Evening buckwheat gimbap, salmon and shrimp rolls: Sorori Cheongju

From pot rice to buckwheat gimbap, Sorori is so good you keep coming back

I've lost count of how many times I've come back to Sorori's main branch

I've visited Sorori so many times now I honestly can't count anymore haha. At first I only ever went to the main branch, but lately more and more chain locations have been popping up! Each branch seems to have a slightly different menu, so it's fun trying them one by one 🤍 Out of all of them, I think I've visited the Sorori main branch the most!

📍 37 Jungang-ro, Sangdang-gu, Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do 🕐 Daily 11:00–20:30 (break time 15:00–17:00, last order 14:30/20:00) 🚘 Cheongju Urban Regeneration Center underground parking (1-hour parking ticket provided)

I visited in the evening again this time, and the place was almost completely full of people. Guess it's popular in the evenings too..!!

The menu

The pot rice is delicious and pretty much everything on the menu is good, so every time I come I end up agonizing over what to order — but this day my friend and I were both really craving buckwheat gimbap lol. Since we came in the evening though, the limited-quantity futomaki was already sold out,, 🥲 A bit disappointing, but the other buckwheat gimbap rolls were still available, so we immediately ordered the salmon buckwheat gimbap and shrimp buckwheat gimbap!

The basic side dishes lean toward the spicy side! Kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi), fresh chili peppers, squid jeotgal 👍🏻

The self-bar corner — buckwheat tea is the kick

If you need more side dishes, just use the self-bar!

Something I secretly love about Sorori is the soup and buckwheat tea at the self-bar haha. The soup at the self-bar is tasty too, so I end up scooping some out to eat with the meal, but the buckwheat tea is the real kick, everyone..! I went back for refills so many times this day!

Our orders came out all at once. The visuals were genuinely.. ㅠㅠ Eating at Sorori just puts me in a better mood because of the plating alone 🥹

Shrimp buckwheat gimbap: plump shrimp and moist egg

I tried the shrimp buckwheat gimbap first. The moment I bit into it, not only was the shrimp great, but the egg was genuinely delicious too ㅠㅠ The egg wasn't dry at all — it was moist and soft, giving it a nice presence with each bite.

With the fried shrimp inside, it had a clean, nutty flavor that went surprisingly well with the buckwheat! Gimbap usually has so many fillings packed in that the flavor feels intense, but this one was light overall, so it was easy to eat without feeling heavy.

Salmon buckwheat gimbap: a soft combination

Next up, my favorite — salmon buckwheat gimbap!!

The salmon buckwheat gimbap had a completely different feel from the shrimp version. With the salmon in it, the overall texture was a bit softer, and the salmon itself wasn't greasy at all — it was clean and delicious haha. And since the egg was so moist, the combination with the salmon was really great 🤤

The chewy texture of the buckwheat combined with the soft egg and salmon worked really well together >_< Personally, when I eat gimbap, if the ingredients are too dry I get tired of it quickly, but maybe because the egg was so moist, I kept reaching for more. The shrimp buckwheat gimbap had the fun of biting into plump shrimp, while the salmon buckwheat gimbap had that soft, blended feel between the salmon and egg!

Topping it with squid jeotgal

Adding a bit of squid jeotgal partway through completely changes the flavor! The salty, spicy kick of the squid jeotgal keeps things from tasting flat, so you never get tired of it even after a while. Honestly, I preferred eating it with the squid jeotgal added in between, so I kept doing that the whole time haha.

Even on days when gimbap sounds better than pot rice

Sorori is the place I think of when I want pot rice, but as this day showed, it's also the place I turn to when I suddenly crave buckwheat gimbap, so I think I'll keep coming back often. It's the place that naturally comes to mind when I want a clean meal on Seongan-gil! If you're looking for pot rice on Seongan-gil, pot rice in Cheongju, or restaurants on Cheongju's Seongan-gil, take this as a reference :)