Baby-friendly Dongdaemun chicken hot pot with raw octopus: Sunhuine

Toddling along ๑◕‿‿◕๑

The dak hanmari (whole chicken hot pot) alley near Dongdaemun Market is famous. Dak hanmari is a nostalgic dish, and no matter when you eat it, it leaves you warm and full afterward. I stopped by Sunhuine Bindaetteok Dak Hanmari Dongdaemun, a lunch spot on that alley, with my baby — she gnawed on a chicken leg while I got my strength up with raw octopus tangtangi. A proper recharge day.

Where is Sunhuine Bindaetteok Dak Hanmari Dongdaemun, and when is it open?

Sunhuine Bindaetteok Dak Hanmari Dongdaemun is on the 1st and 2nd floors at 20 Jongno40ga-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul. It's open Monday through Saturday from 10:30 to 22:30, closed on Sundays.

• 📍20 Jongno40ga-gil, 1st & 2nd floor, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• ⏰Mon–Sat 10:30–22:30 (closed Sundays)
• 🚘Nearby public parking lot
• ✨A Dongdaemun dak hanmari lunch spot serving the chicken hot pot version of the famous Gwangjang Market bindaetteok shop
• 👼🏻Baby-friendly / high chairs available / stroller access

A walk from Dongmyo Market to the toy alley before lunch

I took my baby to Dongmyo Market for the first time and walked all the way to the toy alley market. The toy market has felt noticeably livelier lately — packed with both locals and tourists. When I met my 7-year-old niece over Chuseok, I bought her some kind of wax or slime toy — honestly the names are hard to even remember. Later, camping with my niece's family, she picked out the same kind of thing at a convenience store and was thrilled.

By then Hajun had drifted off to sleep, and we made it to Dongdaemun Station. I snapped a photo of him sleeping in front of Heunginjimun Gate. I used to spend a lot of time going in and out of the Dongdaemun notions market back in the day, so coming back here with my baby brought a rush of old memories.

Since the baby was in a deep sleep, I hurried along and stumbled onto a café near Jongno 5-ga — a gelato specialty shop where I ordered a latte, and it was pretty good. Especially since there's no other café with this kind of vibe in the area, it had real charm.

More Dongdaemun regulars than tourists at Sunhuine

When the baby woke up, we headed to Sunhuine Bindaetteok Dak Hanmari Dongdaemun for lunch. Being on the dak hanmari alley, there are plenty of chicken hot pot restaurants around, but this one is more of a local spot, frequented especially by Dongdaemun Market vendors. So it draws true Dongdaemun locals and regulars more than tourists.

Dak hanmari after a good nap! Watching live octopus wriggle in the tank, 17-month-old Hajun learns something new about the world today, too.

Since the dak hanmari alley sits right next to Gwangjang Market, when you visit the Sunhuine Bindaetteok dak hanmari location, you can order not just the chicken hot pot but also yukhoe tangtangi (raw beef tartare), octopus tangtangi, and bindaetteok (mung bean pancake). The hall is spacious enough for group reservations. Call ahead and you can be seated without any wait.

Raw octopus tangtangi: a restorative starter

I've already eaten countless bindaetteok in Jongno, so now that I'm a mom, I decided to take care of myself with octopus tangtangi instead. The octopus is caught live straight from the tank, so it's about as fresh and wriggly as it gets. Between all the outings with my baby these days, I barely have time to exercise, so I try to at least eat well.

If you visit Sunhuine Bindaetteok Dak Hanmari, a well-known Dongdaemun Market Korean restaurant, the basic side dishes that come with it are solid and satisfying. Since dak hanmari restaurants are traditionally eaten dipped in a cabbage-and-chive sauce, the basic sides alone make for a complete meal.

What goes into the dak hanmari broth at Sunhuine

Dak hanmari is a dish I especially ate a lot of in winter. It turns out Seoul is actually the birthplace of this dish, so it's not easy to find in other regions. The original dak hanmari restaurants around Dongdaemun have kept the same flavor for decades. The broth in particular is delicious. And the chicken here is very fresh — domestic chicken, and if you look at the bones, a reddish tinge is proof of freshness. It's a really good place to bring kids and feed them without worry.

It's packed with napa cabbage, rice cake sticks, shiitake mushrooms, green onion, and potato. It's meant for two, but if two adults are eating heartily, you could add half a chicken more. I ate the two-person portion with my 17-month-old. And since the broth here is the real deal, adding knife-cut noodles goes really well with it too.

What it was like eating here with a 17-month-old

At this age, my little one can grip a chicken leg and gnaw at it pretty well, and today she dug in confidently. Sunhuine Bindaetteok Dak Hanmari is a baby-friendly restaurant, so I could relax and enjoy the meal. And babies tend to love this style of dish anyway, similar to chicken gomtang or samgyetang. You don't even need to add rice separately since the potato and rice cake in the pot already fill in for carbs.

When you visit a dak hanmari restaurant, the cabbage and chive side tossed in house-made sauce is always the best part. I've been eating this for over 10 years now. It's a dish that carries that much history, and eating it with my baby felt strangely moving.

Is dak hanmari for two worth 33,000 won?

If you tried to buy a whole chicken and vegetables at home and boil it yourself, you'd easily spend over ₩20,000, so ₩33,000 for this meal is genuinely reasonable — especially good value as a single meal out.

I meant to head straight home with my little one, but with a full belly and a long walk, we ended up all the way at Seoul City Hall Plaza. Along the way, Hajun couldn't pass a single construction site without erupting into "wow~wow~" at every giant machine. Today's outing went from Dongmyo Market to Dongdaemun's Heunginjimun Gate to the dak hanmari alley of Dongdaemun Market to Gwangjang Market to Seoul City Hall — a long stroll with my baby.