6am Korean breakfast soft tofu stew in Gangseo, Seoul: Maetdolroman

I was craving warm Korean food first thing in the morning, so I went looking and ended up at Maetdolroman Deungchon Branch. It's known for grinding soybeans with a stone mill to make its own tofu, which made me curious about the sundubu (soft tofu stew) menu, and since it opens at 6am, it was easy to visit early.

Where is Maetdolroman Deungchon Branch, and is there parking?

Maetdolroman Deungchon Branch is located at 📍166 Gangseo-ro 56ga-gil, Gangseo-gu, Seoul (685 Deungchon-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul), a 3-minute walk from Exit 6 of Yangcheonhyanggyo Station. 🚗 Parking is available in the building's basement lot, and they registered us for 2 hours free.

A Korean restaurant open at 6am: inside Maetdolroman

The interior was clean with plenty of tables, so it looked comfortable for everything from solo dining to family meals. Most of all, it's surprisingly hard to find a Korean restaurant open in the morning, so being able to eat a warm sundubu stew for breakfast was really nice.

What's on the menu at Maetdolroman Deungchon Branch?

Maetdolroman had a wide range of dishes made with house-made tofu and soybeans, including sundubu stew, pan-fried tofu, braised tofu, tofu hot pot, and kongguksu (chilled soy milk noodles). Knowing they grind the beans with a stone mill in-house and use 100% domestic soybeans made it feel even more trustworthy.

Side dishes and the self-serve sundubu corner

The side dishes were napa cabbage kimchi, stir-fried anchovies, stir-fried garlic scapes, and cabbage.

There's a self-serve corner on one side of the restaurant where you can apparently help yourself to plain sundubu freely, but since we visited in the morning, it was still being prepped, so we unfortunately couldn't try the self-serve sundubu.

Hanwoo beef sundubu, 11,000 won

Hanwoo sundubu (11,000 won) — this bubbling stone-pot sundubu stew has Korean beef (hanwoo) in it, so the broth gets extra savory depth from the meat, and the sundubu itself was really soft with a texture that felt a bit different from the sundubu you'd usually eat.

Perilla seed sundubu, 9,000 won

Perilla seed sundubu (9,000 won) — this one had a clearly different charm from the hanwoo sundubu. The soft tofu combined with the nutty flavor of ground perilla seeds made the broth feel much smoother and nuttier overall, and it's a dish that's not heavy at all even for breakfast, so I'd recommend it if you're looking for a warm, easy-on-the-stomach morning meal.

Using house-made tofu really does seem like Maetdolroman's biggest strength. If you're craving warm Korean food early in the morning, or looking for a good restaurant near Yangcheonhyanggyo Station or a sundubu spot in Deungchon-dong, give Maetdolroman Deungchon Branch a try!