Mapo hot pot restaurant where the owner cooks tableside: Doonjeong

I was looking for something delicious to eat in Hongdae and came across Doonjeong Hongdae Direct Branch. I'd suddenly been craving gopchang (beef tripe), so I searched for good gopchang jeongol (beef tripe hot pot) spots, and the photos of their hanwoo gopchang jeongol looked amazing.

Where is Doonjeong Hongdae Direct Branch, and what are its hours?

Doonjeong Hongdae Direct Branch is at 183-12 Donggyo-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, 1F, about 214m from Exit 1 of Hongik University Station. It's open 11:00–21:00, with break time weekdays 15:00–17:00 and weekends 15:30–17:00.

I was even more curious because it's apparently been selected for the Blue Ribbon Survey two years running, in 2025 and 2026.

What is the dining room at Doonjeong like?

Doonjeong felt, true to its name, like the kind of place where you can enjoy a warm, comfortable meal.

The first thing I noticed walking in was the savory smell of hanwoo (Korean beef) broth. As soon as I opened the door, that subtle broth aroma really stood out.

I thought, 'this must be a place that really knows how to make broth.' Even though I visited on a weekday, there were quite a lot of diners, which gave the sense that plenty of people in Hongdae already know about this spot.

What we ordered for two

I visited with my mom this time, so we ordered hanwoo gopchang jeongol plus a bowl of rice and a cider. Gopchang jeongol is also a great dish to share between two, so it worked well for splitting with my mom.

The side dishes and barley tea at Doonjeong

The kimchi and kkakdugi (radish kimchi) that came as banchan (side dishes) caught my eye right away.

The bowls the side dishes came in were so clean and neat that I felt good even before the food arrived.

The water wasn't plain filtered water but barley tea instead — I took a sip and it was more nutty and savory than I expected!

Hanwoo gopchang jeongol cooked at the table by the owner

After a short wait, the hanwoo gopchang jeongol finally arrived. The pot was beautifully arranged with not just tripe but also beef shank, beef tendon, several kinds of mushrooms, and scallions — it looked delicious just from the visual alone.

The ingredients were arranged so nicely that I ended up taking photos before anything else. And at Doonjeong, the owner kept adding more broth and cooking it for us directly. She kept checking on it and telling us it needed to simmer a long time to taste good.

I always thought of jeongol (hot pot) as something you just boil once and eat, but having the owner monitor it and top up the broth like this made me feel they really care about the food.

As it started bubbling away, the broth smell got stronger and stronger, and I got even hungrier.

Is the gopchang jeongol broth rich or clean-tasting?

Once it had simmered enough, I tasted the broth first. Since it was hanwoo gopchang jeongol, I expected something rich and heavy, but it was actually clearer and cleaner than I thought. Then a spicy note rose up toward the finish, making the broth pretty refreshing. It wasn't the type that's just aggressively spicy — it was spicy but finished clean.

I especially liked the dadegi (chili seasoning paste) — it seemed to balance the broth's spicy kick and depth of flavor, and it went really well with rice. Eating a spoonful of rice with the warm broth reminded me that jeongol really does need to be eaten with rice.

Did the beef tripe have any off smell?

I tried the gopchang (tripe) right away too, and there was no off smell at all. It had a chewy texture when I bit into it, along with that savory flavor unique to tripe.

With gopchang jeongol, even a slight off smell can affect the whole broth, but the tripe I had that day was completely clean, with none of that issue.

Eating the broth and tripe together, the savory and spicy flavors went really well with each other. I think anyone who likes tripe would be quite satisfied with this.

Beef shank, tendon and mushrooms: three different textures

I also tried the other ingredients one by one — the beef shank was tender with a nice meaty aroma, and the tendon had an impressively chewy texture.

Having several different cuts in the same pot meant the eating experience was never monotonous.

The tripe was chewy and savory, the shank was tender, and the tendon had a bouncy, chewy feel — each ingredient offered its own kind of enjoyment.

There were also several kinds of mushrooms, each with a slightly different texture. The one sitting in the middle in particular felt different from the mushrooms I usually eat — biting into it, the crunchy, springy texture was fun.

Eating a mushroom that had soaked up plenty of broth, you got the mushroom's own aroma together with the hot pot broth at the same time, and that was a treat too.

Eating only tripe and meat can get a bit heavy after a while, but having mushrooms and scallions mixed in made it nice to pace yourself throughout.

Since the broth was clean yet spicy, it worked great just as a meal, and I felt it would also pair well with drinks in the evening. So I think people who search for 'gopchang jeongol Hongdae bar' looking for a place to drink would enjoy this too.

What to try next time at Doonjeong

Doonjeong has a range of gomtang (beef bone soup) options, from the clear hanwoo gomtang to spicy hanwoo gomtang, sujigomtang (tendon soup), and chadolgomtang (thin-sliced brisket soup), which also makes it look like a great spot for lunch. They've apparently designed the space so that solo diners, friends, and families can all eat comfortably there.

So next time I'd like to try the hanwoo yukhoe bibimbap (beef tartare rice bowl) and the clear hanwoo gomtang. Unfortunately the yukhoe bibimbap was sold out on this visit, so I didn't get to try it.

Honestly, if this place were near my house, I feel like I'd think about it once a week — total neighborhood-favorite vibes haha! Highly recommend!!