Gangseo Seoul Japanese restaurant for mazesoba: Hekbap Kkachisan

I visited Hekbap Kkachisan Branch (핵밥 까치산점). It is one of the restaurants I absolutely adore. I honestly think everything here is delicious. You can really see the craftsmanship.

Hekbap Kkachisan Branch entrance and how to enjoy it

This is what the entrance looks like. It displayed the phrase “homestyle rice bowl and ramen specialist,” along with visuals of the signature menu items. Every single one looks sooo good.

There was a guide on how to eat everything deliciously. Maybe it is a guideline for first-timers? The key point when eating Hekbap’s donbap (rice bowls) is not to mix it before you eat: scoop up some rice first, then place the topping on top. That is Hekbap’s secret to enjoying its rice bowls, I guess. Rather than mixing, scoop it up with a spoon so you can taste each ingredient.

There was also a guide for enjoying soba. Crack the egg, then mix the noodles with all the toppings. After eating about half, add kelp vinegar to taste—it really brings the flavor and aroma alive. This cannot be emphasized enough.

Basic table setting and the Hekbap menu

The basic setup included disposable paper cups, individually wrapped sanitary cutlery, tissues, wet wipes, and shichimi spice—fully stocked!

Here is the Hekbap menu. I can see the pork jowl rice bowl that I love so much—₩11,900. Cold soba always sounds good too, at ₩10,000. Zaru soba is also ₩10,000. Tonkatsu curry rice bowl, needless to say, is a dish that simply cannot be bad; it is ₩13,900. I was especially craving mazesoba today, so I ordered it. ₩11,900.

I was craving spicy buta donburi too. I had tried the pork jowl rice bowl last time, so today I went for the new spicy buta donburi. There were set meals too, at ₩14,900 and ₩13,900 respectively.

The meat-loaded rice bowl set comes with a rice bowl, udon, and karaage (Japanese fried chicken), among other things. It is a hearty lineup at a reasonable ₩13,900.

There were also salmon rice bowls and soy-marinated shrimp rice bowls for people who love salmon or shrimp.

This place does ramen well too. From tonkotsu ramen to karai ramen and miso ramen, every bowl looked appetizing. Prices are in the ₩11,000 range, so they are not burdensome either.

The sets with fried chicken, such as the tonkotsu ramen fried-chicken set and karai ramen fried-chicken set, also looked like good-value combinations.

You can customize the various set meals to some extent through the options, so there are lots of combinations to enjoy.

The spicy Fukuoka udon made me curious. It had generous toppings, and you could add tonkatsu or fried chicken and enjoy it as a set meal too.

There were mazesoba and cold soba as well, plus sides such as mini tonkatsu, mini okonomiyaki, and potato croquettes. The potato croquettes are delicious. Highly recommended.

For drinks, there were Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite, and more. I spotted a Shine Muscat ade—what an impossible-to-resist look ㅠㅠ

Hekbap’s textbook delicious spice: spicy buta donburi and spicy Western-style giant pork cutlet both had seriously impressive visuals. Spicy grilled-meat rice bowl cooked over direct flame? Cannot resist that. Ordered immediately.

Smoky spicy buta donburi

This is hard to resist, right? Spicy buta donburi. It had a lovely smoky char, delicious medium heat, and even a subtle, refined sweetness. Sweet and spicy—how could I resist?

This is the table spread.

The seaweed soup was delicious too. The salad was perfectly fine.

Even the basic sides were substantial: cubed kimchi, pickled radish, and chewy cheese-filled rice cakes.

Mazesoba with great balance even simply mixed

Why is the mazesoba here so good?! It was way better than I expected. Usually, after about half a bowl, I start relying on kelp vinegar, but this one was so delicious just mixed as is that kelp vinegar did not even cross my mind until I had eaten around 80 percent. Then I got curious about what would happen if I added it, so I did. But even simply mixed, the flavor balance is absolutely perfect and seriously delicious... I am thinking about it again already ㅠㅠ

Here come the potato croquettes. For Hekbap sides, I highly recommend the potato croquettes!

The kelp vinegar was in excellent condition too.

The mazesoba is insanely good ㅠㅠ Order it twice. No, order it three times.

Hekbap was delicious. The Kkachisan Branch is always delicious. Here is the video. This is a restaurant I need to visit regularly. Highly recommended, haha.