After-work date izakaya in Hoegi: mentaiko butter & yakisoba, Hamaru

One weekday evening after work, my boyfriend and I were looking for somewhere near Hoegi Station for a good dinner and a drink, and we ended up at Hamaru Hoegi, which has been a hot atmosphere spot on social media lately!

It always shows up on lists of recommended izakayas (Japanese-style pubs) near Kyung Hee University, with that real Japanese back-alley feel, so my expectations were sky high before we even went haha. From teppan (iron griddle) dishes to grilled items with a faint charcoal aroma, the food quality was amazing and we kept gasping the whole time. Let me get right into the full review~ 💨

Where is Hamaru Hoegi, and what are its opening hours?

Hamaru Hoegi is at 11 Gyeonghui-daero 1-gil, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, on the 1st floor, and it's open 17:00–02:00 Sunday to Thursday and 17:00–03:00 Friday and Saturday. From Hoegi Station Exit 1, walk about 10 minutes toward Kyung Hee University and you'll find it tucked inside the eating street near Starbucks Kyung Hee Samgeori!

Hamaru Hoegi's Tokyo late-night diner atmosphere and seating

Hamaru Hoegi has a wood-tone interior with a bar table, regular tables, slightly partitioned seats and outdoor seating. The moment we stepped inside, the cozy wood tones welcomed us! There was a bar table that's great for chatting, comfortable regular tables, and cozy seats separated by little partitions!

There's also outdoor seating with a street-stall feel, perfect for sipping a beer in the breeze when the weather is cool!

The seats aren't crammed together either. There's plenty of space, so we didn't worry about the next table and could chat comfortably. The lighting is softly dim, so selfies come out pretty too, and the mood is full marks… 💡 Cute Crayon Shin-chan figures sit here and there on the shelves, with Japanese-style posters and bottles on display, so it really felt like walking into a local izakaya on a trip to Japan.

Teppan dishes we ordered at Hamaru Hoegi, with prices

This day at Hamaru Hoegi we ordered the handmade-batter seafood okonomiyaki (savory Japanese pancake) for ₩17,000, seafood yakisoba (stir-fried noodles) for ₩16,000, and mentaiko butter-grill (grilled spicy pollock roe) for ₩14,000, plus 2 bottles of Terra beer for ₩10,000 and 1 can of cola for ₩2,000. There were so many tasty Japanese dishes on the menu that my eyes nearly spun haha. After much agonizing, we went with a teppan combo!

• Handmade-batter seafood okonomiyaki: ₩17,000
• Seafood yakisoba: ₩16,000
• Mentaiko butter-grill: ₩14,000
• Terra beer (2 bottles): ₩10,000
• Cola (1 can): ₩2,000

Ice-cold Terra bottled beer after work, plus fizzy cola, all set! Now it's time to meet the main dishes 🍻

Handmade-batter seafood okonomiyaki topped with a Shiro drawing 🐙

The handmade-batter seafood okonomiyaki (₩17,000), said to be Hamaru Hoegi's signature, comes with Shiro's face (the white puppy from Crayon Shin-chan) drawn in mayonnaise. However, I hear the drawing doesn't come if you add cheese, so if you want to see it, I recommend ordering the basic version first! The second it arrived, my boyfriend and I yelled out loud, "Omg, so cute!!" 🥺 They had drawn the cutest little Shiro face in mayo on top of the okonomiyaki hahaha

After a million photos, I sprinkled katsuobushi (bonito flakes) on top and took a big bite. Maybe because the batter is handmade, there was no grassy cabbage taste or toughness at all. It was crispy outside and moist inside, almost like a potato pancake, and it melted away so softly! Plump squid and shrimp pieces were generous inside too, and the beer just kept going down 👏

Sweet, salty and smoky: Hamaru's seafood yakisoba 🍝

Hamaru Hoegi's seafood yakisoba (₩16,000) is noodles, bean sprouts, squid and shrimp stir-fried into a mountain on a big plate and topped with a runny fried egg. The next dish to arrive was the star of teppan cooking, the seafood yakisoba!

Noodles, bean sprouts, squid and shrimp came stir-fried in a heap on a huge plate, with an appetizing runny fried egg on top. I popped the yolk, mixed it through the noodles and slurped away. The special sauce is salty-sweet and savory with a lovely smoky flavor soaked in, and I couldn't put my chopsticks down. The noodles were springy, with crunchy bean sprouts adding texture, so it worked as both a filling meal and the best bar snack!

An izakaya essential: rich, salty grilled mentaiko with butter 🥒

Hamaru Hoegi's mentaiko butter-grill (₩14,000) is thick pollock roe grilled in butter, served with thinly sliced cucumber, mayonnaise and fresh wasabi. This was the last thing we ordered!

Thick roe grilled golden and nutty in butter comes neatly set out with crunchy thin-sliced cucumber, mayo and fresh wasabi. Put a piece of buttery roe on a cucumber slice, dip it in plenty of mayo, add a little fresh wasabi and take it in one big bite… the saltiness of the roe, the richness of the butter and the coolness of the cucumber come together and leave your mouth feeling super clean, you know? A perfect combo to nibble with cold beer even when you're full 👍

Is Hamaru Hoegi worth another after-work date?

The staff were kind and every dish we ordered was delicious with no misses, so my boyfriend and I promised each other we'd definitely come back soon! 🤍 If you're looking for a place with a nice mood and tasty snacks near Hoegi Station or Kyung Hee University, do stop by Hamaru Hoegi as your Kyung Hee izakaya! 🌸