Songpa Chinese restaurant for jjajangmyeon: Jjampponggwan Wirye

My younger sibling and their spouse always order delivery from a Chinese restaurant they call a real hidden gem, so I’d been curious for ages. This time, I was having dinner with my adorable nieces and nephews, so instead of delivery, we decided to go in and try it hot and fresh. I was so excited about enjoying freshly made food in a clean space, and the place was Jjampponggwan Wirye Branch!

A 6 PM visit: no wait and a look at the dining room

We arrived at 6 PM and walked straight in with no wait. The white-and-wood interior made the restaurant feel really airy and polished.

If you use the Alleyway Wirye commercial parking lot, just mention it when paying to receive 2 hours of free parking.

They offer unlimited free bowls of steamed rice, plus a fully stocked mini café with four drinks, including green grape iced tea.

Since we arrived around 6 PM, thankfully we could settle in without waiting. The red-brick accents and white wainscoted walls caught my eye the moment we entered. It was so clean, without any of that greasy feeling often associated with Chinese restaurants, that I thought we’d done very well bringing the kids.

There were window-side bar seats as well as spacious tables in the main dining room. Every table had tablet ordering, so ordering while looking through menu photos with the kids was incredibly easy.

Mild jjajangmyeon picked out with my nieces and nephews

For the kids, we chose two orders of jjajangmyeon (black bean noodles), selecting the “basic (deliciously mild flavor)” option on the tablet.

The noodles arrived buried under a generous blanket of jet-black, rich chunjang (fermented black bean paste) sauce. Bright green peas dotted across the top gave it just the right pop of color, and my mouth was watering already.

Every time I mixed it with my chopsticks, the sweet, nutty scent of jjajang hit my nose. The noodles were wonderfully springy, soaking up that thick sauce, and every slurp burst with sweet-and-savory umami.

Extra-large crab fried rice and jjamppong broth

We added ₩1,500 to make the crab fried rice extra-large, and it arrived piled up like a mountain on a huge plate. It came with jjamppong broth too.

Colorful vegetables such as carrot, corn, and scallion were stir-fried beautifully, coating every grain of rice in a golden color.

Taking big spoonfuls and mixing them into the rich jjajang sauce was fantastic: the subtle wok hei and nutty rice flavor became twice as good. Sipping the spicy, deeply flavored jjamppong broth in between kept the meal perfectly balanced, so it never felt heavy.

Medium tangsuyuk ordered with the sauce on the side

For our main dish, we ordered the medium tangsuyuk (sweet-and-sour pork) with the sauce on the side—perfect for those of us firmly on Team Dip!

The thick, pale pieces of freshly fried pork arrived steaming, topped with a neat mound of finely shredded onion and carrot. The presentation alone got a pass from me.

Dip one generously into the clear, transparent house sauce and take a bite: crunch! Under the thin, chewy coating, hot, juicy meat juices burst right out.

There wasn’t a hint of meatiness, and the crispy coating went so well with the tender grain of the pork that we happily finished every last piece.

Free rice and the after-meal mini café

One reason I really loved this place was the free steamed-rice benefit. We helped ourselves to as much warm rice as we wanted from the rice cooker in one corner, then mixed it thoroughly with the leftover jjajang sauce. It made us feel even more satisfyingly full.

After finishing our meal, we headed for the free mini-café corner near the entrance. This was honestly amazing: fill your cup right up with ice from the ice maker, then choose freely from no fewer than four fruit-drink dispensers—green grape, lemon, grapefruit, and maesil plum. I took a long sip of the sweet-tart green grape iced tea, and it felt like it completely washed away the richness of a Chinese meal in the coolest, freshest way. The perfect palate cleanser!

Q&A: visiting with children, parking, and hours

• Is the restaurant suitable for visiting with children? The restaurant is truly clean and comfortable, and it has kid-friendly choices such as mild jjajangmyeon and fluffy fried rice, so it is great for a family meal.
• How does parking registration work? Use the Alleyway Wirye commercial parking lot and mention it when you pay to receive 2 hours of free parking.
• Is the restaurant open 24 hours? Yes. As a specialty restaurant open 24 hours, it lets you enjoy rich, deeply flavored Chinese food anytime without worrying about the clock.

Perks to remember before your visit

It was written in big letters on the banner at the entrance: right after ordering, take part in either a receipt review or an event and you can get some nice perks. You can receive either five golden-fried gyoja mandu (pan-fried dumplings) or three sweet condensed-milk flower buns for free, making the table feel even more abundant. And once you’ve finished eating, don’t forget to load up a cup with ice from the in-store ice maker and take out one of the four iced-tea flavors or a coffee!