Korean restaurant 15 min from Hwadamsup: squid duruchigi, Oneuldo Utja

I stopped by a Gonjiam restaurant near Hwadamsup. I got to enjoy tasty aged kimchi and domestic pork in a properly done-right duruchigi (stir-fried meat and veggies). A local favorite among Gonjiam residents! Let me introduce Oneuldo Utja Chowol :)

How far is Oneuldo Utja Chowol from Hwadamsup? Location and hours

📍This Hwadamsup-area restaurant, Oneuldo Utja Chowol, sits near Chowol Sports Town. By car it's 10 minutes from Gonjiam IC and 15 minutes from Hwadamsup and Gonjiam Resort, so it's easy to reach.

• ⏰Hours: Mon-Sat 11:00-22:00 (last order 20:50)
• Sun 11:00-21:00 (last order 19:50)

Parking and the look of a restaurant open since 2009

Oneuldo Utja's history goes back to 2009 and continues today. That kind of longevity means trust in the taste has built up over time, right?

🅿️There's a parking lot right in front of the restaurant, and when it's full, you can park for free in the empty lot next door — very convenient.

Weekend lunch at Oneuldo Utja Chowol: a full house and a 10-15 minute wait

Warm and cozy interior! We visited on a weekend at lunchtime and every seat was taken, so we had to wait about 10-15 minutes.

This restaurant near Hwadamsup drew more local elders than tourists. If elderly locals make up a big share of the crowd at peak meal times, that place is a proven-good restaurant with 99% certainty 👏

Warm sotbap (stone pot rice) made with suhyangmi rice was being cooked in real time right there. The savory rice smell was already sparking my appetite 😆

Free banchan and seaweed soup refills at the self-serve bar

The self-serve bar, where you can grab extra side dishes, was kept neat and clean.

Onions, cucumbers, pickled peppers and garlic, dried radish strips — sheer tidiness itself!

Plain rice is also available for anyone who wants more than the sotbap. And you can refill the deeply flavored seaweed soup, packed with seaweed, as much as you like 👍

The menu and what we ordered

At this Gonjiam restaurant, Oneuldo Utja, you can enjoy kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew), pork duruchigi, and squid duruchigi made with aged kimchi and domestic pork. You can also order the jumbo egg roll, a soul-food side dish for Koreans.

• ✔️Squid pork duruchigi for two (₩28,000)
• ✔️Jumbo cheese egg roll (₩12,000)
• ✔️Sotbap x2 (₩2,000 x2)

Clean side dishes that pair well with duruchigi — cucumber, peppers, dried radish strips — along with fresh lettuce were set out first.

How does the squid pork duruchigi taste?

Then the squid pork duruchigi showed up, piled high with minari (water dropwort), bean sprouts, and enoki mushrooms. Once the veggies wilted a bit, a staff member carefully mixed it all together for us.

Plump squid, thick-cut pork, enoki mushrooms, bean sprouts, and minari — all the tastiest Korean ingredients showed up in full force 🤭

The deliciously aged, spicy kimchi and the pork — cut thick, unlike typical jeyuk bokkeum, and full of juice — were savory perfection 🥹

Fresh, chewy squid on top of it all — fresh ingredients plus a flavorful secret sauce made this a dish where the rice just kept disappearing.

The enoki mushrooms, soaked through with sauce, gave a chewy, crunchy bite you could really enjoy 😋

Wrapping the thick pork and squid in lettuce is also a real treat.

Suhyangmi sotbap and the nurungji (crisped rice) at the bottom

The freshly cooked sotbap makes Oneuldo Utja's duruchigi even more special! Even eaten plain, the fragrant suhyangmi rice filled my mouth with a sweet, savory flavor 😍

A bite of sotbap gets even better with a piece of spicy kimchi! And being able to enjoy nurungji (scorched rice crust) too is one of sotbap's best features, right? 🤭

Is the jumbo cheese egg roll worth ordering?

I was curious about the jumbo cheese egg roll sitting on every table, so I ordered it too. It's made with 100% natural cheese, and comes with a ketchup-and-mayo combo 👏

The soft, warm egg roll, loaded with savory mozzarella cheese, was perfect to eat in between bites of the spicy duruchigi. Definitely order the cheese egg roll 😆

Final verdict on Oneuldo Utja Chowol near Gonjiam

This restaurant near Hwadamsup won over both locals and tourists with fundamentally Korean dishes. It's a place that fills you up heart and soul with Korean food made from good ingredients. If you're looking for a Gonjiam restaurant, give Oneuldo Utja a visit ❤️