Gyukatsu set and 2-hour free parking in Gwangmyeong: Hoka Hoka

Today I was craving gyukatsu and went looking for a place, which is how I found Hoka Hoka Gwangmyeong Main Branch! It's a Japanese restaurant near Cheolsan Station, and while gyukatsu is their signature dish, they also serve cold ramen, chashu ramen, gyudon, and other Japanese menu items haha. I went in with high expectations — let's get right into the review!

Hoka Hoka Gwangmyeong Main Branch: location, hours, and parking

Hoka Hoka Gwangmyeong Main Branch is located at 887 Oriro, Unit 101, Gwangmyeong-si, Gyeonggi-do, near Cheolsan Station. It's open Monday through Sunday from 11:30 to 21:00, with last order at 20:30, a break time from 15:00 to 17:00, and it's closed on September 25 for Chuseok.

Outside the restaurant

I parked in the mechanical parking garage of Bobostel, the building the restaurant is in, and got a visitor parking pass from the manager! After finishing your meal, just tell the staff you parked there and you can get 2 hours free parking.

A restaurant interior that works for solo diners too

The inside of Hoka Hoka Gwangmyeong Main Branch isn't huge, but with both table seating and bar-style seats, it felt like a comfortable spot for anything from eating alone to a date! As someone who loves eating solo, I was genuinely happy to see they had solo-dining tables haha.

Every table comes basically set with salt, pepper, pickled radish, and a hair tie!

The menu and the review event

If you leave a Naver receipt review, you can get a lotus root fritter or a handmade walnut cookie as a gift 🥜

What I ordered: gyukatsu solo set / cold ramen

While waiting for the food after ordering, the very first thing to arrive was the sweet potato fritters! They came with a mayonnaise sauce, and honestly it was so, so good hahaha.

Totally sweet potato heaven 🍠

A cola came along as a side! That fizzing sound is always right, no matter when you hear it 🫧

So how does the yuzu-scented cold ramen taste?

The cold ramen! It's a refreshing soy-based ramen with yuzu added, which makes it especially suited to hot days. If gyukatsu is the warm, savory dish, the cold ramen is the cool, clean counterpart — great for sharing when you order both together!

The noodles come in such a generous, hearty portion that one bowl alone will fill you up 😋 Eating the noodles together with the various toppings piled on top makes this cold ramen a genius when it comes to texture, no joke.

The gyukatsu solo set and grilling it over the brazier

The gyukatsu solo set comes with ramen too, and you can choose which type of ramen you want, so I picked the spicy chashu ramen!! It really came out as a full, generous spread on the table 🥺

The gyukatsu comes with sauce, wasabi, whole grain mustard, salad, and other sides too!! So many things to pair it with, and it made me so happy ❤️

Once the staff lights the fire here, you're ready to eat!! The condition of the meat was so good~~

Hoka Hoka's gyukatsu comes out lightly pre-cooked, and you grill it yourself over the small tabletop brazier, at whatever pace and doneness you like! That gives gyukatsu a whole different kind of fun compared to donkatsu, which comes out fully cooked from the start 🫶🏻

It's better not to cook it too long — grilling it lightly to your own taste works best!! Not quite well-done, more like a slight medium-well felt the most tender and delicious haha. Oh! And the heat is stronger than you'd expect, so if you zone out it can burn, so stay focused!!! 👀

Putting a little wasabi on a piece of the meat gives you a clean, refreshing flavor! It's honestly delicious even dipped in just plain salt haha. Since the meat itself is such good quality, pretty much anything you dip it in tastes amazing 🤤

Rotating through the 3 sauces that came with it made the umami hit crazy good!!!! Out of those, the second one was my favorite!!? But honestly all of them were delicious!!

Hahaha, I was grilling and eating little by little but felt like it would digest too fast so I just went and poured it all on ^_^ I normally won't even touch cabbage, but in this case, tasty wins no matter what, right?,, 🥬

The spicy chashu ramen I chose for the set

The ramen I picked at Hoka Hoka is a spicy tonkotsu ramen made with domestic Korean pork chashu! Eating it alongside the gyukatsu, the spicy broth felt like it kept resetting my palate in between bites — a seriously great combo. If you like spicy ramen, this is a menu item worth trying! 🌶️ And it comes with big, hearty chunks of chashu!!

How to enjoy Hoka Hoka Gwangmyeong Main Branch

Overall, at Hoka Hoka Gwangmyeong Main Branch, pairing the gyukatsu with ramen or cold ramen rather than eating gyukatsu alone made for a more varied meal, and I loved it — but above all, the sweet potato fritters served before the meal were such a special treat 🍠💜

If you're like me and want both gyukatsu and ramen, ordering the solo set is a great way to go haha. And definitely try the sweet potato fritters at least once. Seriously!! It almost felt like being in Japan 🥺 If anything, the sweet potato fritters I ate while waiting for the main dish are what still stick in my memory hahaha.

Next time at Hoka Hoka Gwangmyeong Main Branch, I want to try the other ramen options too :) If you're near Cheolsan Station craving gyukatsu or Japanese-style ramen, give Hoka Hoka Gwangmyeong Main Branch a try 🫶🏻