Jonggak noodle shop after a Pokémon pop-up with a kid: Cheonghwa

The Jongno and Gwanghwamun area is always full of fun energy, no matter when you go! Not long ago I went to see a cute Pokémon pop-up store in Jonggak! For lunch I headed to Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon (청화 우육도삭면), which has a reputation as one of the hottest beef noodle spots near Gwanghwamun.

Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon location, hours and parking

Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon is at 118-1, 1st floor of the Le Meilleur Building, 19 Jongno, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It sits between Jonggak Station Exit 1 and Gwanghwamun Station, so it's easy to find.

• 📍 Location: 118-1, 1st floor, Le Meilleur Building, 19 Jongno, Jongno-gu, Seoul
• ⏰ Hours: 10:30–22:00, last order 21:40, an authentic Chinese restaurant open 365 days
• 🅿️ Parking: Le Meilleur Building underground parking is free for 2 hours; after that ₩6,000 per 60 minutes, max ₩100,000

Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon specializes in authentic Taiwanese and Chinese noodle dishes, recreating the local flavors so they suit Korean tastes. Besides noodles, they sell a wide range of other Taiwanese and Chinese dishes.

Waiting times and atmosphere at Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon

At lunch and dinner peak times there's always a line of office workers and tourists from the neighborhood! Tables turn over fairly fast, though, so you don't have to wait long. The restaurant has two floors.

In one corner of the 2nd floor there's a tower of stacked steamer trays. Just seeing that tells you how popular the dim sum is here, right?

Side dishes arrive the moment you sit down! Zha cai (pickled mustard stem) and peanuts, and they're a treat. The zha cai tossed with cabbage is a real rice thief (a dish so good you keep eating rice with it)! It was also great alongside the beef noodles. The peanuts are nutty and keep you reaching for more, haha.

We ordered Cheonghwa's best combo: knife-cut beef noodles and xiaolongbao (soup dumplings). Plus an eoyang yunseul rice bowl!

What do the signature beef noodles at Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon taste like?

The beef noodles here come in a rich broth simmered deeply from bones, with chewy noodles made from dough rested for a day, plus that tingly, numbing Sichuan-style kick!

It comes topped with big, tender pieces of beef. The beef is stewed until soft, so it's not dry at all and shreds gently along the grain in your mouth. There was plenty of it, enough for two people to share.

I put rice into the beef noodle broth, and it was so filling and satisfying! Haha.

How are knife-cut noodles different from regular noodles?

As the name suggests, the biggest feature of Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon is that the noodles are dosakmyeon (knife-cut noodles), made by shaving dough with a knife rather than pulling regular noodles by machine! The thickness isn't uniform: thick in the middle, thin and fluttery at the edges, so every bite is chewy and soft at the same time. Perfect for my kid and me, since we both love texture!

Juicy dim sum: xiaolongbao at Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon

Xiaolongbao is the classic dim sum, with hot pork juice packed inside a thin wrapper! One steamer order comes with 6 pieces.

Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon is great for beef noodles and for dim sum! My kid said they wanted more xiaolongbao too. It's good enough that you could easily eat 3 or 4 steamers in one sitting.

How to eat xiaolongbao without burning your mouth

You know you'll burn the roof of your mouth if you just bite in, right? Put the xiaolongbao on a spoon and gently break it with your chopsticks, and the rich juice flows out. I drink about half of the juice to enjoy the deep flavor.

The rest I eat with shredded ginger! Chewy wrapper, savory meat, rich broth and zingy ginger, it's the kind of flavor where you wonder how anyone could ever get tired of it.

Addictive sweet and spicy flavor: eoyang yunseul rice bowl

The eoyang yunseul rice bowl is a Chinese-style rice bowl of shredded pork stir-fried with vegetables in a special eoyang (yuxiang, garlicky sweet-sour-spicy) sauce. We ordered it because we wanted a hearty rice dish besides the noodles. I wanted the shrimp fried rice, but my kid doesn't like shrimp, so we got this instead.

The savory, sweet and spicy flavor of the eoyang sauce soaks into the crunchy vegetables and tender pork. Mix it with the rice and you can't put the spoon down.

Since it's spicy, they give you a soup made with egg and seaweed that feels like ulmyeon (thick starchy noodle soup) broth.

Lunch at Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon after a Jonggak or Gwanghwamun outing?

The Jonggak and Gwanghwamun area has so much to see: pop-up stores, art museums, shopping malls, Cheonggyecheon stream and more. If you've enjoyed a cute exhibition or pop-up like I did and want to fill a slightly hungry stomach, I recommend Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon! Deep, rich broth, chewy knife-cut noodles, and xiaolongbao juice filling your mouth. If you're looking for a different, exotic place to eat in Jonggak or Gwanghwamun, how about dim sum and beef noodles?