Hyehwa Chinese restaurant, best 3 & tangy guobaorou: Cheonghwawon

Cheonghwawon Daehangno Branch (청화원 대학로점) is a spot near Hyehwa Station serving unusual Chinese dishes. I recently saw a play near Hyehwa Station and stopped by for a meal on the way, and it was so good that I had to share it. Honestly, I'd already enjoyed another Cheonghwawon branch so much that I came back, haha.

What are the opening hours of Cheonghwawon Daehangno Branch?

Cheonghwawon Daehangno Branch is open daily 11:00–22:20, with last order at 21:50. It's open year-round except on Lunar New Year's Day itself.

Exterior: the sign says "Taiwanese beef noodles"

The sign says "Taiwanese beef noodles" (대만우육면), so I almost didn't recognize it at first. There was a menu board out front, so I checked it and went in.

What are the interior and seats like?

The inside is huge, with a 1st and 2nd floor. The 1st floor has seats where you can sit looking out the window, plus lots of small tables that suit two people.

It seems to be a well-known place already, because there were hardly any seats free and we were guided upstairs to the 2nd floor, which was really big and spacious!! There were so many seats that you could even come for a company dinner. The interior is clean too, so it's a great place to stop by when you're out and about around Hyehwa.

There are window seats too, so it seemed perfect for a date. Above all, every chair was so comfortable that sitting for a long time wasn't a problem. Also, the 2nd floor has only dining seats and the cooking happens on the 1st floor, so it was ideal for a quiet meal.

Menu and what we ordered at Cheonghwawon Daehangno Branch

The menu isn't just standard Chinese food: there are noodle dishes, dim sum and rice bowls, and it seems to include some Sichuan-style dishes too. There are also various fried dishes, so you can try a wide range of Chinese food. We ordered the three dishes below.

• Knife-cut beef noodles (우육도삭면)
• Shumai (쇼마이, steamed dumplings)
• Guobaorou (꿔바로우, crispy sweet and sour pork)

First they brought the basic side dish, and the peanuts were wonderfully salty and tasty. The soy sauce that came with it was given in advance so we could dip our dim sum.

Beef noodles taste: rich beef broth and chewy knife-cut noodles

The knife-cut beef noodles had a rich broth with deep beef flavor, not heavy on spices or salt. After a short wait the beef noodles came out first, and they were honestly even better than I expected.

Maybe because it's beef noodle soup, the broth was really rich, but it wasn't strongly spiced or salty; you could taste the depth of the beef. The noodles are knife-cut, so they're super chewy, and the edges and middle differ in thickness, which gives a varied texture and makes them even tastier.

Shumai: dim sum full of shrimp and meat juices

The shumai is a dim sum with shrimp and meat, topped with flying fish roe. It was the dish I was most looking forward to, and it arrived steaming hot.

I'm not good with hot food, but dim sum tastes better before it cools, so I dug in quickly, and wow... the juiciness, the texture and the aroma are seriously something!!

There's plump shrimp inside and it's packed with meat, so it's full of meat juices, and the chewy dumpling wrapper is just a work of art, sob.

Guobaorou portion and taste: a mountain with tangy sauce

The guobaorou portion was far bigger than I expected. It was piled up like a mountain with nothing hidden underneath, so it really was a huge amount.. They brought scissors so we could eat it easily, and there was so much that cutting it took forever, hahaha.

Then I was surprised again after tasting it, because it was a guobaorou flavor I'd never had before! The sauce isn't thick and gloopy but tangy and sweet, with the tangy aroma stronger, so it never gets cloying and is just right.

Best of all, it was really chewy like glutinous-rice sweet and sour pork yet crispy outside, and it seemed like it wouldn't feel greasy even after cooling, which amazed me. It turns out we seem to have ordered Cheonghwawon's three best menu items, and I think that was a really good choice, haha.