Early lunch, salt vs gochujang charcoal dakgalbi in Chuncheon: Hwagye

Coming all the way to Chuncheon without eating dakgalbi felt like something was missing. So on the day we were leaving, we stopped by Hwagye Dakgalbi right at opening time for an early lunch. I usually go for griddle-fried dakgalbi, but this time we ordered the charcoal-grilled version that my husband loves.

Griddle or charcoal — Hwagye Dakgalbi in Chuncheon does both

Hwagye Dakgalbi is a dakgalbi restaurant where you can get both griddle-fried and charcoal-grilled dakgalbi. The familiar griddle-fried version is the classic popular Chuncheon dakgalbi — marinated chicken stir-fried together with cabbage, perilla leaves and more. What I had this time, charcoal dakgalbi, is marinated chicken grilled directly over charcoal like you would grill meat. Hwagye Dakgalbi uses an entire building, so it was bigger than I expected.

Walk in through the entrance and the space is split around a central area — griddle on the left, charcoal on the right. It's all one restaurant, but the griddle and charcoal sections run separately, so you just head into whichever one you feel like.

Location, parking, and pairing it with a potato farm café

We went for a morning walk at Soyanggang Skywalk before heading to Hwagye Dakgalbi, and it took about 15–20 minutes by car. More importantly, it's really close to Gamjabat (Potato Farm), a café I'd wanted to visit in Chuncheon anyway. So after lunch at Hwagye Dakgalbi we moved on to Gamjabat for potato bread and coffee — a great combo for a day trip. Parking was easy too, since there's a large lot around the restaurant.

Ordering charcoal dakgalbi: salt and gochujang, three servings

Charcoal dakgalbi comes in three flavors: salt, soy sauce, and gochujang. We ordered salt dakgalbi and gochujang dakgalbi. If you want deodeok (grilled bellflower root) too, there's a set menu that includes dakgalbi, grilled deodeok, and makguksu (buckwheat noodles).

The basic side dishes were cool dongchimi, leafy greens for wraps, and pickled vegetables that go well with dakgalbi.

The chicken thigh meat had such good color it looked fresh even to the eye. Each chunk was bigger than expected — two chunks make one serving, and we ordered three servings in total.

We ate the salt version first, then grilled the gochujang dakgalbi later. Once it's browned nicely they cut it into bite-sized pieces, and honestly it's hard to go wrong with anything grilled over charcoal. I usually grill pork or beef over charcoal, but grilling chicken this way felt like a whole different experience.

I usually skip rice when eating meat, but this charcoal dakgalbi genuinely goes perfectly with rice. Maybe because it's thigh meat, it was really tender, and the skin grilled up crispy and savory — great wrapped in greens, but just as good spooned straight over plain white rice.

We also ordered doenjang jjigae, which came loaded with tofu and had a rich, savory flavor that paired well with the charcoal dakgalbi.

Since gochujang dakgalbi has sauce on it, you need to flip it a bit more often than the salt version so it doesn't burn. The gochujang marinade wasn't too spicy — just right, and it also went well with rice.

Salt or gochujang?

Both salt and gochujang had their own appeal and were delicious, but we liked the salt dakgalbi a bit more. This really comes down to personal taste. Above all, the chicken itself was so tender that either flavor was satisfying at its core.

Whenever I come to Chuncheon I usually just go for griddle-fried dakgalbi, but trying the charcoal version this time revealed a different kind of appeal. Hwagye Dakgalbi lets you choose between griddle and charcoal, and parking is easy, so if you're looking for a lunch spot around Sinbuk in Chuncheon, it's worth a visit :)