Chungmuro mak-guksu restaurant, dinner for two: Nagwon-ui Soba

Nagwon-ui Soba is a place I passed every day back when I had hospital appointments near Chungmuro. I'd always been curious about it, so I finally stopped by for a weekday dinner date.

The restaurant is on the 2nd floor, but there's a waiting screen right at the entrance on the 1st floor, which made me think lunchtime waits here must be pretty long.

Nagwon-ui Soba Chungmuro Station Main Branch: hours, location and parking

• ⏰ Hours: 10:00–22:00 (weekends until 21:00)
• 📌 Location: 8-minute walk from Chungmuro Station Exit 1
• 🅿 Parking: Paid parking only at the Starbucks in front

What the second-floor dining room and tables are like

Walking into the 2nd floor of Nagwon-ui Soba, the interior was clean and the floor-to-ceiling windows gave it a great atmosphere. Even at 5pm on a weekday, there were more customers than I expected.

Most of the tables seat four and can be pushed together, so it looked great for friend group gatherings or a work team dinner too.

How the waiting list works on Catch Table

If there's a wait, you register through the Catch Table app or on the Catch Table kiosk inside the restaurant and wait from there haha.

And if you leave a Naver or Google review, you get ice cream for dessert~ haha. It's not cheap ice cream either — think Lala Sweet, Bungeo Samanco — so it actually makes you want to write the review lol.

The Nagwon-ui Soba menu is not just soba

With a name like Nagwon-ui Soba, you might think it's a soba-only spot, but they actually have a really wide menu.

First, bossam (boiled pork wrap) comes in 3–4 person, 2-person, and plain sujuk-style sizes, plus there are anju (drinking snacks) like stir-fried whelk or potato pancake. For noodles, there's soba, pollock sashimi mak-guksu (buckwheat noodles), and kalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup).

There's also tonkatsu on the menu, and well-composed set menus that are good for larger groups. And as I mentioned, there's a good lineup of traditional liquor and highballs to go with the anju.

What two of us ordered: bossam (small), lemon soba, pollock mak-guksu

We ordered three dishes: bossam (small), lemon soba, and pollock sashimi mak-guksu. I was craving bossam so I picked that first, then added the signature lemon soba and pollock mak-guksu since it pairs so well with bossam.

This seems to be the default side dish that comes with bossam — wrap vegetables and two kinds of kimchi.

The signature lemon soba

First up was the restaurant's signature lemon soba! It's topped with lemon slices, similar to the green tangerine soba you sometimes see in Jeju. You add the grated radish, scallions, and wasabi to taste, and between the unusual soba flavor and the bright lemon, it suited my taste more than I expected.

Pollock sashimi mak-guksu, chosen over the kalguksu

Next was the pollock sashimi mak-guksu! I'd actually gone back and forth with kalguksu, but this spicy-sweet option was calling my name. And it was the right call — it was hot out that day, and it went perfectly with the bossam. There was plenty of pollock sashimi on top and the portion itself was really generous!

How much bossam do you get in the small (2-person) size?

Then the main event — bossam! It came out beautifully plated. I'd assumed the 2-person size would be a small portion, but it was more generous than I expected, and delicious too. It came with kimchi, sikhae (fermented fish), and radish salad, great both to eat alongside and to wrap in the lettuce.

I piled bossam, sikhae, cheongyang chili, and garlic onto a cabbage leaf, and the combination of crisp, tender meat and sides was really delicious. Overall the portions across all the dishes were so generous that the two of us couldn't finish three orders. Plenty of food, great atmosphere, great taste — this is a restaurant I'd recommend.

Final verdict on Nagwon-ui Soba

Nagwon-ui Soba was a place I'd always been curious about, and visiting left me genuinely satisfied! Great taste, great portions, and the owner was really kind on top of it, which made the whole experience even better. I'd recommend it if you're looking for a spot near Chungmuro Station for a group dinner or gathering, or even a date meal.