General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Kang's Kitchen (강식당)

Kang's Kitchen (강식당) is a South Korean reality variety show in which the cast of tvN's New Journey to the West runs a real restaurant, produced by Na Young-suk as a spin-off of both New Journey to the West and his restaurant series Youn's Kitchen.¹ The first season premiered on tvN on December 5, 2017, airing Tuesday nights at 10:50 pm, and was filmed on Jeju Island.¹^•² Its first episode recorded a 5.448% rating, and the season went on to post the highest ratings of any New Journey to the West related season, leading to further seasons in 2019.³^•⁴

Key fact	Detail
Format	New Journey to the West spin-off in which the cast actually operates a restaurant, parodying Na Young-suk's Youn's Kitchen¹
First season	Premiered December 5, 2017, on tvN, Tuesdays at 10:50 pm; filmed in Wolleung-ri, Jeju Island¹^•²
Cast	Kang Ho-dong, Lee Soo-geun, Eun Ji-won, Ahn Jae-hyun, and Song Min-ho of Winner²
Signature dish	"Kang Ho-dong-kkas," a tonkatsu 43 cm in diameter, from a recipe taught by chef Baek Jong-won¹
Ratings	First episode 5.448% (Nielsen Korea), above New Journey to the West season 4's best of 5.119%; season high 8.2%³^•⁴
Later seasons	Season 2 at a hanok cafe in Gyeongju (2019); season 3 followed the same year⁵^•⁶

Spoilers

Season 1 (2017)

Filming took place in Wolleung-ri on Jeju Island. The five members traveled to Jeju on November 3, 2017, opened the restaurant on November 4, and had planned to operate through November 9 but closed a day early, finishing all filming on November 8.² Even before broadcast, roles, dishes, and the customer-selection method leaked through social media, creating both buzz and concern that spoilers would dull the broadcast; the production team had tried to keep the program's content confidential.²

The first episode centered on the "Kang Ho-dong-kkas," a giant tonkatsu 43 cm in diameter, about three times the size of an ordinary cutlet, which Kang Ho-dong pounded out by hand from 400 g of pork into the early morning before opening day.¹^•¹² Customers judged the taste a pass, but service was slow: orders piled up as the restaurant filled to capacity on day one, and the hall staff fell into panic despite rehearsing the night before.¹^•¹² Later episodes added dishes such as Lee Soo-geun's miniature tonkatsu, Baek Jong-won-style omurice, and a whole-pork-belly gimbap.⁴

Origin

The show began as a joke during New Journey to the West 4. When Youn's Kitchen, Na Young-suk's restaurant reality show set abroad, drew wide attention, cast member Lee Soo-geun suggested "let's do Kang's Kitchen," a parody named after Kang Ho-dong.⁷ The remark was made during the season's broadcast; in a dragon-ball mission segment, the members' demands were granted, with Song Min-ho receiving a promised Flowers Over Youth season with Winner and Kang Ho-dong's joke restaurant also being realized.⁸^•⁹

Na Young-suk kept the promise. After New Journey to the West 4 ended in August 2017, he spent more than two months developing the idea, and in October 2017 the members gathered secretly at a restaurant in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul, for a preliminary meeting and tasting.⁷ tvN imposed a gag order on the filming location and schedule, saying both could not be confirmed, but details leaked anyway.¹⁰

Format and cast

The stated concept was a restaurant where the owner eats more than the customers, a comic inversion of the usual restaurant drama.¹ Unlike Youn's Kitchen, which filmed overseas in scenic locations with foreign customers, Kang's Kitchen was set in Korea and focused on the staff's own struggles: preparing ingredients, cooking, arguing, and coping with real paying customers.¹¹

The five cast members divided the work. In the first season Kang Ho-dong was the chef, Ahn Jae-hyun his kitchen assistant, Song Min-ho the barista, Eun Ji-won ran the dining hall, and Lee Soo-geun took the role of "slave," doing odd jobs.¹² Before opening, the members obtained food-safety certificates at a public health center, Kang Ho-dong and Ahn Jae-hyun received a special tonkatsu recipe from chef Baek Jong-won, and Song Min-ho and Ahn Jae-hyun completed barista training.¹² The directing was credited to Na Young-suk with Shin Hyo-jung as co-director.¹³

Reception

The premiere drew a 5.448% rating in Nielsen Korea, surpassing New Journey to the West season 4's peak of 5.119%, and the show ranked first in its time slot for two consecutive weeks.³^•¹⁴ By its finale on January 2, 2018, the season's highest rating had reached 8.2%, the highest recorded across all New Journey to the West seasons to that point.⁴^•¹⁵

Commentators attributed the success to three factors: Kang Ho-dong's evolved comic presence under real kitchen pressure, the long-established chemistry of a cast that had worked together since 1 Night 2 Days and New Journey to the West, and the drawing power of combining the audiences of two hit shows, Youn's Kitchen and New Journey to the West.¹⁴ Reviewers noted that where Youn's Kitchen sold relaxation and healing through exotic scenery, Kang's Kitchen sold unfiltered reality, showing the members' mistakes and conflicts with subtitles and fast-paced editing.¹¹^•¹⁴ The Dong-A Ilbo credited the show with giving courage to small-business owners, as the cast visibly improved from fumbling beginners to competent cooks over the run.¹⁶

Later seasons

The strong response turned a one-off project into a series. Season 2 was filmed at a hanok (traditional Korean house) cafe in Gyeongju in 2019, and announced format changes after so many customers flooded in on the first day of business.⁵ Season 3 followed the same year; Gallup Korea's December 2019 report on favorite TV programs noted Kang's Kitchen 3 among the programs mentioned by respondents.⁶ CJ ENM lists the series internationally under the English title Kang's Kitchen.¹⁷

Na Young-suk described the relationship between his two restaurant shows as a company and an affiliate: Kang's Kitchen, born from a joke, was a project-style spin-off, while Youn's Kitchen remained the flagship production.¹⁸

References

강식당 첫방…지름 43cm 강호동가스 맛 합격점, 30분 소요시간은 함정, 한국경제TV (2017)
'강식당' 8일 영업 종료, 스포일러 끝..본방 남았다, 스타뉴스 (2017)
강호동 다시 봤다... <강식당>, 논란 뛰어 넘은 빅재미, 오마이스타 (2017)
[[fn★종영]노짜증, 해피키친 '강식당' 사랑스러운 고군분투기... 시청률 조사회사 닐슨코리아에 따르면..., 텐아시아 (2018)](https://www.tenasia.co.kr/article/2018010397824)
"Kang's Kitchen 2" Announces Format Changes Due To Staggering Number Of Visitors On 1st Day, OSEN (2019)
갤럽리포트 G20191224: 한국인이 좋아하는 TV프로그램 (2019년 12월), 한국갤럽
[[단독] '강식당' 본격 시작, 지난주 멤버들 사전모임 극비리 촬영, OSEN (2017)](https://www.osen.co.kr/article/G1110758294)
'신서유기4' 송민호 '꽃청춘'·강호동 '강식당' 제작 추진…"재미있는 시도가 될 것", 전자신문 (2017)
환상적 팀워크, 빵빵 터지는 웃음 폭죽 '강식당' 2주 연속 시청률 1위, 시빅뉴스 (2017)
tvN, '강식당' 촬영 장소·시기 함구령 "확인 어렵다", 티브이데일리 (2017)
[[강식당 종영D-DAY]③'윤식당2' 바통터치, 나영석 PD의 큰 그림, 이데일리 (2018)](https://www.edaily.co.kr/News/Read?mediaCodeNo=258&newsId=01282486619073784)
'강식당' 첫방부터 터졌다…강호동, 제2의 전성기는 지금부터, 한국경제 (2017)
문서:나영석 (filmography listing 강식당 directing credits)
[[스경 TV연구소] 웃음꽃 빵빵터지는 '강식당' 왜?, 스포츠경향 (2017)](https://sports.khan.co.kr/article/201712171255003/amp)
[[fn★종영]노짜증, 해피키친 '강식당' 사랑스러운 고군분투기, fn스타 (2018)](https://star.fnnews.com/article/201801030847453492)
[[예능계 '식당열풍'①] 그 '식당'엔 특별한 3가지 맛이 있다, 동아일보 (2018)](https://www.donga.com/news/Entertainment/article/all/20180111/88134273/4)
Kang's Kitchen, CJ ENM Entertainment Shows
[[윤식당2 오픈날②] 힐링의 '윤식당2', 웃기는 키친 '강식당'과 달라요, OSEN (2018)](https://www.osen.co.kr/article/G1110807714)

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Celebrity, family, lifestyle, and court reality series › Lifestyle, dating, and docusoaps › Celebrity and family docusoaps › Premiered 1997 to 2018

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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