Chinese restaurant by Hyehwa Station, 5-minute wait: Cheonghwawon

So today~~ I watched a play in Hyehwa, Daehangno, and then went to Cheonghwawon Daehangno Branch (청화원 대학로점) and munched through some seriously good Chinese food including beef noodles!! Here's the review.

Cheonghwawon is a Chinese restaurant specializing in beef knife-cut noodles, dim sum, fried rice, guobaorou, cream shrimp and tons more good stuff! The staff were super kind and the food was amazing, so I genuinely came back for more, haha. I was worried I'd barely eat since I was nervous about a job interview right after this... but I ate every bite (a bit embarrassing...).

And of course I passed my written test too..^^ (holding on until October now~~)

Where is Cheonghwawon Daehangno Branch, and what are its hours?

• 📍 Cheonghwawon Daehangno Branch / 36 Daemyeong-gil, 1st & 2nd floor, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea (166m from Hyehwa Station Exit 4, Line 4)
• 🕐 Daily 11:00–22:20 (last order 21:50)
• 🔔 Takeout and group visits available, use nearby paid parking

How long is the wait at 7pm on a Friday?

Cheonghwawon Daehangno Branch is about 160m from Hyehwa Station Exit 4, and business is clearly booming..!

I visited around 7pm on a Friday weekday and it was fully booked up to the second floor, so I grabbed a waitlist number and waited! The timing was good so I got seated in about 5 minutes.

The green neon sign makes it easy to find, and it even has a bit of a Hong Kong feel! The vertical Chinese characters read Cheonghwa, and the horizontal green neon text says beef knife-cut noodles.

• 清華 (Cheonghwa): the brand/shop name (Chinese pronunciation: Qinghua)
• 牛肉 (u-yuk): beef
• 刀削面 (dosakmyeon): knife-cut noodles

You can also check the menu right outside the restaurant.

It was fully packed so I couldn't get great interior shots, but there were lots of 2-person tables and a second floor too! Good for groups of 2–4. The restroom is a bit small but it's inside the restaurant!!

Cheonghwawon menu and prices

[Noodles] Beef knife-cut noodles 10,500 / Sichuan-style beef knife-cut noodles 10,500 / Yubal knife-cut noodles 10,500 / Beef stir-fried noodles 12,800

[Meals] Beef fried rice 9,500 / Shrimp fried rice 9,500 / Fish-fragrant eggplant rice bowl 9,800 / Fish-fragrant pork rice bowl 9,800 / Tiger rice bowl 9,800 / Gongbao chicken rice bowl 9,800

[Dim sum] Xiaolongbao 9,500 / Shumai 9,500 / Crystal shrimp dumplings 9,500

[Cold dishes] Refreshing cold appetizer 9,000 / Sichuan-style chicken 14,000 / Refreshing cucumber salad 9,000

[Fried dishes] Guobaorou 17,000 / Fried eggplant 14,000 / Yulinji 19,800 / Cream shrimp 19,800 / Chili shrimp 19,800 / Kkanpunggi 19,800

[Stir-fried dishes] Mala tofu 10,500 / Tomato and egg stir-fry 10,500 / Gyeongjang pork 17,800 / Tiger stir-fry 17,800 / Cumin beef 17,800

So many good Chinese dishes.. I really overate that day too...

• Sichuan-style beef knife-cut noodles ₩10,500
• Xiaolongbao ₩9,500
• Shrimp fried rice ₩9,500
• Guobaorou ₩17,000

This is what we ordered haha.

Side dishes: zhacai pickles and peanuts

The side dishes were pickled mustard greens (zha cai) and sugar-coated peanuts!

Ugh.. this is a totally unedited photo..

The real thing tastes even better than this..🩷

Xiaolongbao, 9,500 won: how to eat it without losing the soup

Xiaolongbao ₩9,500 came out first!! It comes with a ginger soy sauce. (Watch out — the broth inside is insanely hot!!!)

Xiaolongbao is a classic dim sum from southeastern China, known for its thin wrapper packed with hot broth inside. ※So make sure to lift it with your chopsticks and set it right onto your spoon.

That's because the wrapper is so thin it can tear while you're picking it up with chopsticks, spilling all the broth. And losing the broth from a xiaolongbao like this.. is a huge tragedy.. (this can seriously happen..ㅠ)

Ugh.. so good.. the broth inside is so full it's honestly like eating mandu-guk (dumpling soup), no exaggeration lol. I think of it as a completely different food from regular steamed mandu. I'm not really a mandu person, but I love dim sum..💛 The filling seemed to be minced shrimp rather than minced pork — clean, springy shrimp with deep savory broth, so good it disappeared way too fast.

Guobaorou, 17,000 won: sauce-poured but still crispy

Next up, guobaorou💛 ₩17,000. It comes freshly fried with the sauce already poured on, but the crispiness holds up.

My chubby little brother, who rushed all the way from Mokpo to watch the play with his sister, cut it into easy-to-eat pieces. You could hear the crunch just from cutting it.. ugh this looks so good.

Here's the cross-section!! Chewy crispy coating → glutinous rice batter → pork. Beautifully, harmoniously layered...❤️

For reference, I'm a huge fan of glutinous rice batter (even for sweet and sour pork, I'm team glutinous rice over the loin version..ha) so I really love guobaorou.. And even though I'm normally a dipping-sauce person, if the crispiness holds up, I love the pre-sauced version too..lol

Sweet and tangy guobaorou sauce, crispy chewy coating, and tender pork — total perfection.. the textbook definition of great guobaorou..❤️

Yep.. yep, this is love

Signature Sichuan beef knife-cut noodles, 10,500 won: how do they differ from mala tang?

Here comes what could be called the signature dish of this Hyehwa Daehangno favorite — Sichuan-style beef knife-cut noodles!! Since everything else we ordered wasn't spicy, we went with the Sichuan-style version for the noodles.

Let's mix it up well and dig in. Since the noodles are hand-kneaded and cut with a knife, the thickness isn't totally even and they're pretty rustic and thick — totally my style... this is what you eat knife-cut noodles for!!

It looks similar to mala tang, but the broth has no peanut base, so it's more numbing and sharper than mala tang. And even though the chili oil floating on top looks like it could be greasy, Cheonghwawon's beef knife-cut noodles aren't like that at all!! Being Sichuan-style, it has that distinctive mala numbness, so you never get tired of eating it. Honestly you don't even need a hangover-recovery soup after this..lol (love it)

The noodles are thick but soak up so much of the broth — genuinely delicious.. And dunking the fried rice in this broth is amazing too, lol.

Shrimp fried rice, 9,500 won: dry, fluffy Chinese-style grains

Can't believe this is already the last dish... shrimp fried rice (saeu bokkeumbap) arrived, ₩9,500.. ugh this is totally my type of fried rice..

They piled the shrimp generously right on top.. wow.. those plump, chunky pieces must feel so satisfying with every bite.. I really love fried rice this fluffy — where each grain of rice looks almost fried individually in oil over high heat, clean-tasting and light. I love that.

Cheonghwawon Daehangno Branch's fried rice was exactly that kind of fried rice, and that's generally the style of Chinese-restaurant fried rice, which is exactly why I love Chinese-style fried rice!!

Oh, and.. dipping it into the Sichuan-style beef knife-cut noodle broth is truly next level..❤️

Verdict: a dinner stop for a Daehangno theatre date

If you're looking for a Hyehwa Daehangno favorite, a Daehangno lunch spot, somewhere to eat solo near Exit 4 in Daehangno, a Daehangno Chinese restaurant, or a great dim sum spot in Hyehwa, I recommend Cheonghwawon Daehangno Branch!! Great for couples or solo diners alike. It's about 100m from Exit 4 of Daehangno, and business is so good it's fully booked even on weekday evenings!

The beef knife-cut noodles are the signature dish, so definitely order those.. being knife-cut noodles, they're thick and rustic and so delicious.. The fried rice, guobaorou, and xiaolongbao we had alongside were all great too, and the two of us wiped the table clean.. Highly recommend as a date course in Hyehwa Daehangno.