Jongno chicken hot pot with green onion add-ons: Sunhuine Bindaetteok

A great lunch spot for groups in Dongdaemun: Sunhuine Bindaetteok Dak Hanmari Dongdaemun.

Did you know that Sunhuine — the name synonymous with bindaetteok (mung bean pancake) at Gwangjang Market — also does dak hanmari (whole chicken hot pot)? Talk about business expansion! I found the place where you can get both Sunhuine's pancakes and dak hanmari in one sitting.

Where Sunhuine Bindaetteok is and how big the restaurant is

Dongdaemun's Dak Hanmari Alley sits between Jongno 5-ga Station and Dongdaemun Station, and Sunhuine Dak Hanmari is right in that alley. I walked over slowly from Daehangno after catching a play, and got there in no time.

Sunhuine Dak Hanmari has two floors and the place was huge. Lots of tables with plenty of space between seats, so it's great for group gatherings or family meals.

Sunhuine Bindaetteok menu and prices

• Dak hanmari ₩33,000
• Extra half chicken ₩17,000
• Beef tartare tangtangi ₩38,000
• Octopus tangtangi ₩17,000
• Beef tartare ₩23,000
• Beef tartare bibimbap ₩12,000
• Meat mung bean pancake ₩12,000
• Seafood mung bean pancake ₩12,000
• Meat meatballs, 2 pieces ₩8,000

We ordered the meat pancake and dak hanmari, and added green onion and knife-cut noodle add-ons. Each add-on is ₩2,000.

Mixing the dipping sauce and adding the green onion

Dak hanmari's eternal companion, the house-made dipping sauce, gets mixed for you first. Mustard, soy sauce, and seasoned sauce are laid out at the table, plus minced garlic to add as you like.

Two spoonfuls of seasoned sauce, three swirls of soy sauce, a dash of mustard — and I always toss in a couple spoonfuls of the boiled broth too. Do it this way and you get a sauce that clings perfectly to your bite.

The dak hanmari arrived. Pretty generous, right? What sets Sunhuine's dak hanmari apart is how much variety of vegetables goes into the broth — mushrooms, cabbage, carrots. There were two kinds of mushrooms too, king oyster and shiitake. Everyone knows cabbage simmered long in this kind of broth turns out delicious, and seeing all that cabbage got me excited for the soup.

The green onion add-on went in and it really started cooking. Fluffy potatoes were in there of course, along with plenty of rice cakes.

Meat and mung bean pancake with pickled onions

While the dak hanmari simmered, we curbed our hunger with the pancake. Order a pancake and you also get pickled onions on the side, which paired surprisingly well with the dak hanmari too — especially good with the noodles later.

We did a quick taste check on the broth midway through, and since it felt like it was missing something, added a big spoonful of minced garlic.

The broth came together nicely and the meat cooked through well. The chicken wasn't small either, and the meat wasn't dry at all.

Chicken breast really needs to be dipped in the sauce to taste its best...

Finishing the hot pot with knife-cut noodles

As we were finishing up the chicken, more broth got added and it was time for the obligatory noodle finish. See that limp, well-cooked cabbage? The longer the broth boiled, the more the vegetable stock came through, and the savoriness was tremendous. By the end, the broth had turned quite sweet.

Is Sunhuine Bindaetteok worth it? Final verdict

The chicken broth alone is already a savoriness champion, but with all the vegetables added in, the sweetness and umami built up so much that I kept going back for more. It seems like Sunhuine's way of standing out from the other places nearby. Once again, I ended up overeating that day.