Hongdae noodle restaurant for tantanmen and eggplant: Surim Sikdang

With the weather cooling down today, I suddenly craved ramyeon~ So where do you go for that? Hongdae, of course haha. Surim Sikdang has amazing tantanmen (spicy sesame noodle soup), and I end up visiting often with my parents, so here's today's post about our visit.

Surim Sikdang Hongdae wait times: what time should you go?

Surim Sikdang Hongdae is on the 1st floor at 19-19 Wowsan-ro 21-gil, and we went in a little after 12. We'd gone at 11:30 once before and the wait was long, but this time around 12:30 it was really relaxed.

The group tables were full as soon as we walked in, so we sat at an individual table. The AC was still cool, which was perfect for eating hot tantanmen haha~

Tantanmen or uyuktangmyeon? What mother and daughter ordered

I was going to get mine mixed (no broth), but since everyone around us had soup, I switched right before ordering! Mom wanted shrimp wontonmen but they were sold out, so she got the wooyuktangmyeon with its savory beef broth instead, and she loved it — totally her taste.

The group tables in the back are popular with student gatherings too — one group had just left and the next was coming in, so I snapped a quick photo in between. Order at the kiosk outside, take a seat, and they bring your noodles quickly.

Anything extra you need, you just help yourself at the self-serve bar. While waiting, I always end up reading the sign explaining why the tantanmen comes out warm rather than piping hot — I swear I read it every single visit haha.

How does the tantanmen at Surim Sikdang Hongdae taste?

Here's our lunch, brought over by a very kind staff member. But you know you can't really say you 'finished' Surim Sikdang if you only ate this, right? You have to try the eggplant fritters!! The soft-boiled egg was delicious too, and even though the broth looks oily, it's not greasy at all — savory and satisfying.

There's so much garnish on top that if you think of tantanmen, this visual is probably what you'll remember first.

The tantanmen has a slight hint of ma-la spice but isn't too intense — think of it as a hearty, slightly spicy bone broth. Somehow it's savory enough that you keep spooning up the broth again and again — a magical noodle dish. There's a ton of bean sprouts too, and mom and I were both busy fishing those out first haha. Mom's wooyuktangmyeon was loaded with beef, and she said scooping it all out felt like eating gomtang (beef bone soup) — filling and satisfying, she said happily.

The meat is tender enough to pull apart with chopsticks and stretch — that's the kicker. The broth has that clean, deep flavor like something homemade, the kind of signature dish you think you're full from but end up craving again by evening.

What the noodles feel like

See the noodles? Not overly chewy, but not breaking apart either — that soft-yet-springy texture is something you have to try to really understand. It's Surim Sikdang's signature noodle. I almost want to go peek in the kitchen to see how they boil them.

Eggplant fritters: how many pieces should you order?

And no matter how many times I mention it, it's still worth repeating — the side dish that goes with Surim Sikdang's tantanmen: eggplant fritters. The eggplant pieces are unbelievably huge, so if it's just two women dining, ordering 5 pieces will still leave you stuffed. They're freshly fried, so biting in eagerly might burn the roof of your mouth haha. Honestly it might be the best example of crispy-outside, tender-inside I've ever had — I nearly passed out lol. There are meatballs tucked between the eggplant slices inside, so it doesn't feel light at all as a dish. I think this is honestly the real reason I keep coming back.

I kept telling myself to stop but kept scooping up more of that tantanmen broth — nothing beats it, honestly. It's that good, so I really hope you try it. ^^

Grumbling about being full the whole time, mom and I still ended up scraping our bowls clean... We always overeat when we come here! At least ordering just 5 pieces of eggplant fritters today was a genius move, we laughed. Last time we got greedy and ordered the biggest option — 12 pieces I think — and ended up packing the leftovers to go haha.