Hongdae Korean restaurant for rice-in-soup lunch: Doonjeong

When you’re looking for lunch in Hongdae, don’t you always end up going to the same places? This time, I went looking for somewhere different. It’s Doonjeong, a hanwoo gomtang restaurant tucked into an alley near Hongdae Entrance Station 🥣

Doonjeong Hongdae Direct Branch

Doonjeong in an alley by Hongdae Entrance Station

It’s 214 m from Exit 1 of Hongdae Entrance Station, about a five-minute walk. Come out of Exit 1, go around CGV, and walk straight for 300 m. Since it’s in an alley rather than on the main road, I thought it might be quiet at first. But then I saw the big banner on the wall next door: it was selected as a Blue Ribbon Survey nationwide favorite restaurant for two consecutive years, 2025 and 2026 🎀

There’s a Catchtable waiting kiosk at the entrance. When it gets busy, you can join the waitlist there, and the restaurant also takes reservations through Naver. The freestanding menu sign out front is written in Korean, English, and Japanese.

An interior that felt easy for solo diners, too

Inside was roomier and tidier than I expected. The wooden tables and chairs were comfortable, too. The window seats felt open because you could see clearly outside, and it looked like an easy place to eat alone. Framed menu photos hang on every wall, and just looking at them made me hungry.

The open kitchen made it feel trustworthy, and the tables were filled with everyone from neighborhood residents to international visitors. The international guests especially seemed intrigued by the yukhoe bibimbap. Well, mixing raw beef into rice does sound fascinating when you only hear it described, right? Haha.

Doonjeong’s gomtang and pancake menu

Here’s the menu. Clear hanwoo gomtang is ₩13,000 for regular and ₩18,000 for special, while tendon gomtang is ₩16,000. Brisket gomtang is ₩18,000, limited to 10 bowls a day. Spicy hanwoo tripe gomtang is ₩15,000 regular or ₩18,000 special, and hanwoo yukhoe bibimbap comes with gomtang broth for ₩16,000. Shrimp minari jeon is ₩19,000, meat-and-chive jeon is ₩17,000, and meat-and-kimchi jeon is ₩18,000. Dressed meat is ₩11,000 for a half plate or ₩21,000 for a full plate; hanwoo hot pot is ₩49,000 and hanwoo gopchang hot pot is ₩54,000. The menu says every dish uses 100% Korean ingredients, including female hanwoo beef. If you dine in and then take away gomtang, hot pot, or dressed meat, you get ₩2,000 off.

There’s a separate alcohol menu. Soju and beer are ₩5,000, but the traditional liquor list is quite long. It runs from sweet persimmon liquor at ₩9,000 to Ureongi Rice Cheongju at ₩35,000, and there are about five types of makgeolli, too. It looked like a nice place to order hot pot and have a drink in the evening 🍶

Once you sit down, they set out your spoon and chopsticks on a napkin printed with the Doonjeong logo. There are two banchan (side dishes): kkakdugi cubed radish kimchi and napa cabbage kimchi. If you need more rice or side dishes, just ask and they’ll refill them.

Clear hanwoo gomtang with rice already in the broth

This is the regular clear hanwoo gomtang I ordered. The gukbap here comes with the rice already mixed in. Rather than being served separately like ttaro gukbap, the rice is in the broth from the start. The broth is really clear, but it isn’t bland—it has a deep, savory flavor. I also loved how generously they piled on the scallions 🥄

If you love meat, get the special gomtang

This is the special bowl my husband ordered. It’s only ₩5,000 more than the regular, but the difference was obvious. It has several types of meat, and there’s noticeably more of it. If you love meat, go for the special 🥩

You can dip the meat in this sauce. It comes with a seasoning sauce topped with sliced chili.

Minari pancake packed with plump shrimp

The shrimp minari jeon we ordered alongside it arrived filling an entire plate. The pancake was full of plump shrimp, with such a nice bite. The fragrant minari water dropwort was so good, too 👍

Things to know before a Hongdae lunch visit

With the gomtang and pancake together, the table was completely full. One spoonful of gukbap topped with kkakdugi—that’s the classic way to eat it, haha. When you need food rather than drinks in Hongdae, a proper satisfying meal, I recommend Doonjeong for lunch.

For reference, it’s open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., with last orders at 8:30 p.m. There is a notice that it will be closed for Chuseok from September 24 to 27. There’s no dedicated parking at the restaurant. The closest option is Toros Parking Tower, a two-minute walk away (115 m). Still, at ₩3,000 for 30 minutes, it’s pricey in the usual Hongdae way. The subway seems more convenient than driving 🚇