Cheomdan Gwangju Chinese restaurant with brisket jjamppong: Mayway

Mayway in Cheomdan: dinner after a café afternoon

Mayway is a Chinese restaurant at 6 Cheomdangangbyeon-ro 87beon-gil, 102-ho, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju. It's open daily 11:00–22:00, break time is 15:00–17:00, last order is 21:30, and parking is street parking.

We were in Cheomdan hopping cafés with friends and trying to figure out dinner when we found Mayway! Sweet and sour pork is my all-time favorite dish, so I walked right in without a second thought haha 🤭 I was worried about parking too, but Cheomdan Park is nearby so you can park there and walk over!

The exterior instantly reads as a Chinese restaurant. There was a sign for hot stone jjajang, which seems to be Mayway's signature dish, but one of my friends had just had hot stone jjajang recently, so we decided to skip it and pick other things 🥺 And there was an event — order 2 draft beers and get sweet and sour pork for just ₩1,000 🤩 They said it's running until the economy improves.

Inside Mayway: the dining room and the self-serve kimchi corner

The interior was spotless, plain and simple. Spacious and comfortable with just the right number of tables, everything tidy and clearly well kept. The self-serve corner, coffee machine, disposable aprons — everything you'd need was already set up 👍

Interestingly, the self-serve corner had green onion kimchi! And corn salad, which women and kids love 🥺 The main dishes were so generous we couldn't eat too much of the sides, but the green onion kimchi paired really well with the jjajangmyeon and was delicious. The self-serve corner had danmuji, green onion kimchi, corn salad, and onions — banchan that seemed designed to win over every age and every palate. Jjajangmyeon and green onion kimchi went so well together, I bet their signature hot stone jjajang would pair with it perfectly too.

How table QR ordering and pay-after-eating works at Mayway

Mayway has a QR code at every table, so each of us could browse and order whatever we wanted ourselves! I thought only one person would need to scan the link and order, but it turned out to be synced — whatever I added showed up on my friends' phones too. I was genuinely impressed by how cutting-edge the ordering system was haha. Payment was after eating 😊

They also gave us a complimentary sweet potato fritter, which we devoured before the main dishes arrived. It was distinctively very thin, kind of tasting somewhere between a potato chip and a sweet potato fritter. And the owner was incredibly kind 💕

What four friends ordered at Mayway and what it cost

• 1-person set (jjajang + jjambbong + sweet and sour pork) ₩12,900
• Chadol jjambbong ₩13,900
• Fried rice ₩9,900

That's what the four of us girls ordered and ate happily. I didn't expect much from the 1-person set, but the quality was no joke 🥺

What does Mayway's brisket jjamppong broth taste like?

Honestly I wasn't expecting much from the jjambbong or the sweet and sour pork, but do you see the sweet and sour pork meat? 🥺 Thick-cut, never chewy, just delicious. And with jjambbong, the broth is often kind of forgettable at a lot of places, but here it had a real smoky char and was exactly the jjambbong broth flavor I want! If you're ever hunting for a great jjambbong spot, I'd definitely recommend Mayway's jjambbong 👍

And because the four of us were clearly enjoying it so much, the owner gave us complimentary strawberry ice cream too 🫶 Such thoughtful service, we were touched 😍

Is Mayway worth it for Chinese food in Cheomdan, Gwangju?

For anyone tired of the wait at the famous Cheomdan spot, or anyone looking for a Gwangju Chinese restaurant with great jjambbong — Mayway delivered on every single dish 🥺 Kind owner, great food — I'd definitely recommend a visit to Mayway in Cheomdan 🫶