Late-night Osong restaurant in Cheongju: pork stir-fry mixed with rice

My friends and I got together for a wedding invitation meetup, and after round one it felt like a shame to just eat and go home, so we went for round two at Haengbokhan Udon Gage Cheongju Osong Branch (행복한우동가게 청주오송점), a place my friend Mungchi loves.

I don't usually end up drinking a second or third round in Osong, so I think I'd only been here once — but the friends I came with turned out to be regulars, and one of them even had his own personal recipe for the place, haha.

Haengbokhan Udon Gage Cheongju Osong Branch: address, hours and parking

• Open daily from 11:00 to 02:00
• Restroom available inside the restaurant
• No dedicated parking lot (roadside parking at lunch and dinner)
• Naver reservations and takeout available

What's on the menu, including drinking snacks

I'd only ever heard about the same old orders, so I had no idea they had drinking snacks like shrimp pajeon (green onion pancake) or fish cake. Next time I'm suggesting the shrimp pajeon...

An Osong udon and pork cutlet restaurant that's open in the daytime too

I'd only ever been to Haengbokhan Udon Gage Cheongju Osong Branch for a round-two hangover drink, and even Mungchi, a regular, mostly went there just to drink — so I had no idea they opened this early! Since they serve pork cutlet and udon, it'd actually be a nice spot for a simple lunch too.

There were quite a lot of people inside again today.

You can park along the road in front of the restaurant during lunch hours, and every menu item is available for takeout.

The inside is comfortable enough that it could probably accommodate a group too.

What we ordered for round two: spicy pork stir-fry, two bowls of rice and pork cutlet

At Haengbokhan Udon Gage Cheongju Osong Branch, here's what we ordered:

• Pork stir-fry / dwaeji durutigi (with added gimgaru)
• 2 bowls of rice
• Regular pork cutlet
• Soju, beer

There were three big-eating guys and me. They'd clearly eaten a ton of meat plus drinking rice and ramyeon at round one already...! So when I saw them order pork stir-fry with two bowls of rice here too, I was honestly stunned.

The food comes out fast! Before I knew it, the pork stir-fry was already on the table.

The regular's gimgaru rice-mixing trick

One friend, who apparently comes here a lot, quietly asked for gimgaru on the side when he ordered the two bowls of rice. He said if you mix two bowls of rice in with the stir-fry and top it with gimgaru, the seasoning comes out just right — and honestly, the way it looked when it was done, haha, it looked so good.

Haengbokhan Udon Gage Cheongju Osong Branch's secret recipe — pork stir-fry + 2 bowls of rice + gimgaru (ask quietly), mix it all together

After all that shock, the real problem was that the rice was just too delicious. I've been avoiding carbs late at night, but between round one and this, I think I ate a whole week's worth of carbs in one sitting. This is why you shouldn't hang out with friends who really know how to eat. Every big spoonful was so good I kept scooping more onto my small plate to eat again.

They actually have jeyuk bokkeum (spicy stir-fried pork) on the menu, so I wondered why they'd order the stir-fry instead — but clearly, more meat really does make it better!

Old-school "king cutlet" style pork cutlet

This one is the old-style pork cutlet, and the portion is generous, like a giant king-sized cutlet! The sauce here tastes a little sweet to me with a sharp kick at the end, though as someone with a pretty unrefined palate, I honestly have no idea what's in it.

The pork cutlet and the jeyuk bokkeum disappeared from in front of us in no time.

You can tell how aggressively we ate just by how messy the table got..! We'd ordered two bowls of rice, but apparently one comes standard with the dish. The self-proclaimed recipe master insisted only two bowls should go into the mix, so we left the third one to eat plain — but in the end, we just left it uneaten. T_T

Is Haengbokhan Udon Gage in Osong worth a late-night visit?

This is a good spot for a simple lunch or dinner, and just as good for a round-two drinking session. Personally, I liked the pork stir-fry mixed with rice even more than the pork cutlet... Since they deliver, I think I'll just order the pork stir-fry, cook rice at home, and mix it myself from now on, haha. The udon is solid too, so on rainy days it's nice to skip going far and just have warm udon broth with a shot of soju while watching the rain right near home. Good for a filling meal, good for a light round two — this place really does it all.