Rainy-day beef noodle restaurant in Jongno, Seoul: Cheonghwa

Hi, I'm Ray. I like noodles more than rice. I have a favorite noodle dish from pretty much every cuisine — Western food it's pasta (oil, tomato, rosé, cream, I don't discriminate haha), Korean food it's gogi guksu (meat noodle soup) and janchi guksu (banquet noodle soup), Japanese food it's mazesoba and yakisoba, Asian food in general it's pad thai. I've heard jjajangmyeon and jjamppong are technically counted as Korean food rather than Chinese, so I got to wondering what the actual noodle dish in Chinese cuisine would be — and that's when I landed on beef noodles (uyukmyeon)! Though apparently some people say beef noodles are actually Taiwanese rather than Chinese, so I'm not totally sure of its nationality, but wherever it's from, it's my favorite there!

Anyway, I had a reason to be in Gwanghwamun, and while looking for a good beef noodle place I found one called Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon. So today I'll introduce a beef noodle restaurant in Gwanghwamun!

What Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon looks like from outside, and when it gets busy

Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon is a two-floor restaurant. I visited on a rainy day, and I liked that part of the walk there had some kind of overhead cover blocking the rain. You can eat on either the 1st or 2nd floor. I got there past 2pm, and people kept coming in right up until I left at 3pm. Even though I'd been lazy at home and showed up after the lunch rush, people just kept streaming in — this is really a proper local favorite.

How to reach Cheonghwa from Jongak Station without getting rained on

Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon seems to be just a few minutes' walk from Gwanghwamun Station. On the map, Gwanghwamun Station looks closer, but we got off at Jongak Station and took the elevator up through the underground passage! That meant we didn't get rained on at all, which was a nice bonus.

The menu at Cheonghwa Uyuk Dosakmyeon and what to order

Here's the menu. Since guobaorou (sweet-and-sour crispy pork), lazi chicken, and stir-fried pork slices with dried chili are featured prominently, they might be the signature dishes, but since the restaurant's name literally has 'uyuk dosakmyeon' (beef knife-cut noodles) in it, we're ordering the beef noodles!

I'd also heard the dim sum here is good, so I wanted to order some of that too! I really agonized over this. Since it was already past 2pm for lunch, if we ate too much we'd end up having dinner too late, which would mean going to bed late too — a vicious cycle ㅠㅠㅠ So I worried that 2 noodle dishes plus 1 dim sum order might be too filling, and debated between ordering 2 noodle dishes or 1 noodle dish plus 2 dim sum orders, and ended up going with 1 noodle dish and 2 dim sum orders. I wanted to try the oil-splashed noodles too, but since beef noodles are the signature dish, I went with that! For dim sum, I decided on xiaolongbao and shumai.

Inside Cheonghwa: the 1st-floor window seats

This is what the inside looks like. We ate on the 1st floor, and the floor-to-ceiling windows gave it a nice open feel. Maybe because it's in Jongno, there were a lot of foreign customers too. Even the staff and the owner didn't seem to be Korean, which made it feel even more like being abroad. Kind of like being on a trip somewhere...?!

The side dishes: peanuts and cabbage zhacai

Here's the basic banchan (side dishes). You get peanuts and cabbage jangachi (pickled cabbage).

How is the beef noodle broth and the knife-cut noodle texture?

Here's the beef noodles! Personally, I find that at beef noodle restaurants, the noodles and toppings tend to be similar everywhere, but the broth flavor is always different. Since it's mostly about the spice blend, it's hard to describe exactly what it tastes like, but the broth was loaded with caramelized onions, giving it great savory depth.

What I liked most, though, was the noodles. I really love noodles, you know? But I like them chewy and springy. Usually at beef noodle or dosakmyeon (hand-torn knife-cut noodle) places, the noodles aren't very chewy — they're often floury and break apart, or too soft — but here, what I personally loved most was how springy the noodles were.

The broth was delicious too haha. Since they have a separate Sichuan beef noodles option, the regular beef noodles just look that color naturally — they weren't spicy at all!

6 xiaolongbao at Cheonghwa, and sipping the soup first

The xiaolongbao — or shourongbao? — came in a set of 6. Among dim sum, the original xiaolongbao is my favorite. I've even made it myself before haha.

Please check the video for how to eat xiaolongbao! First, gently poke a small hole in the dumpling, then drain out the broth haha. The spoon is supposed to be a bit deeper, but the broth leaked a little ㅠㅠ Such a waste!!

Then, drink the broth first, and after that, dip the dumpling fully in soy sauce and pop it in your mouth!! Wow, I thought this place was a beef noodle spot but it's actually a xiaolongbao spot too... The meat broth was rich, and the filling was packed full — so, so good.

5 shrimp shumai

The shumai came in a set of 5. A shame for two people since it's an odd number ㅠㅠㅠ Since the price is the same as xiaolongbao but these also have shrimp, they probably reduced the count by one. The combination of pork and shrimp was excellent, and the soft, rich flavor was outstanding.

One noodle bowl and two dim sum for two people — is it enough?

Look how packed it got haha. Honestly, for two people we had 1 noodle dish shared and 2 dim sum orders — and since the dim sum wasn't as huge as, say, wangmandu (giant dumplings), I figured eating 5-6 pieces per person wouldn't be that filling. I thought the noodles would digest fast too, so it'd just feel like we'd taken the edge off rather than being properly full — but surprisingly, we ended up quite full? I'd seen reviews saying the portions aren't small, and now I get what they meant, and sharing the beef noodles between two of us was a little bit of a shame too...ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ It was so good I wanted to eat the whole thing myself...ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

There were a lot of solo diners here too, and I think that's probably because the meal price is around ₩10,000 — even smack in the middle of Jongno, Seoul, that's a decent price given how expensive everything's gotten these days. But personally, I've been to 2-3 other famous beef noodle places around Jongno besides this one, and thanks to how springy the noodles are, this one was the tastiest....ㅎㅎㅎ

Keep this in mind for your next Jongno date!!!ㅎㅎ