Hongdae Chinese spot for minari beef brisket jjamppong: Seodamheon

Seodamheon serves up an unusual mix of Korean and Chinese food, right down to its doksakmyeon (hand-cut knife noodles) — quite a unique place.

Where is Seodamheon Hongdae Main Branch, and what are its hours?

• Address: 40-3 Yeonhui-ro 1-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea, 1F Seodamheon
• Hours: Daily 11:00-21:15
• Break time: 16:00-17:00
• Parking: Not available

I was looking for somewhere to eat in Hongdae and stumbled on a place that felt a bit different from your usual Chinese restaurant.

It's billed as a Korean-Chinese fusion spot, and even the menu names were pretty unusual. Samjjamyeon combines doenjang yuni-jjajang (soybean paste black bean sauce) with stir-fried jjamppong, and there's also a jjamppong with minari (water dropwort) and beef brisket — I was curious what these could possibly taste like, so I went to check it out. The place I visited was Seodamheon Hongdae Main Branch, located between Hongik University Station and Yeonnam-dong.

It's an easy walk from Exit 3 of Hongik University Station, so it'd work well as a meeting spot too. I parked over in Yeonnam-dong and walked over slowly.

Inside Seodamheon: a Chinese restaurant that feels like a Korean dining room

The first thing that caught my eye at Seodamheon wasn't the food — it was the atmosphere.

You'd usually picture a Chinese restaurant in Hongdae as either sleek and modern or decked out in Chinese-style decor, but Seodamheon felt calm and warm, almost like walking into a Korean restaurant. The exterior has a distinctly Korean feel, and the wood-toned interior kept the whole space comfortable.

That said, the mood was livelier than I expected. There were quite a few foreign customers when I visited, plus tables of friends and couples on dates. Rather than a quiet spot where you just eat and leave, there was a lively buzz of people coming and going that actually suited Hongdae well.

So if you're the type who cares about the space and not just the food when hunting for good restaurants in Yeonnam-dong, this vibe would probably appeal to you.

What comes with Seodamheon's 33,000 won set for two?

That day at Seodamheon we ordered the ₩33,000 set for two (tangsuyuk + samjjamyeon) plus the ₩12,000 minari beef brisket jjamppong.

I was curious about the name samjjamyeon from the start, and once the dish arrived, it made sense right away. Samjjamyeon isn't just jjajangmyeon and jjamppong served separately — it's doenjang yuni-jjajang and stir-fried jjamppong served together on one plate of noodles.

And instead of regular Chinese-style noodles, it uses doksakmyeon, one of Seodamheon's signatures. Doksakmyeon is made by shaving the dough with a knife, so the thickness and shape of each strand varies slightly. You could tell the difference the moment you picked it up with chopsticks — the noodles themselves were flat and thick, and they held onto the sauce nicely.

Samjjamyeon taste: doenjang yuni-jjajang and flame-fried jjamppong in one bowl

I tried the jjajang side first, and it tasted a bit heavier than regular jjajangmyeon. The finely minced meat typical of yuni-jjajang combined with the rich chunjang (black bean paste) flavor for quite a deep savoriness.

Then the doenjang adds a nutty, toasty note to the familiar jjajang flavor. I kept thinking 'wait, this has doenjang in it?' but the more I ate, the more it worked.

The other side is stir-fried jjamppong, with a much stronger smoky wok-hei and spicy kick. Having the rich, slightly sweet jjajang and the spicy, salty stir-fried jjamppong together in one bowl of noodles was definitely unusual.

The doksakmyeon paired especially well with the sauce. If it had been thin, smooth regular noodles, the sauce might have felt a bit overpowering, but the thick, chewy doksakmyeon let the seasoning cling on while adding a satisfying bite. Having explored plenty of restaurants around Hongik University Station, this was the first time I'd had noodles quite like this — genuinely fun to eat.

What does Seodamheon's cotton-ball tangsuyuk look like?

One of the most memorable dishes that day was the tangsuyuk. Even the name is different from regular tangsuyuk — cotton-ball tangsuyuk.

It's made by shaping fresh sirloin into round, fluffy balls like cotton before frying. When it first arrived, I thought, 'wait, is this really tangsuyuk?' — the look alone was that unfamiliar. You usually picture tangsuyuk as long strips of fried meat, but here it comes in round pieces you pick up one at a time, which was fun.

The outside was fried crisp while the inside kept the texture of fresh sirloin, which felt quite different from the usual thin-cut tangsuyuk. What I liked most was that it wasn't a 'dish you feel like you've had before.' Between the samjjamyeon and the cotton-ball tangsuyuk, the menu felt like something you could only really experience at Seodamheon — genuinely interesting.

If you're looking for restaurants in Yeonnam-dong and want something new rather than your usual order, this would suit you well.

Why the 12,000 won minari beef brisket jjamppong was the best dish

We also tried the minari beef brisket jjamppong (₩12,000) we'd ordered extra. As the name suggests, it's loaded with beef brisket and minari.

The broth had that spicy, rich jjamppong flavor you'd expect, but with the fragrance of minari layered in, the finish was a bit cleaner.

The savory, rich flavor from the beef brisket paired really well with the minari's aroma. If it had been a jjamppong loaded with just meat, the broth might have felt a bit heavy, but the minari kept cutting through and freshening it up, which kept me reaching for another spoonful.

The noodles were doksakmyeon too, and their chewy texture really came through even mixed into the broth. My husband and I both agreed this was the tastiest dish, haha.

Is Seodamheon worth it when ordinary Chinese restaurants feel too familiar?

This was exactly why I went to Seodamheon in the first place. Reading the description 'Korean-Chinese fusion,' I was really curious what kind of food it would turn out to be.

Having eaten it myself, it wasn't just a Chinese dish with one Korean ingredient tossed in — dishes like doenjang yuni-jjajang, minari beef brisket jjamppong, doksakmyeon, and cotton-ball tangsuyuk felt genuinely reimagined. So among restaurants near Hongik University Station, this is the place that'll come to mind when you want something other than plain jjajangmyeon or jjamppong!

Yeonnam-dong has so many good restaurants that I'm always hunting for somewhere new whenever I make plans with friends, and if you're after a spot with real character among Yeonnam-dong restaurants, Seodamheon is a pretty fun option. It's easy to get to from Hongik University Station, has the comfortable feel of a Korean restaurant, and serves genuinely unique fusion Chinese food — it worked great for both a date and a meal with friends.

Most of all, since the dishes we had that day were so different from the Chinese food I usually know, I spent the whole meal thinking 'what is this?' and enjoying tasting my way through each one.