Yeonnam-dong Chinese restaurant with silky mapo tofu: Seodamheon

Seodamheon Hongdae Main Branch: location, hours and parking

Seodamheon Hongdae Main Branch, a well-known Hongdae Chinese restaurant, is easy to reach from Hongik University Station (Line 2, Gyeongui-Jungang Line, and Airport Railroad) Exit 3. It's a popular Yeonnam-dong lunch spot open daily from 11am, but there's a break time, so it's worth checking the last order time before you go. For parking, use the Yeonnam Public Parking Lot or the Urban Port Hongdae Station Yeonnam-dong private lot.

A hanok Chinese restaurant: the outside of Seodamheon

Today's honest review is of Seodamheon Hongdae Main Branch, another Hongdae Chinese restaurant. I hear it's from RS F&B, the company behind Tangmyeon and Hangosim Haochi Tokyo. While walking the Gyeongui Line Forest Trail looking for a spot near Yeontral Park, I found this hanok (traditional Korean house) near Yeolli-dan-gil serving Korean-style Chinese food — a fusion of Korean and Chinese cuisine — and decided to stop by right away. The pretty hanok building is clearly one of those classic Yeonnam-dong-vibe places.

What's on the menu at Seodamheon

I visited during lunchtime, and since Seodamheon is known as a Hongdae Chinese restaurant, there was already a wait. Out front there was a big menu board, so you can check Seodamheon's prices right there.

• Korean-style hand-cut noodle dishes: samjjamyeon, doenjang yuni-jjajang, minari beef brisket jjamppong, clam doosak stir-fried noodles, clam tangmyeon
• Rice dishes: dongpo-rou over rice, sichuan mapo tofu + rice, crab fried rice
• Chinese dishes: fried eggplant, silky mapo tofu, yurinji, mokhwasom tangsuyuk, dongpo-rou (small/large)
• Sets: two-person set, four-person set
• Drinks: traditional Korean soju, Chinese beer, gaoliang (baijiu)

Between the great Chinese dishes and the drink menu, Seodamheon also works as a Hongdae/Yeonnam-dong bar.

Inside Seodamheon: fine for solo diners and family meals

Seodamheon has two-person bar seats where solo dining is possible — I actually saw a solo diner there — making it both a date spot near Yeontral Park and

a place with four-person tables good for friend hangouts and family meals. Seodamheon specializes in Korean-style Chinese food, and the interior — filled with pottery and instruments and other East Asian touches — had a really nice atmosphere. One of those good-vibe Hongdae restaurants.

I know kids love jjajangmyeon, and since Seodamheon has a baby chair, it's a fine choice for a family meal with little ones too.

You order through the tablet at each table, and if you leave a Naver receipt review, they'll give you a free sweet candied sweet potato (goguma mattang) for dessert — grab it if you want it.

Seodamheon's table setting and side dishes

Every table at Seodamheon comes with mala oil and vinegar as standard, so you can season the samjjamyeon, silky mapo tofu, or doenjang yuni-jjajang to your taste.

They set us up with small plates, paper cups, and a water bottle,

and brought pickled radish (danmuji) and jjajangmyeon pickled mustard (jjajachai) as the basic side dishes. I liked that Seodamheon's danmuji was the natural white kind, not the artificially yellow one.

Two-person Dameunsang set plus silky mapo tofu

We ordered a combo of mountain and sea — samjjamyeon, mokhwasom tangsuyuk, and silky mapo tofu — plus chapssal donatsu for dessert.

Mokhwasom tangsuyuk (cotton-soft sweet and sour pork)

Seodamheon's mokhwasom tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) has a round, cute look, and each bite delivers a satisfying, hearty meat flavor that fills your mouth.

The chewy, meat-packed glutinous rice tangsuyuk paired with the sweet-and-tangy tangsuyuk sauce makes you want another bowl of rice. That's why we ended up ordering one more dish on top of the two-person set.

Silky mapo tofu: mild enough for mala skeptics

And that's the silky mapo tofu! We're not usually into mala flavor, but we wanted mapo tofu so we ordered it anyway. The mala flavor passes by in a really pleasant way. Even someone who dislikes mala can enjoy Seodamheon's silky mapo tofu.

Look at that bouncy, silky texture — it seems to use silken tofu with a pudding-like texture. Beautiful. And Seodamheon's silky mapo tofu tastes as good as it looks.

It's delicious just eaten as is, but I bet it would be even better mixed with a bowl of rice. I kind of regret not ordering the sichuan mapo tofu + rice set instead — but we were already full, so next time I'll order that combo on its own.

Samjjamyeon with 10mm hand-cut noodles

And the dish I was most excited about — hand-cut noodles! It's been a while since I had doosakmyeon (hand-cut noodles), and I heard this place was known for it. Seodamheon insists on using only 10mm-wide hand-cut noodles, and the taste of their samjjamyeon...

...the chewy hand-cut noodles combined with wok-charred seafood and a savory, meat-packed jjajang sauce. So good! Looking at the photo again makes me want to eat it all over again.

Chapssal donatsu, the set dessert

And finally, the dessert that came with the two-person set — chapssal donatsu! Since it's a Yeonnam-dong Chinese restaurant, I expected something like a Chinese-style dessert such as jima qiu, but instead it was a very Korean-style dessert: a chewy glutinous rice donut topped with whole red beans, mini injeolmi (rice cake), and bean powder.

Final verdict on Seodamheon Hongdae Main Branch

We finished off with the chewy dessert and left patting our full bellies. It was so good that the two of us ended up ordering an extra dish on top of the two-person set. That's happiness right there. Seodamheon is a Yeonnam-dong Chinese restaurant where you can enjoy a high-quality Chinese spread at a great price — I'd recommend it as a Hongdae restaurant worth revisiting. That's today's honest review of Seodamheon Hongdae Main Branch.