Korean Pilgrimage Spot: The Adorable Triplets from a Popular Variety Show Endorse This Famous Smoked Duck Restaurant

Text & Photos /Little Dot Paine

The restaurant where the triplets from “Superman is Back” ate duck? When my brother and I visited Seoul Grand Park in March, we made sure to arrive before 3 PM for lunch set meals at Gugu Toseong. The prices are naturally more affordable. This place has many chain outlets across Korea, famous for its smoked duck. That’s actually why it was featured in the show—the duck meat is smoked in a specially made kiln, giving it an exceptionally delicious flavor. In the episode, the triplets were eating mugwort rice, but our set meal didn’t include that. Instead, they gave us some sort of nutritious rice, which I found quite interesting. The main reason it's popular is because “Superman is Back” was filmed here, and the restaurant uses the triplets as living advertisements.

Let’s revisit how it went back then—Wansei saying “duck” was super cute.

We were tired from playing at Seoul Land, so having a big meal was perfect timing.

There don’t seem to be many restaurants around here, and the space is huge. The parking lot is massive, and the triplets’ filming spot back then was up high, used as signage.

It’s super enlarged.

Walking into the restaurant, there are plenty of seats.

Not sure where the exact filming spot was since they might’ve used some set decorations.

Time to order—there are photos, which makes it easy. Since this place is known for duck, remember to order the duck. If you’re not here during lunchtime, go for the 14,000 KRW per person duck BBQ set, or even the whole duck for 45,000 KRW.

Above are other meats besides duck. The 63,000 KRW combo set is more recommended, including duck, beef, and sweet potatoes. The beef is pricier—the sets over 40,000 KRW come with pork.

If you order before 3 PM like we did, you can get a set meal. The A set for 16,000 KRW per person comes with duck and the highly nutritious stone pot rice mentioned earlier. So we ordered two A sets. The C set is a duck hot pot, not the grilled duck BBQ.

The side dishes to start with.

This salad is very similar to what I had when I ate duck in Busan before—super tasty, the sesame sauce is great, and it also cuts through the richness nicely.

For how to eat the duck, refer to above—it turns out duck goes well with kimchi and napa cabbage.

Here comes the duck for two people.

It looks super shiny.

The duck skin isn’t too “fatty,” maybe because it was smoked beforehand.

Underneath is charcoal, and grilling makes the skin get crispier and crispier.

Following the proper way to eat duck, wrap the meat in napa cabbage kimchi. The slightly sour kimchi is always one of the best things to cut richness. The duck itself—I’m not sure if it’s just this part—but it’s a bit dry. I really want to eat the duck leg!!! I guess you’d have to order “a whole duck” to get the legs. The duck has a faint smoky flavor, but I wouldn’t say it’s super strong.

Korean style eating—just mix randomly haha. Eat a lot of veggies and you’re healthy (brave).

In the end, there’s also hot stone pot rice, served with steamed egg and soybean paste soup.

The nutritious-looking grain-heavy rice is also grilled on charcoal.

Grilling leaves a lot of crispy rice bits at the bottom.

The steamed egg is pretty average, just salty.

With the rice, you also get seaweed and tofu.

This kettle of water is eventually turned into crispy rice soup.

The rice contains healthy ingredients, but I find it a bit annoying to eat because I don’t like most of it—I picked out everything except the pumpkin.

The auntie said to eat it this way, so I did — seaweed rice rolls with a bit of soy sauce.

But I actually prefer eating the rice, duck meat, and seaweed all together~~~

And finish off with the pan-fried rice cake soup.

Review: Just talking about the duck meat, I think the one I had at Gayawon in Busan’s Odongdo was better, but I’m not sure if it’s because of the meal I ordered. I got a lunch set (cough cough), and if I had ordered a whole duck, I’d probably have loved the leg. The smoked duck is their signature dish, but personally, I feel the inherent flavor of the duck can’t really be masked — I could still taste that it was duck (cough), although the super crispy roasted duck skin was absolutely delicious~~~ Duck skin duck skin duck skin~~~ On the deliciousness scale, I’d give it about 3.5 stars, but since the Triplets have been here, I’m giving it five stars (super biased XD)~~~ Lastly, the shop has a triplet-themed desk calendar at the cashier — haha, let’s see if they’ll still have it in 2016!!!!!!!!!

??? Curtain
Business hours: 10:00–22:00 (lunch sets available until 3 PM)
Address: ??衬 ??萝 ?刨杠 381 (Gwacheon branch)
Coordinates: 37.448087, 126.996862
Official website:http://www.tosung1.co.kr/ The Triplets pop out!!
Note: If you add the shop as a friend on Kakao, you get a 5,000 KRW discount — cannot be applied if added on the day of visit.

How to get there: Since there’s a transfer discount, I took the subway and then a bus (buses also run frequently).
From Seoul Grand Park Station, take the ??? to exit 2 of Tera Pung, find the bus stop, transfer to bus 11-3, get off at Jungnang Pae, and walk back.

Or transfer to blue bus 502 at the same stop to ??桓垃?宫??呸, then turn left and walk back. (There are many ways!)

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