Hyehwa date-night bar with a QR-order welcome drink: Hyehwahwa

Dinner is always a bit of a puzzle on date days in Hyehwa. Whether you're catching a show in Daehangno or just wandering the streets, there are tons of cafes and restaurants — but when you actually want dinner and drinks with your boyfriend, you end up searching forever for where to go. This time, instead of a plain restaurant, I looked for a Hyehwa bar with good food to pair with drinks, and ended up at Hyehwahwa.

What we ordered was the straw-fire seared cauldron knife-cut octopus and the egg-loaded fire-grilled mentaiko pot rice. With drinks on top, we didn't have to hop to a separate bar afterward, which made it a solid Hyehwa date course. The octopus was springier and more tender than I expected — my top pick of the night! The mentaiko pot rice, on the other hand, was pretty ordinary to my taste. Here's our Hyehwa date review, one bite at a time.

Where to eat dinner on a Hyehwa date night?

Hyehwahwa is a Hyehwa restaurant-bar where you can handle dinner and drinks in one place. Hyehwa is such a great neighborhood for dates — great for catching a show in Daehangno, great for wandering the alleys and ducking into cafes. The tricky part is dinner! If you're a couple who wants dinner and drinks together like us, moving from a restaurant to a separate bar is kind of a hassle. So this time we looked for a place where we could enjoy both from the start.

That's how we landed on Hyehwahwa. Looking at the menu, instead of the usual bar snacks, what caught my eye were dishes made with straw-fire and open-flame cooking.

There were dishes using ingredients that pair well with drinks — octopus, mentaiko, yukhoe, gopchang — which seemed perfect for a dinner-plus-drinks night. Going through the menu with my boyfriend, we picked the straw-fire seared cauldron knife-cut octopus. And since eating only spicy food felt like it might leave something to be desired, we also ordered the egg-loaded fire-grilled mentaiko pot rice.

The Hyehwahwa daily welcome drink found on the QR ordering screen

Hyehwahwa uses table QR code ordering. It was nice being able to sit down and take our time looking through the menu before ordering. While ordering by QR, I noticed a fun little event.

It was the daily welcome drink. Apparently if you save Hyehwahwa on Naver Map, you get a welcome drink, so I tried it right away. They said it's a pre-meal drink made in-house at Hyehwahwa. That kind of thing makes you curious, right?

So my boyfriend and I tried it together, and honestly if you asked me "what does it taste like?" I couldn't give you an exact answer. It was a bit different from the drinks I usually have — but that's exactly what made it fun. A date doesn't have to involve something amazing to be memorable. Sipping something and going "wait, what is this?" together is its own kind of fun on a date.

Getting to try a pre-meal drink made in-house at Hyehwahwa before the food arrived felt like a nice little extra. Event details and conditions can change, so check the QR ordering screen when you visit.

Straw-fire seared cauldron knife-cut octopus: the right pick

The straw-fire seared cauldron knife-cut octopus at Hyehwahwa was hands-down my favorite dish of the night. The octopus was springy without being chewy, and the sauce wasn't overwhelmingly spicy. And then the octopus we'd been waiting for arrived.

With octopus dishes, the taste really depends on how it's cooked. Cook it even a little too long and it turns chewy, so you end up chewing forever — but Hyehwahwa's octopus wasn't like that at all.

You could tell it was springy just from picking it up with chopsticks, and eating it confirmed it — springy but not chewy, cooked exactly right. That was my favorite part. The sauce was good too. I'd worried "knife-cut octopus" might mean it'd be quite spicy, but it wasn't overwhelming for my taste at all. It had just enough kick to whet your appetite, perfect alongside a drink.

A bite of octopus, a sip of a drink, then more sauce-coated octopus, another sip. On a date where you want dinner and drinks together, this is exactly the kind of dish you want. Rather than just relentless heat, you get to enjoy the octopus's springy texture, which I liked even more. If you're looking for a Hyehwa restaurant-bar where the food matters as much as the drinks, I'd say try the octopus at Hyehwahwa.

Egg-loaded fire-grilled mentaiko pot rice: honestly just fine

The egg-loaded fire-grilled mentaiko pot rice at Hyehwahwa was fairly ordinary to my taste. That said, paired with the spicy octopus, it tones down the heat and makes for a hearty combo as a dinner. This pot rice was the other dish we ordered alongside the octopus.

Honestly, just from the name I had pretty high hopes for this one too. Egg and mentaiko is hard to mess up, and I figured it'd pair well with the spicy octopus. Eating them together was indeed good — a bite of pot rice between bites of octopus toned down the spice a bit, and having rice made dinner feel filling. But on its own, taste-wise, it was fairly ordinary to me.

Maybe it felt that way partly because the octopus was just so good in comparison. Still, an honest review like this helps when choosing what to order. If I go back to Hyehwahwa, I'd order the octopus again for sure, and pick a different fire-grilled dish for the second item. That said, if you need something mild and rice-based to go with spicy food, the mentaiko pot rice combo isn't bad either.

Dinner and drinks in one spot: Hyehwahwa as a Hyehwa date course

What I noticed on this Hyehwa date with my boyfriend is that Hyehwahwa is less a place you just eat and leave, and more somewhere to linger over food while having a drink.

On a date, atmosphere matters, but good food is what really puts you in a good mood. We drank with the octopus as our main pairing and had bites of mentaiko pot rice in between, which made for a fairly hearty dinner. Not having to eat somewhere first and then move to a separate bar was also a plus. This would work well after catching a show in Daehangno, or as the dinner leg following a cafe date in Hyehwa.

Above all, it felt better suited to couples who want proper cooked dishes with their drinks rather than typical pojangmacha (street tent bar) snacks. Ordering easily by QR, trying the welcome drink, and chatting with my boyfriend over good food in front of us — for us, it turned out to be a pretty good Hyehwa date course.

Looking for a Hyehwa restaurant-bar? The octopus is worth a repeat

Hyehwa has plenty of good restaurants and plenty of bars, which can actually make it harder to decide where to go on a date. Hyehwahwa, where we went this time, seems like a great fit for anyone looking for a Hyehwa restaurant-bar where you can enjoy dinner and drinks at once.

What stuck with me most was definitely the straw-fire seared cauldron knife-cut octopus. It was springy without being chewy, cooked just right, and the sauce wasn't overly spicy, making it a great pairing with drinks. The egg-loaded fire-grilled mentaiko pot rice was fairly ordinary for me personally, but eating it alongside the octopus made for a hearty meal.

Getting to try the unexpected daily welcome drink also made it more fun than just eating a plain meal and leaving. If I had to sum up this Hyehwa date with my boyfriend in one line, it'd be:

"A great spot for octopus and a drink when you want dinner and a bar night in Hyehwa, all in one place."

If I go back on another Hyehwa date, I'll definitely order the octopus again. And next time, I want to pick one of the other straw-fired dishes I didn't get to try and have a drink with that.