Cheongju date lunch with a pork cutlet cheese roll: Oneul Haru

Today I was hanging out at Connect Hyundai in Gagyeong-dong, and my boyfriend and I got such a craving for Korean food that we went on a Korean restaurant date in Gagyeong-dong, Cheongju! They had so many great-value stone-pot rice dishes that it's perfect for lunch too, so let me introduce this Gagyeong-dong spot to you :)

Oneul, Haru (오늘, 하루) — 'Today, one day'

Where is Oneul Haru? A 7-minute walk from Cheongju terminal, with parking

Oneul Haru, the Korean restaurant in Gagyeong-dong, is near the Cheongju Express & Intercity Bus Terminal and Connect Hyundai, close to Hana Hospital! It's about 406m from the bus terminal, roughly a 7-minute walk. It's also a great spot for a meal right before or after taking the bus :)

📍87 Seohyeonbuk-ro, 1F 110-112, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea📍

Parking at Oneul Haru is supported for 1 hour if you park in the building's underground lot! If you follow the alley further in from the Oneul Haru entrance, you'll find the parking entrance. The lot goes down to B2, so personally I found it really convenient to park :)

Inside Oneul Haru: partitioned tables that work for a date

The inside of Oneul Haru was bigger than I expected, honestly. There's a bit of a sense of separation from the main hall area, so beyond just eating, there was a fun sense of spatial variety too, haha. Oneul Haru, this Korean restaurant in Gagyeong-dong, gave off warmth and calm through its wood and ivory combination! The tables along the wall came with soft cushions, which I personally loved :)

There were nice-looking spots everywhere, plus hidden nooks tucked further in, all decorated with real sense. Tables range from 2-person tables to large tables for bigger groups, so it works whether you're eating solo or with a group!

There were a lot of partitioned spaces so you could eat a bit more privately. With framed pictures and pretty lighting scattered around that seemed to target women's taste, I'd highly recommend it as a date spot! Personally I also think it'd work nicely and neatly as a gathering spot for handing out wedding invitations.

Oneul Haru's menu and what we ordered

You order at Oneul Haru through a tablet, and photos are attached for each menu item, which really helped with picking! The menu itself was genuinely clean and clear :) LA-style short ribs set / grilled fish stone-pot rice set / gochujang bulgogi stone-pot rice set / pork cutlet & cheese roll / pork cutlet curry set, and more — a variety that everyone, young or old, could enjoy ♡

📝Our order

• Gochujang bulgogi gondre (mountain vegetable) stone-pot rice (₩15,000)
• Handmade pork cutlet cheese roll (₩13,000)

I personally felt the stone-pot rice set, which comes as an individual meal, was priced lower than I expected!

Self-serve bar: unlimited tteokbokki, eggplant and king oyster mushroom fritters

They told us any extra side dishes we needed were available at the self-serve bar, so I went to check it out and was surprised at how varied it was. Fresh leafy greens, salad, kimchi soup, and then tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) and eggplant/king oyster mushroom fritters, all unlimited refills — loved that, haha.

The table next to us was enjoying their tteokbokki and fritters so much that I went and got some myself, and it really was delicious. The tteokbokki had a spiciness with a bit of a peppery kick, kind of like a beginner-friendly Yeopddeok (a popular spicy tteokbokki chain) flavor, and the fritters were nice and crispy :)

About 5 minutes after ordering, our dishes arrived :) The gochujang bulgogi gondre stone-pot rice came out first, and the handmade pork cutlet cheese roll came about 2–3 minutes later!

Gochujang bulgogi gondre stone-pot rice, finished with sungnyung

The gochujang bulgogi gondre stone-pot rice my boyfriend picked at Oneul Haru is 15,000 won. As you can see, it comes with a lot of side dishes, plus seaweed soup along with the stone-pot rice :) Served neatly on a wood tray, it seemed perfect for a coworker lunch, a date, or a family meal out.

Smoky gochujang bulgogi, leafy greens for wraps, seasoned soy sauce, stir-fried oyster mushrooms, stir-fried fish cake, stir-fried anchovies, kimchi soup, seaweed, gondre stone-pot rice, and seaweed soup — the main dish was really good, but every single side dish was delicious too. They say all the side dishes are made in-house, and the skill really showed, haha.

The stone-pot rice packed with gondre greens comes served separately in a bowl, and for the pot with the scorched rice left behind, they poured in water to make sungnyung (scorched rice tea).

Before mixing it with the gochujang bulgogi, I tried the gondre stone-pot rice on its own, wrapped in seaweed and dipped in soy sauce, to taste it as it is.

Sometimes I ate it wrapped in greens, sometimes mixed with the gondre rice — with so many side dishes, mixing and matching was genuinely fun at Oneul Haru, this Korean restaurant in Gagyeong-dong.

I also scooped up just the sungnyung on its own, and sometimes topped it with the spicy, salty meat for a savory-yet-spicy combination.

Handmade pork cutlet cheese roll: thick cheesy cross-section with wasabi

And the handmade pork cutlet cheese roll I ordered at Oneul Haru is 13,000 won. It came with two hefty pork cutlets, two cheese rolls, plus a mini seaweed soup, kimchi soup, pickled onions, and pork cutlet sauce.

You can tell just by looking that this is a nicely fried handmade pork cutlet at Oneul Haru. Before the regular cutlet, I cut into the cheese roll first. Sometimes I dipped it deep into the pork cutlet sauce, sometimes I put it over rice with wasabi. Since the oil itself was clean, there was no greasiness at all — just the harmony of pork and cheese.

As you can see from the cross-section of the pork cutlet, the meat itself is pretty thick. Crispy breading with juicy, thick pork — the handmade pork cutlet at Oneul Haru was genuinely delicious :)

I dipped it in the pork cutlet sauce and also paired it with wasabi, and personally I feel like if there had been salt too, it would've rivaled a dedicated pork cutlet restaurant, haha ♥

Is Oneul Haru worth it for a Gagyeong-dong lunch date?

After you finish eating, don't forget to get your parking validated for the 1-hour support! :) Today we thoroughly enjoyed a Gagyeong-dong lunch spot after our Connect Hyundai date, and personally I'm so happy that Cheongju now has more clean, proper Korean set-meal lunch places popping up, hehe. A place where I could really feel the neat, tidy character of Korean food, and the staff were so kind too! If you're looking for a lunch spot in Gagyeong-dong, Cheongju, how about Oneul Haru?