Namdong Japanese restaurant for cold soba and katsu set: Hongdae

Fukuoka on foot? They say one bite and you'll picture a scene straight out of Fukuoka, Japan! I haven't been there myself so I can't say, but let's just head into Hongdae Gureume and find out haha.

Location and parking for Hongdae Gureume Incheon Nonhyeon Branch

• On foot from public transit: 160m from Incheon Nonhyeon Station Exit 3
• Parking: underground at iFlex Building, 2 hours free

Saturday, 3pm — how long is the wait?

Even though it wasn't peak hours, the restaurant was packed and a wait seemed pretty much guaranteed. We showed up around 3pm on a Saturday and waited about... 30 minutes?

There are plenty of tables and even a bar table for solo diners, but compared to the number of guests coming in, the staff seemed a bit stretched, so turnover wasn't especially fast. Still, everyone was so kind that we waited patiently haha.

The menu — wider choices than your average katsu-ramen shop

This is the menu from Hongdae Gureume's head chef, who has 5 years of experience in Japan and has been featured in various media.

The menu was far more extensive than your typical katsu-ramen place. There's spoon-eaten sushi, various donburi rice bowls, cold soba, katsu, salmon set meals, and even kaisendon (seafood rice bowl). It feels like a Japanese restaurant where friends with different tastes can all find something they like.

What we ordered

• Double soba + katsu set: ₩18,000
• Gureume ramen (spicy Korean-style hangover ramen): ₩9,900
• Rice: ₩1,000

The spicy Korean-style gureume ramen — how spicy is it really?

Spicy Korean-style gureume ramen, made for a hangover kick. It's a tonkotsu broth with Korean-style heat added — warms you up inside, finishes clean and spicy.

Underneath the broth there's a generous pile of bean sprouts and shredded scallion, topped with a soft-boiled egg and meat garnish.

Whew, this is really spicy!! But it's the kind of tasty-spicy broth that makes you keep going 'ouch, ouch' while spooning it up anyway — I finished the whole bowl despite the heat (even mixed rice into it while complaining it was too spicy...) and paid for it the next day with a sore stomach haha. If you can't handle spicy food, think twice; if you can, this comes highly recommended. It's the kind of delicious spicy that blasts your stress away.

The double soba + katsu set — how much food, how does it taste?

This is a combo of cool, clean soba noodles and katsu made from Korean pork aged for 350 hours, fried up crispy.

Since it's part of a set, I expected the katsu to be pretty small, but it turned out to be a decent portion — a bit skimpy for two people to share, but just right for one.

Textbook crispy-outside-tender-inside. Thick and crunchy, genuinely delicious. It was such a hot day that I was craving soba so I ordered the double soba set, but the katsu turned out to be so good that I regretted not getting the mountain-of-katsu dish instead haha.

What is there to say about the soba — sweet, refreshing, exactly the kind of thing that chases away the summer heat. And with two servings, the portion was pretty generous too.

Wrap-up

Crispy katsu, spicy and hearty ramen, cool and sweet soba — the combination was so good at this Incheon Nonhyeon spot. If you like katsu, ramen or soba, give Hongdae Gureume Incheon Nonhyeon Branch a try!