Chuncheon mak guksu restaurant full on a weekday night: Hyeondae Memil

Where is Hyeondae Memil in Chuncheon, and what are its hours?

Hyeondae Memil is on the 1st floor at 29-1 Namchuncheon-ro 5beon-gil, Chuncheon, Gangwon, South Korea, open daily from 11:00 to 20:30.

Mak guksu (buckwheat noodles) is one of those dishes you feel like you have to eat at least once when you're in Chuncheon. There are so many mak guksu places around that it gets hard to choose, so I found myself looking for somewhere that goes beyond just one familiar bowl of noodles and lets you enjoy buckwheat dishes in a different way.

There are seats out front too. Good spot to eat outside on a nice day.

Walking in, the clean, tidy atmosphere caught my eye first. It felt pretty different from the typical mak guksu place I had in mind, which made a strong impression on my first visit.

What is Hyeondae Memil like inside?

Overall I'd call it casual but clean. A lot of people picture an old-school, worn-in restaurant when they think of mak guksu, but Hyeondae Memil didn't match that image at all. The interior is pretty and spacious, giving off a real travel-trip mood — I liked that haha.

There's a menu board right out front~

As soon as I sat down at my table, they set out cold water.

Three dishes ordered at Hyeondae Memil

Here's the Hyeondae Memil menu — full of dishes that look delicious. I ordered three main dishes: bibim mak guksu, buckwheat onsu jjolmyeon, and truffle potato pancake!

Everything I ordered showed up at once. The visuals alone looked delicious. You know the saying that food which looks good also tastes good? True here too, as you'd expect from a well-loved spot!

The look of everything was so different from a typical mak guksu place that I got curious about how each one would taste. I couldn't wait to dig in!

Delicious smells drifted over while I was taking photos. There were already a lot of people when I walked in, and even though it was a weekday evening, the place kept filling up until it was almost completely full. You'll understand why once you taste it :)

After taking plenty of photos at Hyeondae Memil in Chuncheon, I also shot some video to capture the details.

I love kimchi, and the geotjeori (fresh cabbage kimchi) went really well with both the mak guksu and the potato pancake 👍

Warm buckwheat sujebi, the hot dish on the table

The first dish I want to introduce is the buckwheat onsu jjolmyeon (warm buckwheat dumpling soup). Mak guksu is strongly associated with being eaten cold and refreshing, so it was fun that this dish lets you enjoy buckwheat the opposite way, with warm broth.

When it arrived, the broth, dumplings and vegetables were all served together, and it looked warm and hearty at a glance. The buckwheat dumplings have a noticeably different texture from regular flour dumplings — that's the highlight! Fishing out a dumpling that had warmed through in the broth gave a chewy bite, and paired with the beef brisket broth, it delivered a completely different flavor direction from the bibim mak guksu.

Alternating spoonfuls of the onsu jjolmyeon while eating the mak guksu made me feel like I'd picked the right combination. Cold bibim mak guksu paired with a warm soup dish — the flavors stayed interesting throughout the whole meal, never one-note.

Bibim mak guksu: cold buckwheat noodles in spicy sauce

The first dish I ordered at Hyeondae Memil was the bibim mak guksu. I think the appeal of mak guksu lies in the combination of the plain, clean flavor of the buckwheat noodles with the seasoning, and since the bibim mak guksu came out with the sauce and toppings arranged right over the noodles, it looked pretty appetizing from the moment it arrived.

Once you toss the noodles evenly with the sauce, the red seasoning coats the noodles all over and turns into something that looks great to eat.

Eating it, you get both the distinctive texture of the buckwheat noodles and the flavor of the sauce together, which makes it a solid go-to main dish!

The truffle potato pancake that stood out most

The dish I personally found most fun in this meal was the truffle potato pancake. When you hear 'potato pancake' you usually picture grated potato fried up crisp, but Hyeondae Memil adds truffle flavor to the mix here.

It came out golden and crispy-looking, plated with a dipping sauce on the side, which made it a good-looking dish to photograph too.

Who will enjoy Hyeondae Memil in Chuncheon?

I'd recommend this to anyone who wants mak guksu but feels like a plain single bowl isn't quite enough. Being able to enjoy the sweet-and-tangy sauce of the bibim mak guksu, the hearty warm broth of the buckwheat onsu jjolmyeon, and the crispy, savory truffle potato pancake all in one sitting was really satisfying.

In the end, what I took away from this visit to Hyeondae Memil in Chuncheon is that it builds on the familiar Chuncheon mak guksu while also letting you enjoy a range of buckwheat dishes and unique side dishes together — very satisfying overall!