Magok lamb restaurant lunch: shoulder rack with soy sauce, Hwarodam

What kind of place is Hwarodam Yang Kkochi Magok?

Hwarodam Yang Kkochi Magok is a lamb skewer restaurant near Balsan Station that is quietly gaining a name as a Magok favorite. It's the opposite of the loud, cramped lamb skewer joint you might picture: top-grade lamb over charcoal in a private space made of partitions and rooms.

Inside

Even though I went at lunch, office workers from Magok and Balsan Station were gathered in small groups for lunchtime get-togethers. You can see right away why Hwarodam handles team dinners, family meals and bigger groups so well.

Every seat is divided by a partition or put in a room, so you can talk without worrying about the next table, and the shiny copper hood above the grill is the interior highlight! It keeps the charcoal aroma while minimizing the smell sticking to you. The hood is seriously strong, so I ate without worrying about smoke at all. 😊

Each seat had a paper sheet laid out, which was handy for checking Hwarodam's menu.

What did we order at Hwarodam Yang Kkochi Magok?

For this lunch at Hwarodam Yang Kkochi Magok, I ordered these four things.

• Shoulder rack lamb chops
• Sirloin skewers
• Fried eggplant
• Warm noodles (ontmyeon)

Side dishes and the three special sauces

The basic side dishes at Hwarodam are pickled cabbage, guk-chae (shredded vegetable salad) and spicy chive salad, served with three special sauces.

Pickled cabbage, guk-chae and spicy chive salad. This combo cuts the richness of the lamb, and all three were so good I wanted refills! They go really well with lamb.

The three special sauces unique to Hwarodam are the key.

• ✅Chive flower sauce – the distinctive flavor of chive flowers enriches the taste of the meat
• ✅Secret soy sauce – savory soy sauce with a spicy kick, the best match for lamb chops 💯
• ✅Silk Road sauce (lamb skewer seasoning) – a blend of Silk Road spices

The screen has descriptions of the special sauces, which was a helpful reference while eating!

Do staff grill the shoulder rack lamb chops?

Yes, at Hwarodam Yang Kkochi Magok, staff handle the shoulder rack lamb chops from grilling to cutting. They say they use only young lamb under one year old.

So there was none of that typical gamey smell, which I loved, and above all it was tender and full of juice!

Staff do everything perfectly from grilling to cutting, so all you have to do is eat comfortably. The thickness is enormous!

I dipped a bite-sized piece of lamb chop in the secret soy sauce... and the juices burst in my mouth! Thick but tender, with a great chew too. It's definitely in my top 3 lamb ever. It was so, so good (T_T)

I tried it with all three special sauces, and my favorite was the soy sauce with chili peppers in it. The lamb smell isn't strong, so it was easy and nice to eat.

Side menu: fried eggplant and warm noodles

The fried eggplant at Hwarodam Yang Kkochi Magok is crispy outside, moist inside, and comes with a sweet and sour sauce. The warm noodles had a spicy broth that worked well as a palate cleanser between rounds of lamb.

The fried eggplant is crispy outside, moist inside! With the sweet and sour sauce, you keep reaching for more. Grabbing one between bites of lamb is so good, haha. It's just fried eggplant, so how does it taste this good..?

The warm noodles with their spicy broth are the killer part, cutting the richness of the lamb perfectly! Best palate cleanser. I always order warm noodles when I eat lamb. It's like having doenjang-jjigae (soybean paste stew) at a Korean BBQ place? Haha, that's how well they go together 💚

How are the lamb sirloin skewers grilled?

The lamb sirloin skewers at Hwarodam Yang Kkochi Magok arrive pre-grilled, and when it's skewer time, the grill is swapped and they get one more round over charcoal on an automatic rotating skewer machine.

When it was skewer time, they swapped out the grill entirely, and the skewers turned golden on the automatic rotating machine. Compared with lamb skewers elsewhere, the thickness of the meat is in another league!

They come already pre-grilled, and cooking them once more over charcoal drains the fat while keeping them tender 😊 You can really feel the juices of the thick sirloin.

Dipped in the Silk Road sauce, the exotic flavor of the spices comes alive, and it was a taste that could rival a real lamb skewer place in China (T_T)

Verdict: is Hwarodam Yang Kkochi Magok worth a visit?

If you're looking for a Magok favorite and Hwarodam isn't on your Balsan Station list yet, save it now!! Private room layout, top-grade young lamb, three special sauces and 4 hours of free parking make it perfect. It works for team dinners, dates and family meals, a truly do-it-all Magok restaurant, so do visit!

Location and hours

• 📍Location: 2nd floor, Queen's Park 10, 66 Magokjungang 6-ro, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• 📍Hours: 14:00–23:00