Dim sum restaurant in Hongdae for a date night: Panda Dim Sum

On a date day in Hongdae, we went to Panda Dim Sum in Yeonnam-dong for dinner because we wanted dim sum. I was going to just order dim sum, but the menu also had Peking duck and other cooked dishes, so I ended up ordering a bit of everything. It turned out to be a good spread for 2-3 people to share. In today's review, I'll go through the taste of each dish and the vibe of the restaurant in detail.

Panda Dim Sum's location and hours

• 📍 Location: 22 Donggyoro38an-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea (2nd floor)
• 🕑 Hours: Daily 12:00–21:00
• 🅿️ No parking on-site

Panda Dim Sum is located at 22 Donggyoro38an-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea, on the 2nd floor. It's tucked into an alley in Yeonnam-dong, but still an easy walk from Hongik University Station. There are plenty of restaurants and cafés nearby, so it's a good spot for a stroll around Yeonnam-dong after eating. If you're driving, parking at the restaurant itself is tough, so it's better to use a nearby lot.

What's the vibe like inside?

Once you go up to the second floor, the restaurant appears, and the panda-themed props tied to the name Panda Dim Sum immediately caught my eye.

Seating is mostly tables, and overall the space felt pretty clean.

It's a relaxed enough atmosphere to eat here with friends, and good for ordering several dishes to share.

The menu lineup

Panda Dim Sum sells not just dim sum but cooked dishes and full meals too. The dim sum includes xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), xiaomai (open-topped dumplings), and Chinese-style boiled dumplings, while the cooked dishes include Peking duck, crispy yurinji (crispy fried chicken with sauce), berry-glazed sweet and sour pork, and yuzu mayo shrimp. Meal options include dandan noodles, mala bibim noodles, mala mapo tofu rice bowl, and black pepper beef rice bowl.

• Half Peking duck ₩39,000
• Xiaolongbao ₩8,000
• Crispy yurinji ₩18,500

Half Peking duck – ₩39,000

The first thing we tried was the half Peking duck.

It comes with thin pancakes (chunbing), and you wrap the duck meat, vegetables, and sauce inside to eat.

At first I tried the duck skin and meat separately — the skin was roasted with a nice bit of texture, and the meat was tender.

Then I put the duck meat and vegetables on the pancake and dipped it in the sauce too.

Wrapped up like this, several flavors came through at once, and it was pretty good.

Since it was the half size, it wasn't too heavy to order alongside dim sum or other dishes.

Xiaolongbao – ₩8,000

Xiaolongbao was the first dish that came to mind when looking for dim sum in Hongdae, so I ordered that too.

Since the dumplings are full of hot juice inside, I broke the skin open a little first instead of biting right in. The wrapper was on the thin side and the filling was moist. Alternating with the Peking duck kept the flavors from overlapping.

If you like dim sum, this is a solid basic order.

Crispy yurinji – ₩18,500

Crispy yurinji is fried chicken served with a sauce on the side.

The batter was crispy and the chicken meat was tender. The sauce had a tangy edge, which cut through the greasiness of the fried chicken nicely when eaten together.

The Peking duck and xiaolongbao both lean soft in texture, but the yurinji was crispy, so having all three together gave a nice variety of textures.

What I liked about the meal

What I liked about Panda Dim Sum is that it's not just a dim sum spot — it also has cooked dishes like Peking duck and yurinji, so you can pick from a wider range of things. Having a half-size Peking duck option in particular made it easy to order alongside other food. I went looking for dim sum in Yeonnam-dong, but rather than just eating dim sum and leaving, adding one more cooked dish to share is a good approach too.

This time we tried three dishes: half Peking duck, xiaolongbao, and crispy yurinji. The Peking duck was fun to eat because of the wrapping process with the thin pancakes, the xiaolongbao suited the dim sum lineup well thanks to its juicy filling, and the crispy yurinji with its tangy sauce was good to eat in between the other dishes.

If you like ordering a variety of dishes to share rather than sticking to just one, this place should suit you well. If you're looking for dim sum in Hongdae or checking out restaurants in Yeonnam-dong, Panda Dim Sum is worth adding to the list. We ordered three dishes, which worked well for 2-3 people sharing, and next time I'd like to try some of the other dim sum options. If you're searching for a Yeonnam-dong restaurant that does both dim sum and Peking duck, keep Panda Dim Sum in mind.