Chuncheon noodle restaurant near Namchuncheon Station: Hyeondae Memil

I made it all the way to Chuncheon for a trip and it rained the entire day, so I cancelled everything I'd planned and decided to eat first. Our stay was close to Namchuncheon Station, so we had lunch nearby at Hyeondae Memil (현대메밀). Looking at the menu, besides the usual mul mak guksu (cold noodles in broth) and bibim mak guksu (spicy mixed cold noodles) I always see, there was also a soy sauce mak guksu.

Inside Hyeondae Memil: an old Chuncheon house, renovated

Hyeondae Memil is a renovated old house, and the green sign was visible even from a distance. It has a totally different feel from the newly built restaurants you see these days — honestly, it suited Chuncheon even better.

Once inside, the wooden pillars and beams had been kept as they were, so the distinctive atmosphere of an old house really came through. Even the low ceiling felt more cozy than cramped.

The restaurant wasn't very large, but the tables were divided into separate little areas, which made it comfortable to eat. We arrived during a late lunch hour and luckily one spot was still open, so we didn't have to wait.

How close is Hyeondae Memil to Namchuncheon Station?

Hyeondae Memil is about a 5-minute walk from Namchuncheon Station, so it's a good option for anyone visiting Chuncheon by train. Since it kept raining, we looked for indoor places to visit and ended up at the National Chuncheon Museum — which is also about 10 minutes away by car, so it worked well paired together on a rainy day.

Rather than feeling like a restaurant in front of a famous tourist spot, it seemed to be mostly local office workers and residents there for lunch, so it had the feel of a neighborhood mak guksu place. There's a small parking area in front of the restaurant, but not many spots. If it's full when you visit, there's a free public parking lot near Namchuncheon Station you can use instead — worth knowing if you're driving.

What is on the menu at Hyeondae Memil?

Hyeondae Memil's menu was more varied than I expected — not just mak guksu, but also warm buckwheat noodles, sujebi (hand-torn dough soup), potato pancakes, and boiled pork. At 8,600 won for the mak guksu, it looked like decent value too.

How do the soy sauce mak guksu and truffle potato pancake taste?

What we ordered was soy sauce mak guksu, buckwheat warm sujebi, truffle potato pancake, and mandu-ongsimi (rice-dumpling soup). The soy sauce mak guksu, made with a soy sauce base instead of the usual red spicy sauce, was the dish I was most curious about this time.

The buckwheat warm sujebi is a warm soup dish made with brisket broth, various vegetables, and chewy buckwheat dough pieces. The truffle potato pancake is thinly sliced potato fried crisp and topped with a house-made truffle sauce and cheese — a more fusion-style take compared to the usual Korean potato pancake.

Hyeondae Memil's mak guksu noodles were really chewy, so the texture alone was great. Add the house soy sauce dressing and it worked even better than I expected. The chewy noodles were well coated in a salty but not overpowering soy sauce seasoning, and eating it together with the vegetables on top made it feel fresher.

The buckwheat warm sujebi broth felt like something between a shabu-shabu broth and a sujebi soup. The truffle potato pancake had thinly sliced potato that was really crispy, and the nutty potato combined with the truffle sauce and cheese made it feel a bit more upscale than the usual potato pancake. Everything was good overall, but the dish I enjoyed most was, unsurprisingly, the soy sauce mak guksu.

Is Hyeondae Memil worth a stop in Chuncheon?

Whenever I come to Chuncheon I end up eating mak guksu at some point, and this time it was nice to try a slightly different soy sauce version. If you're looking for a mak guksu place near Namchuncheon Station, Hyeondae Memil seems like a solid choice :)