Eel and abalone butter pot rice in Cheongju: Sorori Sotbap

Hello! Today I heard that a brand new craft exhibition had opened at Culture Factory!!! So it's been reeeally a while since I headed back there~ Whenever I go to the 1st floor of Culture Factory, there are always so many good food options from the Cheongju Museum of Modern Art area that it's hard to decide....

But I always have my go-to restaurant, so today too I went to my favorite!! spot~~ Let's get started~><

Where is Sorori Sotbap Culture Factory Branch, and where do you park?

Sorori Sotbap Culture Factory Branch is located at 314 Sangdang-ro, Cheongwon-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, on the 1st floor of Culture Factory. Hours are 11:00-20:30, with a break time from 15:00-17:00.

• 📍Location: 314 Sangdang-ro, Cheongwon-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea, 1st floor
• 📍Hours: 11:00 - 20:30 (break time 15:00-17:00)
• 📍Restroom: Shared restrooms on the 1st floor of Culture Factory
• 📍Parking: Culture Factory's own parking, free for 2 hours

There's a huge amount of parking at Culture Factory~ You get 2 hours free parking, which is plenty if you're having a meal there : )

The whole 1st floor is made up of restaurants, and Sorori is located roughly in the middle, by the window~

Retro interior lined with LPs, and the 1pm weekday wait

The interior has a retro vibe, with lots of LPs and knick-knacks visible right at the entrance~~~

I'm guessing the owner really loves LPs!!!

Even though I went at around 1pm on a weekday, the place was completely full and I nearly had to wait! It's already famous as a go-to spot near Cheongju Museum of Modern Art with a constant wait, so there's a waitlist you can sign right at the entrance~

And 'Sorori' makes their pot rice using rice grown in an area called Sorori~!

At the Culture Factory branch there's a counter like this, where they were continuously cooking pot rice!

Sorori Sotbap menu and prices: short rib pot rice sells out

Here's the menu! I know the short rib pot rice is the most famous, but since they only make a limited amount per day, by the time I arrived at 1pm it was already sold out and unavailable to order ㅠㅡㅠ Also, Sorori is where I first tried buckwheat gimbap (seaweed rice roll), and I've been making buckwheat gimbap at home often ever since ㅎㅎㅎ It's so good!

This time I ordered dishes I hadn't tried before~ 🍚Abalone butter pot rice: ₩16,000 🍚Freshwater eel pot rice: ₩20,000

Side dishes, gopchang gim seaweed and the self-serve bar

Once you sit down, they bring you side dishes like this! Wow... I didn't know this before Sorori, but they serve unseasoned gopchang (crinkle-cut) seaweed. I'm a total sucker for this kind of seaweed — I can eat it plain and be happy — so imagine how good it is with pot rice ㅎㅎ

If you run out of side dishes, there's a self-serve bar where you can freely grab more!

There was a note on how to enjoy Sorori's pot rice best~ Since I ordered eel, the tip was: don't mix it, just scoop it out as is!

What the eel and abalone butter pot rice look like on the table

Whoaaaa~~~~~ Both the eel and abalone looked incredible;;;;;; ah, it looked so delicious!!!

There was a note saying the eel takes a bit of time to grill with their special sauce, so I waited a little, but with a look like this, that's a pass-★

For the abalone butter pot rice, they added butter separately inside the pot like this!

🍚Abalone butter pot rice: 16,000 won

The sauce tucked inside is a geuu sauce made from abalone innards, with such a rich, deep flavor — mixed with the rice it becomes like an abalone porridge and crab-shell rice hybrid, packed full of umami!

The abalone comes with its shell on, but the meat pops out easily, so it's no trouble at all to eat. In particular, I felt this pot rice paired best with the seaweed I mentioned earlier, so I highly, highly recommend eating it together with the seaweed!

🍚Freshwater eel pot rice: 20,000 won

The eel pot rice has way more eel in it than the other pot rice dishes, so pretty much every spoonful comes with a piece of eel — no shortage at all! It also pairs really well with ginger and chives, and if you don't like ginger, you can just pick it out and it's still fully flavorful (I don't like ginger, so ㅎㅎㅎ I skip it) — the base sauce itself is so well-balanced between sweet and salty that there's no fishy taste at all~

Each piece is pretty huge, right?

When you mix the abalone butter with the rice and the innard sauce, the color changes like this~

The eel pot rice is delicious on its own too, but it went so~ well with the seaweed too ㅎㅎ

Hehe, after finishing such a satisfying meal at Sorori!! you can just head up to the 3rd floor for the exhibition! Isn't the flow really convenient? ><

After lunch: the 3rd-floor craft exhibition 'On the Star Called Craft'

The day I visited, the exhibition <On the Star Called Craft>, running from 2026.09.15 to 2026.12.13, had just opened not long before. I make a point of seeing the craft-related exhibition Culture Factory holds every year! This one marks their 25th anniversary, so master artists from truly diverse fields took part~

You can see works made from an amazing variety of materials — weaving, clay, earth, ceramics, acrylic, iron, glass, copper, wood, wire, and more! And it's a really large-scale exhibition, so I'd budget at least 30 minutes to take your time viewing it.

And near the end of the exhibition, there's a <Sock Craft-Making Experience> that 10 people per time slot can join!! (free) If you time your visit right, you get to view the exhibit, join the experience, and make some fun memories too ㅎㅎ

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ It was genuinely so fun to make that I lost track of time. All the materials are provided on site! And your finished piece gets hung up and displayed at the back, so once you 'donate' your work, they even give you a small gift ><

Eating at Culture Factory, then viewing the exhibit and doing the hands-on activity too!!! Make sure to eat well at Sorori, the go-to spot near Cheongju Museum of Modern Art 👍🏻👍🏻✨ so you can view everything with a clear head ㅎㅎ