon lineage began. This particular restaurant is the true original Gaegeum Milmyeon shop that carries that history. For reference, Gaya Milmyeon actually started before Gaegeum Milmyeon: back when Gaegeum Milmyeon was still a meat restaurant, a man tried the milmyeon there, fell in love with the taste, learned how to make it, and opened his own shop. That became Gaya Milmyeon. Gaegeum Milmyeon kept running as a meat restaurant even after Gaya Milmyeon opened, and only later switched over to milmyeon. (For what it's worth, I have no idea where the original, first Gaya Milmyeon shop is now. Bonga-ui Chammat, Gaya Milmyeon is just one shop among Gaya Milmyeon's many franchised variations that happens to perfectly suit my taste.)