Cheonan chicken stew at 8pm with udon in from the start: Sottture

Today I've got a Cheonan restaurant review from Seongjeong-dong - and it's a chicken stew spot that serves it in an actual cauldron lid. We went with the family for dinner, and it tasted so different from the home version that all four of us fell for it completely haha

Where is Sottture Dakdoritang in Cheonan, and is there parking?

Sottture Dakdoritang is in the alley across from Lotte Mart in Seongjeong-dong, Cheonan, so it was easy to get to. Parking is in the lot behind the restaurant, with space for about 5-6 cars.

Here's what the outside looks like.

Turns out there's a discount if you visit during lunch hours, 11:00-14:00. Next time I'll come for lunch and grab that discount haha

At first I didn't realize there was a front entrance, so I followed this arrow and ended up at the back door lol. Both sides turned out to be usable entrances haha

What Sottture Dakdoritang is like at 8pm

I had things to do, so we got there around 8pm and Sottture Dakdoritang was still packed. I guess it's a well-known dakbokkeumtang spot in Seongjeong-dong, because there were plenty of customers even at that late hour.

In one corner, a cauldron lid sat as an interior decoration -

What the family of four ordered, and the prices

Looking at the menu, we ordered a chicken and a half for ₩45,000, udon noodles for ₩2,000, a cola for ₩2,000, two bowls of steamed rice at ₩1,000 each, and self-fried rice for ₩2,000.

Ordering is done via tablet, and there was also a Naver review event running - join it and get free fried snacks!

Sottture Dakdoritang says it's made with domestic chicken and a special house sauce. Since they don't pre-cook anything but make it fresh to order, it takes a little while for the food to come out! Since it's made fresh, the wait was actually kind of nice, hehe.

There were 5 types of side dishes like this. The pickles went great with the chicken stew so I refilled those! You could take as much extra side dish as you wanted.

The best way to eat dakdoritang: simmer it down on low heat

While waiting for the food, I learned the trick to eating it well: simmer it on low heat while you eat, and it gets even tastier. This tip was highlighted in red text, and it's legit (for real). The longer it simmers, the more the umami of the sauce builds up. And the chicken soaks up the seasoning better too!

Chicken and a half for 45,000 won: how much food is it?

The chicken and a half (₩45,000) came out looking hearty. The cauldron lid is huge, and it was packed full of chicken lol. It's really a generous portion.

When it first arrived the broth looked a bit too soupy, but as we ate and it simmered down, it became just right! I took photos as it reduced, so check the before-and-after ><

And in the middle of it all, this super cute egg lol - they made it look like a chicken out of an egg, way too cute. Cluck cluck. The main ingredients in the chicken stew were chicken, potato, rice cake, mushroom, and green onion.

When should you add the udon noodles?

I asked when to add the udon noodles (₩2,000), and they said it's fine either at the start or later. So we put them in right from the beginning and let them boil. We figured the chicken would take a while to cook so we might as well start with the udon - and it was totally the right call!

The chewy udon comes pre-boiled once, so within just 1-2 minutes of adding it, it had already soaked up the seasoning. The rice cake still wasn't cooked yet, but the udon noodles were perfectly seasoned and just the right texture!

This honestly looks so unappetizing in photos huh ㅠㅠ

I actually tried a bite of the sauce at this point, and even not fully reduced, it was addictively spicy-sweet.

My attempt to show off the udon noodles, collab-ing (?) with the family already eating them. They vanished in a flash. The udon noodles are genuinely soft and chewy and pair so well with the sauce, definitely order extra!! lol

The default rice cake was wheat-flour rice cake, which also went great with the sauce. We waited for the chicken to fully cook by munching on rice cake and vegetables, just as the instructions said.

Which chicken pieces to eat first, and how the sauce tastes

We boiled it on high heat for about 5 minutes, then pulled out the parts that looked done first. The sauce is so good that even at this stage it tasted great, but we could tell it would be even better with more seasoning soaked in and more tender meat, so we let it simmer longer.

Cooking away nicely. The longer it boils, the more oil renders out of the chicken and forms a layer on top - and that's when the umami really starts to deepen!

We started eating from the thigh meat that looked done, bit by bit - wow, the combo of the spicy-sweet sauce and the chicken is no joke.

It's not just plainly spicy - it's a moderate spicy-sweet balance, so it's a flavor that people of any age would enjoy haha. Looking around the restaurant, the customers really did seem to span all ages.

The highlight, the drumstick, I saved for last. Wanted to enjoy it at its very best >< One bite of the drumstick and it was moist and tender. Sottture Dakdoritang seems to use big chickens - the drumsticks were large, and even the neck had a lot of meat on it. After thoroughly enjoying the drumstick, we had 2-3 chunks of meat left, which we saved for the fried rice.

Self-cooked fried rice for 2,000 won: the finish you can't skip

Self-fried rice (₩2,000).

How could we not eat fried rice with sauce this good lol. We were full but added one anyway.

We topped the sauce with green onion, seaweed, sesame oil and rice, and busted out the double-spatula technique. (They gave us two spatulas, so I figured that's what they were for.)

I left quite a bit of the sauce in, so mine ended up a bit runnier, but it was also delicious!!

Since the sauce is spicy-sweet, it tasted kind of like tteokbokki-fried rice. The sesame oil aroma wafted up, nutty and delicious.

I tore up the leftover chicken and mixed it in too, which added a nice bite. If you end up with 2-3 chunks of chicken left, try mixing them into your fried rice like I did! The fried rice is an absolute must.

We were seriously stuffed, but we cleaned up every bit of the fried rice. My mom makes dakbokkeumtang often at home too, but this had a completely different vibe from the home version - it was great. All four of us said it was delicious and ate well haha

Ice cream dessert and the verdict on Sottture Dakdoritang

For dessert, ice cream was provided. It came in three colors - chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla - and was nice to cleanse the palate.

Sottture Dakdoritang, a chicken stew restaurant in Cheonan - the chicken is generous and the sauce is delicious, so it works well as a meal or as a side for drinks. If you're looking for a good restaurant near Lotte Mart or the soccer center in Seongjeong-dong, I recommend it.