"Knife Noodles" in Myeongdong

After several hours of shopping in Dongdaemun's shoe alley, we headed to a famous noodle place in Myeongdong: The menu had three items: a spicy noodle dish, a noodle soup, and pork dumplings. According to my friend, who watched a TV program about this restaurant, the noodles require careful preparation. The cook must pull the dough into long strands, bend it in half, and pull again. Eventually, the dough might be stretched into 100 strands! Then the cook cuts the long strands into edible pieces with a knife.
The noodles are aptly called kalguksu or "knife noodles":

The hostess directed patrons to an upstairs or downstairs line. I've noticed that all places with a "as seen on KBS televison" sign have monstrous lines. Fortunately, we arrived before the dinner crowd:They had quite a system going to keep the line moving. We ordered and paid upon being seated. Within minutes, this plate of steamed pork buns landed on our table:

The sole pork-eater in our group ate the entire plate! Too bad, because he was full by the time our kalgaksu arrived:
We ordered our noodles without ground beef. My friend spooned out a small portion for me. She instructed to eat the noodles first and then add rice to eat the broth. (Can I have some protein with that starch???):I don't care for most pastas, but these tender noodles were delicious! The broth was mildly spicy and deeply flavored. In retrospect, I wouldn't be surprised if MSG or one of its disguised relatives was a prime ingredient. Not only did I have soup-breath until the following morning, but I also had swollen lymph nodes and fatigue. (Please don't think I'm overreacting!)

Anyway, this red papper sauce was the dish's approved condiment:

Hidden drawers held chopsticks and spoons:

After this meal, I could understand ice cream's popularity in Korea!