Hoegi izakaya in Seoul: motsunabe hot pot, okonomiyaki — Hamaru Hoegi

I had plans near Hoegi on a Friday evening and was looking for somewhere to grab dinner and a drink, and ended up at an izakaya called Hamaru (●'◡'●) The food quality was top, the taste was top... my satisfaction was through the roof. Here's my review of Hamaru, a Hoegi favorite!

Hoegi favorite izakaya "Hamaru"

Where is Hamaru Hoegi, and what are its hours?

Hamaru Hoegi is an izakaya at 11 Gyeonghuidae-ro 1-gil, 1F, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, between Hoegi Station and Kyung Hee University. It's open Mon–Thu and Sun 17:00–02:00, and Fri–Sat until 03:00.

Outdoor table or indoor counter seat at Hamaru Hoegi?

Hamaru has tables outdoors as well as indoors, plus counter seats! On a nice day, eating at the outdoor tables would probably feel really good. They recommended the outdoor seats and I thought about it for a second, but it was still hot and mosquitoes were flying around everywhere, so we decided to sit inside.

The interior gives off that classic izakaya feel — the wood tones make it warm and comfortable. We came in after work on a Friday, and being near a university area, there were tables that had already been drinking and left, and tables still going. There's counter seating indoors too, so it looks like a good spot for solo drinking. The kitchen is open, so you can watch the cooking happen right in front of you. Since it's an open kitchen, it seemed like the hygiene management was pretty thorough too!

What three of us ordered at Hamaru Hoegi, and the prices

The menu has a huge range, from soups to side dishes. Being an izakaya, there's plenty of Japanese shochu and sake too. What we ordered that day was:

• Motsunabe (offal hot pot) – ₩28,000
• Handmade seafood okonomiyaki – ₩17,000
• Skewers: chicken thigh and scallion, chicken skin, tsukune

That's it!

For the basic side dish they bring out cabbage — I feel like cabbage comes as the standard izakaya side a lot? But I'm not really a fan of it... pass. I was hungry so I ate it anyway, and it was tasty haha. They also gave us a gochujang-soy dipping sauce for the motsunabe.

Motsunabe for 28,000 won: generous beef intestine

The motsunabe came out first. Wow... can you see how generous the beef intestine (daechang) portion is? Beef intestine, mushrooms, chives, tofu, and beansprouts — the beansprouts especially were piled thick all the way to the bottom. The broth had a clear, tofu-soup kind of feel, but as the intestine cooked, the fat soaked right into the broth, and dipping it in the gochujang-soy sauce was so good!!! Everyone at the table was saying wow, this is delicious, while we ate haha.

Handmade seafood okonomiyaki shaped like Crayon Shin-chan

Next came the handmade batter seafood okonomiyaki, and it was shaped like Snoopy hahaha. Isn't that just too cute? Snoopy is my favorite character, so how am I supposed to eat this?? They told us to take photos before cutting into it. So we all grabbed our cameras and got into a photo frenzy...

After that, they cut it into pieces for us and you top it with the bonito flakes they give separately. Watching the bonito flakes flutter on top of the warm okonomiyaki was lovely, and it looked really pretty too. Maybe because it's a handmade batter, the batter itself was delicious, but the seafood packed inside was really generous too. You could tell it was fresh from the very first bite.

Tsukune, chicken thigh-and-scallion and chicken skin skewers

We were still a bit hungry so we also ordered chicken thigh-and-scallion, chicken skin, and tsukune skewers. I really love tsukune. Chicken-and-scallion and skin skewers coming out well is basically a given, but tsukune is the one that turns dry and flavorless at a bad place — this one was soft and juicy, almost like a handmade tteokgalbi (Korean-style meat patty). Dipped in the egg yolk sauce it was so good that the three of us split it into thirds. Next time I'm going one tsukune per person.

Motsunabe, skewers, okonomiyaki — every single thing was flawless... Usually an izakaya is where you go for round two, but we demolished all our food and drinks in round one (because it was that good!!). Next time we visit, we're going all in on the skewers!!