Japanese lunch date with 195g gyukatsu in Gwangmyeong: Hoka Hoka

I was craving Japanese food after a while, so I went to Hoka Hoka in Cheolsan for gyukatsu and cold ramen. It's a clean, well-kept Japanese restaurant — the gyukatsu was great, but the cold ramen was especially delicious.

Where is Hoka Hoka Gwangmyeong Main Branch?

Hoka Hoka is a Japanese home-style restaurant specializing in ramen, gyukatsu, and rice bowls where you can properly enjoy Japanese cuisine in Gwangmyeong/Cheolsan. It's located right in front of Gwangmyeong City Stadium.

The interior has a clean, Japanese-style atmosphere with both bar seats and table seats.

They're also running an event where you get lotus root fritters or handmade walnut cookies for writing a Naver receipt review. They're really good at frying here, so write a review and try it, haha. Takeout also gets a ₩1,000 discount per menu item.

The menu, table setting, and the complimentary sweet potato fritter starter

Gyukatsu, cold ramen, hot ramen, fried dishes — Hoka Hoka, a beloved Japanese restaurant in Cheolsan, has all the Japanese home-style dishes you'd want.

Such a thoughtful touch — every table has salt, pepper, salad dressing, and even hair ties set out!

Hoka Hoka, a well-loved Japanese restaurant in Gwangmyeong, serves freshly fried, piping-hot sweet potato fritters as a complimentary starter. Unlike other Japanese restaurants, having a pre-meal dish felt like a nice surprise.

Fried in clean oil, crispy, and I finished the whole thing before the meal even started. It went surprisingly well with the onion sauce (?). You can tell a place is good just from the free side dishes!

What we ordered

There were so many menu items it was hard to choose, but we went with the signature gyukatsu, cold ramen, and yaki gyoza.

195g gyukatsu, chuck flap grilled over coals

We upsized the gyukatsu slightly to 195g. The outside is thinly and very crisply fried, while the inside is rare — you could tell the chuck flap cut was good quality even raw, mouth-watering already.

The lettuce on the side is generous, and there's a wide range of sauces to mix it up with — wasabi, whole grain mustard, soy sauce, peanut sauce, and chili sauce.

Gyukatsu comes with rice and miso soup too. The soup has exactly the flavor Koreans love — a warm soup everyone will enjoy.

Let's grill up this beautifully marbled, fresh meat.

Personally, I think gyukatsu tastes better eaten slice by slice while warm, rather than all at once. If you overcook it, it can get tough, so I only grilled it until the redness disappeared — it just melted in my mouth, ㅜㅜ

Crispy and savory on the outside, soft and juicy beef inside — the gyukatsu, paired with the salty-sweet soy sauce and the sharp fresh wasabi, cut through any richness completely, making it endlessly moreish.

With the cabbage salad, rice, and miso soup that come alongside, the set was perfectly composed — I cleaned my plate down to the last bite.

A summer specialty: yuzu-scented cold ramen

The cold ramen left me in awe after finishing it! I've had regular ramen before, but this was my first time with cold ramen — a flavor unlike anything I've tasted elsewhere, and I'd recommend it as a delicious dish for a hot summer day.

Cool, sweet, with a fleeting yuzu aroma and umami that's just insane...

A cold ramen with a soy sauce base infused with yuzu, topped with fried burdock root, dried seaweed garnish, green onion, and tempura bits. We were mid-conversation, but I literally stopped talking and blurted out 'wow' after one sip of the broth.

The noodles don't get soggy and stay chewy — as a noodle fanatic, I think I ate most of it myself. Since it's eaten cold, the chewiness lingers in your mouth after each bite, and with the broth, it's pure bliss.

The broth had that yuzu fragrance, wasn't too salty, and was refreshingly delicious — and the fried burdock root stayed crunchy even after soaking in the broth, giving it good texture too.

I'll definitely order the cold udon next time I come. If you're looking for a summer specialty dish or you're worn out from the heat, you have to try this cold ramen. Highly recommend!

The side dish we ordered: yaki gyoza

Yaki gyoza pairs really well alongside the gyukatsu and cold ramen. Crispy on the outside but very juicy on the inside,

and packed full of filling, so even just one or two pieces gave a nice change of texture between bites throughout the meal — a great fit as a side dish.

Hoka Hoka, a Japanese restaurant in Gwangmyeong, turned out even better than expected. Every dish felt made with care, which made the Japanese home cooking taste even better. It was such a satisfying lunch date that I think I'll come back soon with my parents.