Weekday lunch for three at Apgujeong Chinese restaurant Bobo Sikdang

What kind of Chinese restaurant is Bobo Sikdang Apgujeong?

Hello there. I hadn't been to the Apgujeongrodeo area in a while, so I stopped by Bobo Sikdang Apgujeong, a Chinese restaurant known as an Apgujeong Chinese food spot. It's run by Chef Jang Bowon, who appeared on Culinary Class Wars 2 — he comes from an ethnic Chinese family that's run Chinese restaurants for three generations, and he's been in the business for over 20 years himself. The food is rooted in authentic Chinese cooking, but the interior and plating feel like a pretty sleek modern Chinese restaurant. I booked through Naver ahead of time and went for weekday lunch, and it was fairly relaxed.

The bold red color catches your eye from outside, but the mood completely changes once you step in.

Inside Bobo Sikdang Apgujeong: mood and seating

Wood tones mixed with teal walls, rattan partitions, and lighting make it feel calmer and more upscale than your typical Chinese restaurant. The tables weren't cramped, and there were seats in the back that looked good for groups.

How do private room bookings work at Bobo Sikdang Apgujeong?

Group bookings of 5 or more, or room reservations, need a phone call, and the room minimum order is ₩200,000 for lunch and ₩400,000 for dinner. Both lunch and dinner can be booked through Naver and Catch Table. Worth keeping in mind if you're looking for an Apgujeong room restaurant for a family meal, a gathering, or a quiet meal.

Bobo Sikdang Apgujeong menu and what three people ordered

There was a lunch set menu too, but we knew exactly what we wanted, so we ordered à la carte.

We ordered pork tenderloin butter sweet and sour pork ₩35,000, mala eggplant fritters ₩29,000, dongpo pork ₩45,000, and mapo tofu ₩16,000. We also got a zero-sugar cola and a draft Tsingtao. Once all four dishes arrived it turned out to be a lot of food — even with three of us eating, we got seriously full.

We were served a warm tea to start.

The draft Tsingtao was smooth and tasty.

Mala sauce fried eggplant, 29,000 won

The mala eggplant fritters come out as 6 pieces for ₩29,000, and I was a little surprised at how big they were when I first saw them. Instead of thin eggplant slices, this uses plump, chunky eggplant that's fried whole, so each piece has real weight to it.

The crunch on these is next level. One bite and it's crackle-crunch. I felt like I was filming ASMR, haha. The batter stays crisp like a cracker on the outside while the eggplant inside is completely moist and soft. Crispy outside, juicy soft inside — the contrast in texture was great.

Eggplant fritters can easily soak up too much oil and go soggy and greasy fast, but these stayed crispy-outside-soft-inside all the way through. And the mala sauce on the side is the kicker. That distinctive tingly mala spice really brings out the flavor of the otherwise clean, mild eggplant fritter. Plain, it's a nutty, crispy eggplant fritter; dipped in the sauce, it's an addictive, tingly mala eggplant fritter.

Both versions are delicious.

Pork tenderloin butter sweet and sour pork, 35,000 won

The pork tenderloin butter sweet and sour pork is ₩35,000, and it looks different from regular sweet and sour pork right away. There's a big chunk of butter placed on top, and you're supposed to let it melt in and then mix everything together. As the butter melts over the warm pork, the aroma completely changes. It's already a nutty fried dish, but adding butter makes the flavor much richer and deeper.

Since it uses tenderloin, the meat is on the tender side, and it's fried crisp, so the texture was good too. The highlight is how the melted butter seeps into the crevices of the batter with that nutty flavor. You'd normally think of sweet-and-sour sauce first with this dish, but here the nutty, creamy butter flavor takes the lead. I worried it might get really greasy, but the tenderloin itself is fairly clean-tasting, so it was less heavy than expected.

If the eggplant fritters are crispy batter plus mala sauce, the butter sweet and sour pork is soft tenderloin plus rich butter flavor. Both are fried dishes, but the flavor direction is completely different, so ordering them together didn't feel repetitive at all.

Mapo tofu, 16,000 won: rice or noodles?

Mapo tofu is ₩16,000, and you can choose noodles or rice. We wanted at least one rice option, so we went with rice — and to cut to the chase, this was my personal favorite of the day.

The sauce is pretty rich and thick, so pairing it with rice worked really well for me personally. The first bite hits you with soft tofu and a salty, spicy sauce, and right at the end a subtle tingly mala aroma rises up.

Dongpo pork, 45,000 won, with 4 steamed buns

Dongpo pork is ₩45,000. It first arrives as one big chunk, and the staff cuts it into bite-sized pieces right at the table.

It looks substantial from the start. One bite in and it's genuinely tender. It has that melt-in-your-mouth quality of long-braised meat, while the fatty part still has a springy, chewy bite to it.

It's not just dry lean meat — the lean and fatty parts come together for a moist bite. The sauce is well soaked into the meat too, so it was plenty savory and sweetly salty even eaten on its own.

The dongpo pork comes with 4 steamed buns. Tucking a piece of dongpo pork into the soft, fluffy bun is another level of delicious.

The mild, soft bun wraps around the rich, salty pork and mellows the flavor out compared to eating the meat alone. Adding bok choy on top makes it even better — the fresh, crisp crunch of the bok choy cuts right through the richness of the dongpo pork. Plain, it's rich meaty flavor; wrapped in the bun, it's soft and filling; with bok choy, it's a bit cleaner. It was nice being able to eat one dish so many different ways.

There was food.

There is none.

Verdict and ordering tips for a group of three

All four dishes we ordered at Bobo Sikdang Apgujeong that day had really distinct personalities.

• Mala eggplant fritters: crackling crisp batter + juicy eggplant + tingly mala sauce
• Pork tenderloin butter sweet and sour pork: soft tenderloin + rich butter flavor
• Dongpo pork: melt-in-your-mouth meat + fluffy bun combo
• Mapo tofu: rich, spicy sauce + subtle mala aroma + total rice-stealer

My personal favorite was the mapo tofu. But if I had to pick one signature dish to recommend from Bobo Sikdang, I'd definitely also throw in the mala eggplant fritters — that crunch really stuck with me.

And the portions — three of us ordered four dishes and came out stuffed even by big-eater standards, haha. Each plate is more generous than you'd expect, so keep that in mind if you're ordering multiple dishes. If you're looking for a Chinese restaurant with good atmosphere near Apgujeongrodeo, an Apgujeong Chinese restaurant with a private room, or a spot for a gathering, how about Bobo Sikdang Apgujeong?