Pohang Chinese food with a 4-year-old: Hwamok Restaurant Gaekjan

On a day I wanted good Chinese food in Pohang — not just jjajangmyeon or jjamppong, but a proper cooked dish — I went to Hwamok Restaurant Gaekjan (화목 반점 객잔), a well-known spot near Pohang City Hall.

Eating out with a kid, picking the menu is never as simple as it sounds. You want something the child can eat too, not too spicy or strong, somewhere the whole family can enjoy together. This time at Hwamok Gaekjan, the stone-plate seafood jjajang (해물짜장, black bean noodles with seafood) was delicious, and best of all my 4-year-old, Dami, who loves sweet and sour pork, finished a whole bowl of rice!

Parking and waiting at Hwamok Restaurant Gaekjan

Hwamok Gaekjan has a parking lot right in front, so I parked and went straight in. If there's a wait, you register on the waiting machine right by the entrance — you'll see it as soon as you walk in. I visited on a weekend afternoon, and these photos were taken around the time a lot of the lunch crowd had already left.

Hwamok Gaekjan is a Chinese restaurant that opened not long ago, blending traditional and fusion styles. Alongside classic jjajang and jjamppong staples, there are signature seafood and stone-plate dishes, all made with clean, careful technique. There's also a corner stocked with gaoliang liquor, sake, and wine, making it a good spot in Pohang's Idong area for a drink too.

Is the dining room comfortable with a small child?

The interior of Hwamok Gaekjan is neatly decorated, and with high chairs on hand, families can eat comfortably here. Disposable bibs are set out in plain sight — just grab as many as you need.

What we ordered: stone-plate seafood jjajang and sweet and sour pork

You order right from the tablet at the table, and there's a wide lineup — stone-plate seafood jjajang, stone-plate yaki-udong, kkanpunggi (crispy spicy chicken), and palbochae (eight treasures dish) among the mains, plus various mini dishes. Since I was with my kid, I ordered the stone-plate seafood jjajang and sweet and sour pork. Jjajangmyeon and sweet and sour pork are a low-risk combo when eating out with a child, so it's my go-to whenever I'm craving Chinese food.

After ordering, the stone-plate seafood jjajang came out first, and it caught my eye right away — the sauce was still bubbling on the hot stone plate, looking incredibly appetizing.

How does the stone-plate seafood jjajang taste?

Instead of coming in a regular bowl, it arrives on a stone plate, so the visual was great. Mixing the noodles well with the jjajang sauce, the rich black bean flavor combined with generously sized seafood pieces to give it a hearty feel. I personally love the vegetables that go into jjajangmyeon or jjamppong, and there were plenty in this stone-plate seafood jjajang too, so I was very satisfied with this dish.

I scooped some of the hot stone-plate seafood jjajang into a bowl to cool it down, thinking it might be a bit spicy for my 4-year-old… but Dami ate it just fine! After eating some noodles with the seafood and vegetables, she ordered a bowl of rice and mixed it in — and that was even more delicious! With seafood and meat mixed together, every bite had a different texture, which I loved, and the fact that it stayed hot all the way to the end of the meal meant that even during a slow family dinner, it was still warm to the last bite.

When eating out with a kid, it's always a shame if the food cools down too fast, so this passed with flying colors! And then there was Dami's favorite, sweet and sour pork, fried in premium lard oil — crispy and delicious while hot, and still tasty even after it cooled.

Sweet and sour pork with the sauce served on the side

Eating the crispy fried sweet and sour pork alongside the jjajangmyeon was such a great combo. Little Dami loves sweet and sour pork too, and she polished off a whole bowl of rice with it. The sauce and meat come out separately, which made it easy to feed to a kid — you can enjoy the crispy batter as is, or dip it in the sweet and tangy sauce for a completely different treat.

Who is Hwamok Restaurant Gaekjan best for?

When you're looking for a Chinese restaurant to visit with a kid in Pohang, you usually end up going for something familiar, but Hwamok Gaekjan's stone-plate seafood jjajang gave us something a little more special to enjoy than regular jjajangmyeon.

If you're visiting with a child like I did, ordering the stone-plate seafood jjajang and sweet and sour pork makes for a great family meal, and in the evening it's also a fine spot to order a few Chinese dishes and have a drink with friends — Hwamok Restaurant Gaekjan, a Chinese restaurant near Pohang City Hall.