Chinese restaurant near Cheongdeok Library, Yongin: sweet and sour

There's a great Chinese restaurant near Cheongdeok Library in Giheung-gu, Yongin. It's literally located behind the library, so the restaurant is called 'Doseogwan Dwitjip' (도서관뒷집, meaning "the house behind the library") haha. There's no way you'd confuse this place with any other Chinese restaurant.

Location and parking at Doseogwan Dwitjip

• 📍Address: 18-21 Guseong 2-ro, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, 1st floor, South Korea
• ⏰Hours: Weekdays 11:00–20:00 / Weekends 11:30–15:30, last order 19:30 (weekends 15:00)
• 🚗Parking: Available, roadside parking possible on weekends and holidays

Doseogwan Dwitjip sits right behind Cheongdeok Library. The name is so unusual you can never forget it. There's parking for 2-3 cars in front, and roadside parking is possible too — there's supposedly more room on weekends, holidays, and weekday evenings after 6pm.

Restaurant or library? An interior full of books

There really were a lot of books inside the restaurant. For a moment I genuinely couldn't tell if this was a restaurant or a library..? The atmosphere was unusual enough that my kid and I ended up sitting down and reading books together haha.

What we ordered — there's a separate kids' jjajang

• Spicy jjajang + sweet and sour pork
• Jjamppong + sweet and sour pork
• Kids' jjajang

This place has a kids' jjajang on the menu. Kids under 7 can order a non-spicy version separately.

Free rice at the self-serve bar

There's a self-serve bar, and the rice is free! Great for mixing into the jjajang sauce, and also good with the jjamppong broth. They also have all kinds of side dishes, dishware, small plates, and even hair ties ready.

Doseogwan Dwitjip gives soldiers, police, and firefighters a double portion at no extra charge! It's a restaurant that shows its gratitude to people who deserve it.

Spicy jjajang: thin noodles, genuinely spicy

The spicy jjajang and jjamppong arrived. The spicy jjajang was packed with real chili powder and cheongyang chili — the sauce itself was seriously spicy!!

I mixed it right away, and interestingly, both the jjajang and jjamppong here use somyeon or jungmyeon-style noodles? The noodles are thin, so they slide right down. Because the noodles are thin, it didn't have that typical greasy, heavy Chinese-food feeling. It had been forever since I'd had spicy jjajang, and wow it's really spicy haha. I'm not great with spicy food, but this was genuinely spicy.

Still, I can't give up piling on the cheongyang chili. The bright (?) spiciness of cheongyang chili is addictive.

Jjamppong loaded with seafood and bean sprouts

Maybe because we'd just eaten the spicy jjajang, the jjamppong actually felt less intense haha. It had plenty of bean sprouts, which I love, and more seafood than I expected!!

The shrimp were pretty big, and they didn't have that mushy frozen texture — they still had their tails on, plump and springy. With plenty of meat and clams too, the broth was refreshing.

When you pick up a bite, bean sprouts, mushrooms, and other vegetables come along with the noodles, so it doesn't feel like you're just eating a heavy pile of noodles — it felt reasonably healthy, I'd say.

How much sweet and sour pork comes with the set? Glutinous rice pork, chewy

This is the sweet and sour pork that comes with the set. It comes out more like a taste sample — one plate per set! We ordered both the spicy jjajang and jjamppong as sets, so we ended up with two plates of sweet and sour pork. But honestly, you should just order a small size of sweet and sour pork separately. Since it's made with glutinous rice, it was really chewy and thin, and so delicious.

My kid doesn't eat tough meat or hard sweet and sour pork, but she finished a whole plate by herself. That's how soft and delicious it was. Honestly, the portion was small, and I regretted not just ordering a small separately. Take my advice and just order the sweet and sour pork on its own.

Kids' jjajang: portion and ingredients

This is the kids' jjajang! The portion was pretty generous. My daughter is four so she couldn't finish it, but it's a plenty for kids up to age 7.

Don't assume