Flying fish roe shumai at Cheonghwawon, a Daehangno dim sum house

Today I'm writing up a review of Cheonghwawon Daehangno Branch, a great spot for a filling lunch date in Hyehwa's Daehangno area haha. Right in the heart of Hyehwa Station, this is a Daehangno lunch spot where a local chef makes the dim sum and beef noodles by hand!

Where is Cheonghwawon Daehangno Branch, and what are its hours?

Cheonghwawon Daehangno Branch is about a 3-minute walk from Hyehwa Station Exit 4, so it's really easy to get to — I'd walked past it many times but this was my first time actually eating there!

A Daehangno lunch spot I'd recommend for really tasty dim sum and beef noodles — Cheonghwawon!

• Address - 청화원 1층, 서울 서대문구 명물길 10 (10 Myeongmul-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea)
• Hours - Daily 11:00–22:20 (last order 22:00)
• Convenience - Group seating available

Inside the two-floor dining room: is solo dining comfortable?

Stepping inside, the place is thick with an exotic atmosphere that really feels like Taiwan, and thanks to the spacious two-floor layout, I could eat comfortably. There were also plenty of two-person tables set up like this, so it seemed like a great spot for solo dining too haha.

The Cheonghwawon menu and the four dishes we ordered

Here's the menu at Cheonghwawon, this Daehangno lunch spot — noodles, dim sum, rice dishes, fried dishes, stir-fries, all kinds of options prepared, so it's great to order a bunch of things and share them together haha.

• Sichuan-style beef knife-cut noodles ₩10,500
• Shrimp fried rice ₩9,500
• Xiaolongbao ₩9,500
• Shumai ₩9,500

The basic side dishes were zhacai (pickled mustard tuber) and peanuts — the peanuts were nutty and so easy to keep popping in one by one,

and then the dishes we ordered arrived — we did order a lot, but overall the value and portions were pretty impressive haha. Visually it looked so authentically local, like a hearty spread you'd get while actually traveling in Taiwan~

Sichuan beef knife-cut noodles: how the house-made noodles taste

First I tried the Sichuan-style beef knife-cut noodles. The broth is made by simmering Korean beef bone and tender areunsatae (shank meat) for a long time, so the deep flavor of the broth was really good haha.

The texture and flavor of the tender meat were also really good, and the subtle spicy aroma and taste rising up really whetted the appetite.

The broth looks oily, but one sip and you get the deep richness of the bone broth along with that Sichuan spiciness — really seductive.

And these chewy hand-pulled knife-cut noodles were clearly different from regular noodles — the fun texture and the way they came up soaked in broth was so appealing haha.

Eating the noodles together with the meat gives you all kinds of textures in your mouth — I definitely recommend trying the knife-cut noodles haha.

Shrimp fried rice and the thickened egg soup that comes with it

The shrimp fried rice too! Shrimp, vegetables, and egg all keeping their texture and flavor while being fried up fluffy and light — the flavor was so good, and it wasn't a greasy, soggy rice but grain-by-grain coated in oil, which was really delicious.

The shrimp meat popped in the mouth and the egg was nice and fluffy, going really well with the spicy beef soup haha.

The egg soup that came with it also had a bit of starch mixed in, which gave it a slightly sticky texture — that was an interesting surprise~

Handmade shrimp shumai topped with flying fish roe

Then we tried the handmade shrimp shumai made by the chef himself — inside was packed with pork and shrimp meat, and on top, flying fish roe! Just visually, it looked so appetizing,

and one bite in, you get the juiciness of the meat along with the plump texture of the shrimp, finished off with the flying fish roe popping in your mouth — really a shumai with layers of different flavors~

Xiaolongbao at Cheonghwawon: soup first, and mind the hot broth

The xiaolongbao stayed true to the basics too — the thin skin was packed full of broth, and the meat had a nice flavor with no gamey smell at all, so I ate it very happily~

You place the xiaolongbao on the spoon like this~

and when you tear it open, the broth comes gushing out, and you drink that in — the savoriness was so good! And..! That broth is really hot, so watch your mouth haha. Dipping it in the ginger soy sauce made the combination of flavors really great.

Is Cheonghwawon worth it for a Daehangno lunch date?

Today's recommendation for a Daehangno lunch spot, Cheonghwawon Daehangno Branch — besides its signature chef-made dim sum and beef noodles, there's a wide range of Chinese dishes to enjoy together for an even fuller meal, and you can really taste authentic local flavors at reasonable prices. A place I'd genuinely recommend as a lunch spot in Daehangno — Cheonghwawon.