150°C stone-griddle jjukkumi jjajang and seafood soup: Mayway, Gwangju

So many new restaurants keep popping up in Cheomdan, and while searching for good spots I ended up at a slightly different kind of Chinese restaurant this time — Mayway in Cheomdan!

I heard their stone-griddle jjajang was famous, so I ran over the moment I saw it. And as a jjukkumi (baby octopus) lover, it had to be jjukkumi — no question. Jjukkumi stone jjajang and seafood scorched-rice soup!

It's not just served in a regular bowl — this place brings out a huge stone griddle piled high with jjajang. Apparently Mayway was the first in Gwangju and Jeonnam to introduce jjukkumi stone jjajang, so of course I had to try it. Haha.

Mayway location and parking

• 6 Cheomdangangbyeon-ro 87beon-gil, 102-ho, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, South Korea
• Parking is in the alley~~

The atmosphere and self-serve bar at this Cheomdan Chinese restaurant

With white tones mixed with wood, it feels less like a typical Chinese restaurant and more like a clean, modern spot these days! The tables are spaced well and the space is fairly generous, so it seems good for a family meal, a work lunch, or a gathering with friends~

On one side there's a self-serve bar with pickled radish, onion, kimchi and the like, and you can help yourself to rice too. I love places like this, haha. My digestion is weak so I actually prefer rice over noodles, and even so I never order jjamppong-bap — I always order jjamppong and set aside the noodles to eat with extra rice, which means I'm always ordering more rice. But here, rice and scallion kimchi are unlimited~

Especially after eating here today, I realized there's a real reason they have rice on hand. More on that later, haha.

The candied sweet potato appetizer!! Kind of like a fritter? Haha.

Jjukkumi stone jjajang, the char flavor from a 150°C stone griddle

At first they bring out an empty stone griddle, and the staff member actually checks the temperature themselves. They said it needs to reach 150°C before it starts sizzling~

The big stone griddle gets covered in jjajangmyeon, topped generously with jjukkumi, meat, onion and vegetables. And then — sizzle!!~~~ It's not just about keeping the jjajang warm until you finish it; when the sauce touches the hot stone, the bottom layer gets slightly seared, adding a toasted, stir-fried flavor.

It's not just a token amount — plump jjukkumi are packed in all over. The jjajang sauce was also a bit different from the usual sweet, thick jjajang I'm used to.

The sauce flavor is rich but not overly strong, and the key part is that as it keeps cooking on the hot stone, the jjajang picks up a subtle smoky char flavor.

Jjajang with scallion kimchi is truth!!

Seafood scorched-rice soup, a texture that softens as you eat

Now, the moment I've been waiting for!! My all-time favorite menu item — seafood scorched-rice soup, here we go!!

Eating just the jjukkumi stone jjajang alone felt like it wasn't quite enough, so I tried the seafood scorched-rice soup alongside it. First, this crispy scorched rice comes out,

and then they pour on the hot seafood sauce — honestly this looks even better on video than in photos.

There's a solid amount of ingredients too — shrimp, squid, mushrooms, wood ear mushroom, bok choy and more. The broth is thick, savory, with the seafood flavor coming through subtly.

Especially when you scoop up a spoonful like this, you get shrimp, seafood, mushroom, and scorched rice all together.

The scorched rice, crispy at first, gradually softens as it soaks up the hot sauce — and watching that texture change is delicious in itself. If the jjukkumi stone jjajang is the rich, smoky-charred dish, the scorched-rice soup is relatively soft and light, so ordering both together turned out to be a really great combination.

Fried rice finish, made with the leftover jjajang sauce

After I'd eaten a good amount of the jjajangmyeon, the staff member came over and mixed rice directly into the leftover jjajang sauce for me. So that's why there was rice at the self-serve bar, haha.

Honestly, you need to eat this even if you're full. It's a totally different experience from eating the noodles. As the rice grains touch the hot stone, they soak up the jjajang sauce completely, and the bottom layer gets slightly crisped and toasty.

By this point all the flavor from the jjukkumi, meat and vegetables has already mixed into the sauce, so this final fried rice (?) actually ends up being the richest part of the whole meal. It doesn't feel like an afterthought of mixing rice into leftover sauce — it feels like this finish was planned from the very start. It would be a shame to skip the rice here just because you're full, haha.

After diligently working through the jjajang, the scorched-rice soup, and the rice, you finish with free ice cream. Pink ice cream with a single small chocolate ball. It might sound like nothing, but after such a rich Chinese meal, one cold, sweet bite hits just right. This kind of finishing touch matters more than you'd think, haha.

For a day in Cheomdan when you want something different from Chinese food

Usually when you think of a Chinese restaurant, jjajangmyeon, jjamppong, and tangsuyuk come to mind first, but Mayway stood out for the simple fact of eating jjukkumi and jjajang together off a hot stone griddle — definitely a memorable place.

On a day in Cheomdan when you want something a bit different from plain jjajangmyeon, it might be worth trying the jjukkumi stone jjajang at Mayway, a well-known spot in Cheomdan, Gwangju.