Hongdae chicken feet restaurant with free fried chicken skin

It was Friday and my friend and I spent ages deciding what to eat in Hongdae before landing on our shared soul food: chicken feet!🔥 Spicy dakbal with rice balls on the side is basically the cure for a week's worth of stress, am I right! While hunting for a good chicken feet spot in Hongdae, I ended up at Cheongnyeon Dakbal 1987 Hongdae Branch, so let me introduce it~

Where is Cheongnyeon Dakbal 1987 Hongdae Branch, and when is it open?

• Hours: Mon–Thu, Sun 16:00 - 00:30 / Fri–Sat 15:00 - 01:30
• Address: 218-1 Donggyo-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul → 3-minute walk from Hongik Univ. Station Exit 3

Walking down the Hongdae alleys, Cheongnyeon Dakbal 1987 Hongdae Branch catches your eye from far away! From the big signboard to the retro vibe that feels like an old movie poster, it stands out. The front of the shop is wide open, so you can see the inside atmosphere right from the street, and true to Friday night energy, even the outdoor tables were packed with customers!!

With the pocha-style lighting and neon signs, it had exactly the vibe you want for chicken feet and a drink! The weather was perfect for outdoor tent seating too, so we decided to have a drink outside😝

The menu at Cheongnyeon Dakbal 1987: soup, grilled and mala chicken feet

Even though it's a chicken feet place, the main menu turned out to be more varied than I expected! From classic soup chicken feet to grilled dakbal and mala dakbal, there was something for every taste, plus non-chicken-feet dishes like beef tartare to pair alongside. I was curious about the mala chicken feet since I'd never seen it before, but of course we went classic with the soup version this time 😋

There were the essential sides too — egg custard, rice balls — plus jjagyechi (spicy stir-fried chicken skewers with cheese) and corn cheese to cool down the spice, so even people who can't handle heat well could just order one of the sides and be fine 😗👍🏻

And what stood out to me at Cheongnyeon Dakbal 1987 was the range of add-in noodles! Not just Chinese glass noodles and bunmoja (sweet potato starch noodles), but even NewJin noodles — so if you love soup chicken feet, there's real fun in picking your noodle add-in ✨

What two people ordered at Cheongnyeon Dakbal 1987, and the prices

• Soup chicken feet for two ₩28,000 🔥
• Grade 1++ hanwoo beef tartare ₩21,000 🍖
• Flying fish roe egg custard ₩5,000 🥚
• Tuna mayo rice balls ₩5,500 🍙

Since it was just the two of us, we ordered soup chicken feet for two + grade 1++ hanwoo beef tartare + flying fish roe egg custard + tuna mayo rice balls. So satisfying! A perfect menu combo.

Cold bean sprout soup and pickled radish came out as the default sides! Having a cool sip of bean sprout soup before diving into the hot dakbal cleaned the palate and worked perfectly against the spice. And you can't have soup chicken feet without bean sprouts, right... I was already secretly planning a bean sprout refill from the start, hehe 😋

Free fried chicken skin with every chicken feet order

After a cold bean sprout soup and a beer, the soup chicken feet finally showed up 🔥 But there was a heap of something fried piled on top of the dakbal? We hadn't ordered it separately, so we asked, and were told that fried chicken skin comes standard with any dakbal order. Totally didn't see that coming — what a pleasant surprise.

How the spice level 2 soup chicken feet tasted

We ordered our chicken feet at spice level 2! It was spicy with a deep savoriness in the broth — the kind where you go 'this is spicy~' but keep reaching for more anyway 🔥 This is exactly the kind of spicy that relieves stress!! The dakbal was well-seasoned too, and eating it with the rice balls tamed the heat a bit while the drinks kept flowing.

Tuna mayo rice balls, egg custard and free bean sprout refills

You can't skip the tuna mayo rice balls, which pair perfectly with dakbal 🍙 There was a generous amount of tuna mayo, making it savory overall, and the portion was bigger than expected — plenty for two to share. Spicy → savory → spicy again, on repeat 😭🔥

Whenever things got too spicy in between, we calmed down with the egg custard and refilled the bean sprouts one more time!

Crunchy bean sprouts, spicy sauce, and savory rice balls all together — this is truly indescribable 🤤 Personally, when eating soup chicken feet, I recommend refilling the bean sprouts and soaking them well in the sauce!

Grade 1++ hanwoo beef tartare served with somyeon noodles

And the grade 1++ hanwoo beef tartare had more presence than expected! It wasn't served as tartare alone — it came with seasoned somyeon (thin wheat noodles) on the side, making it feel like a fuller dish.

We popped the egg yolk in the center and mixed it thoroughly into the tartare before taking a bite. With the yolk mixed in, it became much richer and softer — perfect to eat between bites of the spicy dakbal.

Who should visit Cheongnyeon Dakbal 1987 Hongdae Branch?

Sitting at the outdoor tent tables on a nice day, spicy dakbal in one hand and a cold beer in the other — that's what a proper Friday night feels like! The fried chicken skin that comes free with every dakbal order was an unexpectedly great bonus, and the whole lineup — soup chicken feet, rice balls, egg custard, beef tartare — worked really well together >_< If you're craving spicy food and drinks with a friend in Hongdae, especially if you like the outdoor pocha vibe, this place is worth a stop 😝