Jung-gu Chinese restaurant for garlic scape fried rice: Huhugwan

Today I went to a Chinese restaurant right in front of City Hall Station — Huhugwan!

This week felt like it was crawling by, every day dragging on and on..ㅠ When that happens, I sometimes use the trick of drinking after work and just deleting the next day..ㅋㅋ So on Thursday after work, we got to talking about mala tang and heard Huhugwan was known for its mala hot pot, so my coworker and I headed over!!

Where is Huhugwan, and what is the second floor like?

Huhugwan is right in front of Exit 10 of City Hall Station, so whether you work nearby or not, it's a great meeting spot near the station. We work near Seoul Station, so it took about a 10-minute walk after work to get there.

Huhugwan is on the 2nd floor and decorated in a Chinese style, as you can see in the photos above. They have plenty of lunch options too, and there's even a single-seat bar. Since eating alone is common these days, I thought it looked like a nice place to eat quietly by yourself too!!

How ordering works: table QR code at Huhugwan

Once you're seated, you can browse the menu and order through the QR code at each table!! We already knew what we wanted, but we read through the whole menu again just in case we'd missed something haha.

Everyone should read through the menu closely~~ Being a Chinese restaurant, they sell a lot of gaoliang liquor too, and the yeonmaek (Yantai gaoliangju + beer) combo was tempting, but this office slave who had to work the next day..ㅠ held back.

Free fried dumplings from the Naver review event

While waiting for our order, we found out they were running a Naver review event, so we took part. They told us the pan-fried shrimp toast (mianbaoxia) was sold out that day, so we could choose between fried dumplings or spring rolls — we went with the dumplings~

Mala hot pot 32,000 won and garlic scape fried rice 11,000 won

What we ordered was

• Mala hot pot ₩32,000
• Garlic scape fried rice ₩11,000
• Naver review event – free fried dumplings

That's what we ordered~ We came because we fell for the visual of the mala hot pot in photos, and just like it promised, it came out incredibly generous! The two of us ate as much as we could but still had leftovers.. such a waste.ㅠㅠ Whenever the broth ran low, they kept refilling it, so we could enjoy the hot pot all the way to the end!

Garlic scape fried rice (마늘쫑차오판) is basically fried rice with garlic scapes, but made Chinese-style so the rice grains stayed separate and fluffy with a nice smoky wok-hei flavor. Really delicious~ I want to praise myself for ordering mala hot pot and this fried rice together~~ Such a great combo👍👍

The free dumplings from the review event also came drizzled with sauce, so we got to enjoy a range of flavors. I liked that they didn't skimp just because it was a freebie!

And so we kept drinking somaek (soju + beer) and getting more and more tipsy...ㅎ We ended up going through 3 bottles of soju and 3 bottles of beer..

Window seats with a street view

We sat by the window and drank while looking out at the now-cool post-summer weather. The open view was really nice. Aside from the bar seats, most of the seats face outward toward the street. It's a street view, but I like this kind of open space.

And so Thursday night wrapped up, and just as I expected, Friday got erased by the hangover.. I don't know whether to laugh or cry...ㅎㅎ

Anyway! Huhugwan near City Hall Station sells all kinds of Chinese dishes besides mala hot pot, so I think I'll come back again~ If you're in the area, I recommend giving it a visit!!

Huhugwan visitor info: hours, closing days, address

• Address: 2F, 2 Seosomun-ro 11-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Hours: 11:00 AM – 11:00 PM (last order 10:30 PM)
• Closed: Every Saturday and Sunday