Hyehwa Station bar for cheese bomb kimchi fried rice: Hyehwahwa

Where is Hyehwahwa and what are its hours?

Hyehwahwa is a 2-3 minute walk from Exit 4 of Hyehwa Station. It's open Tue-Sun 17:00-01:00, last order at 00:00, closed Mondays.

Tue-Sun 17:00-01:00 / Last order 00:00 / Closed Mondays

Finding the entrance to Hyehwahwa

I wandered around quite a bit looking for it. Find this photo studio, walk inside, and you'll see a building with a red sign reading Hyehwahwa. It's on the 2nd floor, so head up the stairs.

There are little bundles of straw out front — kind of cute haha.

Inside Hyehwahwa and the window bar table

Let's open the door and go in. The interior felt unique right away — there's stone laid on the floor, which was fun and unexpected haha.

Looks like they keep a waiting list when there's a line. There are disposable aprons by the entrance too, so grab one if you need it.

I'd made a Naver reservation and was seated at the window bar table. It had a hanok kind of feel, and the view outside the window was really lovely and atmospheric.

Each seat comes with utensils and napkins, and there's a QR code on the napkin holder — you scan it with your phone camera to access the ordering site.

There were small plates and paper cups too. Once I sat down, they brought out water along with tofu and white kimchi.

The tofu came drizzled with sesame oil, savory and delicious. Usually it comes with seasoned stir-fried kimchi, so getting white kimchi felt refreshingly different.

Hyehwahwa's menu and how to order by QR code

Scanning the QR code brings up the menu, and you can add whatever you want and place your order.

Here's what I ordered:

• Daily welcome drink
• Straw-fire cauldron knife octopus
• Cheese bomb beef belly kimchi fried rice
• Review event ice cream
• Saero

How does the straw-fire cauldron knife octopus taste?

The Saero and the knife octopus came out first. When they opened the cauldron lid, a whole octopus was sitting inside. This is happiness🙂

They also gave us the welcome drink — a fruit soju that changes daily. That day it was lemon soju.

Ahh~~ the view was gorgeous and the presentation was great too.

Looking delicious is one thing, but I was really excited to taste it. All you see is cabbage and octopus, but there's kalguksu (knife-cut noodles) hidden underneath.

The staff told us to cut the octopus and mix it with the noodles below, so I picked up a piece first. The octopus was seriously huge!!

Cut the octopus, mixed it thoroughly with the noodles, and got ready to eat.

Ate the noodles and octopus together — nom. Strong smoky char, spicy, delicious. The octopus was plump and tender, and it paired well with the chewy kalguksu noodles.

Cheese bomb beef belly kimchi fried rice: is it really a cheese bomb?

The cheese bomb woo-samgyeop (beef belly) kimchi fried rice came out next. I was curious whether it would really be a cheese bomb! You pour the cheese over the fried rice yourself.

It ended up piled on one side, so the presentation was a bit underwhelming. But there really was a ton of cheese.

So, what does it taste like!!!

My phone battery died so I moved tables to charge it haha, switched to a wall-view seat. Now let's really dig in.

Took a spoonful of cheese and fried rice together — wait, this is genuinely delicious?? The cheese is insanely good ㅠㅠ chewy, savory, smooth — I almost asked what brand of mozzarella they use. The beef belly was tender and tasty. The kimchi fried rice was well-fried, spicy and salty.

When it started feeling a bit too intense, a bite of the sesame-oil tofu helped.

Should you order the octopus and kimchi fried rice together?

Both dishes come in red sauce, so they overlap and end up spicy and intense — I probably should have ordered something different for the second dish, but what can you do when you want both😂 My stomach got a bit spicy, but I wasn't lonely with the cheese and beef belly by my side.

There was octopus in there too. It wasn't easy to cut, so I just ate all three pieces at once — honestly, even better that way. The plump octopus burst with juice in my mouth. Sorry, octopus... but you were delicious.

The kimchi is cut into fairly big pieces, so it might not be for everyone, but I liked it!! Smaller pieces might work better though.

Ordered Saero to help cut through the spice.

Let's have a drink...

The white kimchi was tangy and refreshing whenever I had a bite in between.

Why extra kalguksu noodles are a must at Hyehwahwa

The default amount of kalguksu noodles felt a bit small, so I added extra noodles — and the portion was seriously huge. Adding noodles seems perfect if you're two people sharing the octopus!

Mixed everything together thoroughly. Because there was so much, mixing took a while haha. Once fully mixed, ate it together with the octopus. Also worked through the cabbage, and topped more of the kimchi fried rice with cheese.

I was seated at the kitchen-front bar table, so I could watch the owner cooking. It must be hot standing in front of the fire, and it was impressive watching them work the wok so energetically. It looked like they were handling all the cooking alone.

Kept eating my way through the octopus.

The free review-event ice cream

I also ordered the review-event ice cream — the choco-matcha ice. It's actually sold for ₩8,000, but with the review event, it's completely free!! They checked that I'd written the review and then brought it out.

This was genuinely delicious. The chocolate ice cream has a slightly dense texture and the matcha ice cream has a slightly crumbly texture, and together they oddly work really well. I personally prefer chocolate, but there was more matcha than chocolate, which was a bit of a letdown ㅠㅠ Still, I enjoyed it a lot.

Scraped the bowl clean. Thought about ordering another one but held back haha. Ate well again today. After we finished, they cleared the table right away.

By the time we left it was pitch dark outside, so I took photos of the table I was sitting at and the one from earlier. Snuck a few shots of the rest of the hall too. The interior was a nice, just-right size, and customers kept coming in the whole time.

Final verdict on Hyehwahwa

It's a bar with great atmosphere, clean interiors, and a lot of character — plus the food is genuinely good. It seemed like a great spot for a date or a group gathering; I actually saw a lot of couples there. If you're near Hyehwa Station looking for a Korean restaurant with tasty drinking snacks and good vibes, I'd recommend Hyehwahwa👍