Hyehwa birthday dinner pub with rice cake gopdori-tang: Hyehwahwa

Today I visited Hyehwahwa in Hyehwa for a drink to celebrate a friend's birthday. Since it was Friday, we met late in the evening, and I made a reservation ahead of time just in case. I wanted to celebrate my friend's birthday somewhere with a good vibe and good food, so I headed over feeling excited. ☺️

What kind of pub is Hyehwahwa?

Hyehwahwa is a straw-fire Korean pub whose name carries the meaning of good fire meeting good ingredients to create the best dishes. Just from the name, I imagined dishes using straw fire, so it felt a bit different from a typical Korean pub. 🤔

When I checked the store introduction while reserving, it said the food comes from a recipe crossing 30 years, brought together by a young chef son born in 1996 who trained at a Michelin 3-star Korean restaurant, and his mother born in 1966, once the owner of a restaurant with lines out the door — creating dishes rich in aroma and flavor. Since it was my friend's birthday, I wanted something a bit more special than usual, and reading that made me even more excited. 😋

How to get to Hyehwahwa from Hyehwa Station

The location was easy to find. The bar is fairly close to the Hyehwa Station rodeo street, so even someone like me who's bad with directions could find it without trouble haha. It was Friday evening, so a lot of people were also out looking for good Daehangno restaurants and bars, and I was glad we'd made a reservation in advance. 👍

From the entrance to the second-floor dining room

The entrance itself gave off a strong straw-fire Korean pub feel. True to the name, straw-fire-related props were placed here and there, and the stairs leading up to the second floor were decorated with various straw-fire props and fun details. It was fun to look around even before actually entering the store. 🤭

Walking through the entrance corridor, a clean white-toned space opened up, with wall decor and a gravel path underfoot. At first I imagined a rustic, old-school Korean pub, but once inside it actually felt closer to a stylish, upscale restaurant. 👍

What the seating at Hyehwahwa is like

Inside there was bar table seating as well as 4-person tables, so the space could handle everything from solo drinking to groups of 2 or 4. In the evening, opening the full-length windows under nice lighting seemed great for either a meal or drinks. It felt like a good atmosphere to chat slowly with a friend over dinner. And since the Korean side dishes were high quality, plenty of people seemed to be there just for the food.

What we ordered at Hyehwahwa

We sat at the bar table and checked the menu via QR code. The signature straw-fire spicy rice cake gopdori-tang caught my eye first. My friend loves gopchang jeongol (intestine hot pot), so we ordered it without hesitation. Looking at the other menu items, there was also spicy gopchang jjaglee with intestine bombs, straw-fire seared cauldron squid, straw-grilled garlic pork jowl suyuk, and yukhoe with aged kimchi egg gimbap — the variety made it seem good for a first round of drinks or even a second or third. Every dish was so distinctive that we spent a long time deciding on the side dish too, and eventually settled on the top-grade chilled yukhoe half-plate.

The complimentary side: perilla oil tofu kimchi

We first ordered a bottle of beer and were drinking it when the basic side dish, perilla oil tofu kimchi, arrived. At first it had an unfamiliar look so we just stared at it for a moment, but out of curiosity we tried a bite, and it was much tastier than expected. My friend, who said she wasn't going to eat it, ended up finishing most of it haha. Since even the basic side dish was this good, our expectations for the main dish grew even more. ☺️

How to eat the straw-fire spicy rice cake gopdori-tang

Finally, our straw-fire spicy rice cake gopdori-tang arrived. The look of it was different from the gopdori-tang I usually see, so I thought 'how do I eat this?' — but the staff kindly explained how to eat it.

The whole gopchang (beef intestines) and chicken thigh meat, first seared over straw fire, are dipped into the hot pot broth to cook nicely, then cut into bite-sized pieces with scissors. Cutting it up myself was fun, and since the ingredients were pre-seared over straw fire, there was a subtle smoky aroma even before the dish arrived, which I really liked. 😋

Top-grade chilled yukhoe, half-plate

Then the side dish we ordered, the top-grade chilled yukhoe half-plate, arrived. Even though it was a half-plate, the portion was surprisingly generous, and the yukhoe looked very fresh. Taking a bite, it was tender and delicious — dipping the yukhoe in salt-sesame oil sauce along with scallions made it savory while the scallions cleanly cut through any richness, pairing well as a beer snack. 🍻

While eating the yukhoe and drinking beer, chatting with my friend about this and that, the straw-fire spicy rice cake gopdori-tang finished cooking nicely. The staff cut it into easy-to-eat pieces for us, so it was convenient to eat. With straw-fire-seared whole gopchang, chicken thigh meat, rice cakes, and potato all evenly mixed in, alternating between the gopchang and chicken thigh meat and then adding rice cake and potato let us enjoy a variety of textures and flavors within a single dish. 😋

The broth was spicy and sharp in a way that paired well with drinks, making it great with beer, and the main dish alone was quite filling. Finishing the gopdori-tang along with the yukhoe left us thoroughly full. 👍

Is Hyehwahwa worth it for a birthday dinner?

I wanted to spend a special evening in Hyehwa for my friend's birthday, and since the food was delicious and the atmosphere was nice, it became an even more meaningful time. It seems like a solid choice for anyone looking for good Hyehwa or Daehangno restaurants and bars, and especially worth visiting if you want to try Korean bar food that's a bit different from the usual. 👍👍👍

Next time, I'd like to try the straw-grilled garlic pork jowl suyuk that was sold out on our visit day. Visiting Hyehwahwa for my friend's birthday was a truly satisfying meal. 😋