Suwon chicken restaurant family dinner: two chickens and tteokbokki

Went out with the kids in Haenggung-dong and stopped for dinner at Haenggung Jangjak Hanbang Tongdak! There was such a huge pile of firewood stacked outside that you could spot the place from a distance hahaha. It's a spot where they roast whole chickens directly over oak firewood, with sticky rice stuffed inside the chicken, and as it sizzles away on a hot plate the rice at the end turns into scorched rice. If you're looking for an old-style whole roast chicken restaurant in Suwon, this style might be worth checking out!

Location and hours of Haenggung Jangjak Hanbang Tongdak

Haenggung Jangjak Hanbang Tongdak is located at 28 Haenggung-ro, 1st floor, Paldal-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, in Haenggung-dong. Hours are 17:00–24:00 according to Naver Place.

Since it's in Haenggung-dong, it was convenient to stop by for dinner after visiting the Hwaseong Haenggung area. Hours may change, so please double-check on Naver Place before visiting :)

The firewood piled up outside is seriously massive hahaha. Seeing it really gives off that dedicated oak-fired restaurant vibe. Inside, whole chickens were spinning around in front of the fire, roasting away🔥

The menu and what we ordered

At Haenggung Jangjak Hanbang Tongdak we ordered the herbal oak-fired chicken (23,000 won), the Suwon galbi oak-fired chicken (25,000 won), and tteokbokki (rice cake in spicy sauce, 8,000 won), coming to 56,000 won total. The menu had more variety than I expected — from the basic herbal oak-fired chicken to fire chicken, traditional seasoned, smoked barbecue, and Suwon galbi versions.

One whole chicken alone felt like it wouldn't be enough, so we ordered two, and with the tteokbokki added the table was completely full hahaha.

Basic side dishes at the self-serve bar

For basic side dishes we got kimchi, pickled vegetables, and pickled radish, plus salt and sauce for dipping the chicken. Anything running low could be topped up at the self-serve bar, and water and napkins were also set up on one side.

The chicken itself was seasoned quite well, so personally I found it plenty tasty even without the salt!

How does the herbal oak-fired chicken taste?

The herbal oak-fired chicken (23,000 won) at Haenggung Jangjak Hanbang Tongdak comes out on a hot plate and keeps sizzling all the way through. Whew, it just keeps sizzling on the plate the moment it arrives🔥🔥 This looks even more delicious in person than in photos hahaha.

Roasted over firewood, the skin was golden brown with a completely different charm from fried chicken. Above all, the chicken was well brined, so it had a nice salty flavor.

The meat inside wasn't dry either — quite moist! When I eat oak-fired whole chicken and the seasoning is too bland, I usually end up relying on the dipping sauce for flavor, but here the chicken itself was seasoned well enough to eat plain.

Sticky rice hidden inside the chicken, and scorched rice on the hot plate

Inside the chicken at Haenggung Jangjak Hanbang Tongdak is hidden sticky rice with mushrooms, and since the hot plate stays hot the whole time, it eventually turns into crispy scorched rice. After eating some of the chicken, the sticky rice appears from inside hahaha.

The juices and fat from the chicken soak into the rice, which was surprisingly delicious. But that's not the end… since the hot plate keeps staying hot, the bottom of the sticky rice keeps burning onto the plate as you eat. So eventually it turns into something like crispy scorched rice!!! Eat some chicken, scrape up some rice, wait a bit, scrape up some scorched rice hahaha.

Personally, the chicken was great, but this sticky rice plus scorched rice was what stuck with me the most. If you like eating old-style whole roast chicken in Suwon this way, sizzling on the hot plate all the way to the end, you'll probably love this part!

How does the Suwon galbi oak-fired chicken taste?

The Suwon galbi oak-fired chicken (25,000 won) is the basic oak-fired chicken topped generously with a sweet galbi (short rib) sauce. Since we were in Suwon, we had to try the galbi chicken too hahaha.

The sauce tastes sweet, like galbi seasoning. If the basic chicken leans salty and clean, the galbi version is clearly all about that sweet sauce flavor! Since the two taste so different, if you're ordering two whole chickens, one basic plus one galbi is a good combination.

I also liked that the hot plate stayed hot enough that it never cooled down.

Side dish: tteokbokki

The tteokbokki at Haenggung Jangjak Hanbang Tongdak is 8,000 won, with rice cake, fish cake, and vegetables, topped with a boiled egg — it came out pretty generous.

A bite of chicken, then a bite of tteokbokki, then back to chicken hahaha. Rather than eating oak-fired chicken the whole time, having that red sauce in between made for a good combination.

What's it like visiting with kids?

We went with the kids, but… our kids didn't eat much that day🤣🤣 Not because the food wasn't tasty — they were just really wound up that day, ugh. Mom and dad wanted to eat while the kids wouldn't sit still….

So while I was saying the chicken was delicious, I was also completely occupied managing the kids in between🫠 If your kids usually like chicken or roasted chicken, the basic oak-fired chicken is worth trying together, but for our Who Brothers household, this ended up being a dinner where mom and dad ate better than the kids.

Overall thoughts

I visited Haenggung Jangjak Hanbang Tongdak wanting something a bit different for whole roast chicken in Haenggung-dong!

• Golden-brown chicken roasted directly over oak firewood
• Well-brined basic chicken with a nice salty flavor
• Suwon galbi chicken with a sweet sauce
• Sticky rice hidden inside the chicken
• Rice that burns onto the hot plate and turns into scorched rice hahaha

In particular, scraping up that scorched sticky rice at the end was a surprisingly special treat. If you're looking for old-style whole roast chicken in Suwon that's oak-fired rather than fried, keep this in mind as a dinner spot after an outing in Haenggung-dong :) Going with kids meant a relaxed meal didn't quite happen hahaha, but mom and dad came home well fed🤣🤎