Gwangju Chinese restaurant, QR order and 6-piece dumplings: Mayway

Where is Mayway in Gwangju?

Mayway is a Chinese restaurant at 6 Cheomdangangbyeon-ro 87beon-gil, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, South Korea, a brand-new spot that opened on July 15. It's right near Cheomdan Lotte Mart, so it's an easy stop for lunch or dinner if you're already parked there shopping.

The weather's finally loosening up and the evenings have gotten a bit cooler lately. I was out for a fruit juice and a walk near Cheomdan on a weekend evening when I spotted this new Chinese restaurant right next door — and of course I couldn't resist a new find. Here's my review of a delicious, friendly place!

Mayway's opening event and what the dining room is like

Mayway isn't your average Chinese restaurant — the base is house-made noodles freshly rolled every single day, so the noodles are bound to be good, haha. As part of the opening event, anyone who visits before 7pm and orders 2 or more draft beers gets tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) for just ₩1,000 — though it's limited to one per table! There's also a cash prize event worth ₩500,000, seems like it's a 1st-to-5th-place drawing.

Chinese food pairs well with drinks, so there were group tables in for a meal together, plus some special signature menu items you can only find at Mayway.

With fresh ingredients and unusual combinations, and having opened on July 15, this really is a brand-new Chinese restaurant. There was a waiting machine set up, but visiting on a weekend evening, I was still able to walk right in with no wait.

What's on Mayway's self-serve bar?

Side dishes at Mayway are all self-serve — there's tasty scallion kimchi, pickled radish, onion and corn salad, and unlimited rice.

Everything's cooked to order right when you order it, keeping the flavor and aroma fresh, with the gap between cooking and serving kept to a minimum so the dish arrives at the right temperature and texture, finished by the chef's own hands, or so they say.

✔️ From mixing the flour to aging the noodles, every step is handled in-house to keep the flavor consistent, adjusting the dough to the ingredients and weather and bringing out the noodles' natural chewiness and taste through aging.

They also carefully select good ingredients like fresh sirloin and quality rice, with a cooking philosophy of bringing out their natural flavor as much as possible.

The chunjang (black bean sauce) is also roasted in-house, simmered to balance the fragrance of the oil with the savory depth of the sauce — since the flavor's depth changes depending on heat and timing, they roast it carefully to keep the richest flavor, which should make it even tastier.

How does QR ordering work at Mayway?

At Mayway you order through the QR code at your table. Scanning it opens a screen with categories like solo set meals, rice/noodle dishes, soups / extra noodles, signature dishes and other cooked dishes — just add items to your order from your phone.

Order details — Fanta ₩2,000 / Solo seafood scorched-rice soup ₩15,900 / Assorted dumplings, 6 pieces ₩5,000 / Solo set meal, jjamppong + jjajang + tangsuyuk ₩12,900 / Brisket jjamppong ₩13,900

On the table there's soy sauce, chili flakes and other simple sauces to add to Chinese restaurant dishes.

They gave us sweet potato fritters as a free service item — thin, crispy and sweet, fried just right, honestly a delicious little bonus.

✔️ Fanta, ₩2,000. Whenever I eat Chinese food I need something fizzy, so I ordered the Fanta ahead of time.

I also brought over some side dishes from the self-serve bar — the corn salad is nice to nibble on before the meal, and the scallion kimchi was really good too 👍🏻

Solo seafood nurungjitang (scorched-rice soup), 15,900 won

Mayway's solo seafood scorched-rice soup is ₩15,900, served on a stone plate so you can pour it and eat right at the table. It was absolutely packed with seafood.

The portion is quite generous, and the price is surprisingly reasonable for a solo seafood scorched-rice soup. Coming out on a piping hot stone plate, it stays hot right until the last bite.

Solo set meal: jjamppong + jjajang + tangsuyuk, 12,900 won

Mayway's solo set meal is ₩12,900 and lets you try three dishes at once — jjamppong (spicy seafood noodle soup), jjajang (black bean noodles) and tangsuyuk. You can also swap out the tangsuyuk for menbosha (fried shrimp toast) or three-color dumplings.

It's a perfect tasting-size portion, and the jjajang was even better than expected — you can also mix rice from the self-serve bar into it.

It was so good I wanted to order more right after finishing, and paired with the scallion kimchi it's just unbeatable 🩵

When you can't choose between jjajang and jjamppong, there are definitely days you want both by yourself. This is exactly the menu for those days.

The noodles are chewy and delicious, so I couldn't give up either the jjamppong or the jjajang! It's a flavor that leans into the ingredients' natural taste rather than anything flashy, and the staff here were all cheerful and kind too.

Assorted dumplings, 6 pieces, 5,000 won

Mayway's assorted dumplings come 6 pieces for ₩5,000, letting you try three different kinds. With prices this good, adding on extra dumplings doesn't feel like a splurge at all.

Brisket jjamppong, 13,900 won

Mayway's brisket jjamppong is ₩13,900. If you're someone who loves brisket jjamppong out of all the jjamppong varieties out there, then this one's for you.

It's packed full of smoky wok-hei flavor and loaded with brisket for a rich, hearty jjamppong — every sauce and base is mixed in-house, so it tastes like natural smoky char rather than artificial flavoring.

Even full, you can't skip mixing in some rice. If you eat rice separately with both the jjajang and the jjamppong, you'll be truly stuffed.

They also gave us ice cream for dessert — apparently it's normally one per person. But I was so full I asked them to skip mine, and it still ended up being a perfect meal.

Is Mayway worth a weekend dinner? Final verdict

I enjoyed every single dish at Mayway, and that's exactly why I'll be back next time for the stone-griddle jjajang. Nothing here felt heavy or overly seasoned afterward, so it's easy on the stomach — a great find for a Chinese restaurant in Cheomdan, whether you're eating solo or with a group.