Hwaseong Korean restaurant for herbal boiled pork: Hwadamga

Hwadamga location and parking in Bongdam

Hwadamga is known in Bongdam for grilled fish and meat, and it is also famous for its self-serve bar with more than 20 side dishes and desserts!

It is open daily from 11:00 to 22:00, with a break from 15:00 to 17:00. Last orders are at 21:30, and there is a huge parking lot in front of the building, so parking is seriously, seriously easy!!!

It is near Waw Middle School, Waw High School, and Bongdam Xi Raffiné (о´∀`о).

From lunch set meals to stone-plate dinners

For lunch, grilled hairtail, dried yellow corvina with barley rice, charcoal-grilled spicy pork, and boiled-pork set meals are popular, alongside wood-fired grilled-fish sets! In the evening, the stone-plate spread is especially popular. Korean beef, Korean pork, and assorted seafood grilling plates are all popular too!!

The outside is so spacious and tidy, just as you would expect from a great restaurant in Gyeonggi-do! There were lots of money trees outside too, haha. They all looked so healthy—I guess business must be doing even better, haha.

Inside, there are comfortable sofa seats, and each section is divided by partitions, so even though they are not private rooms, you can dine with a fair bit of privacy! There are also many actual private rooms on the other side of the self-serve bar, so it seems perfect for a gathering in Bongdam or for taking your parents out!

More than 20 self-serve side dishes and desserts

I do not think I have ever seen a restaurant with such a plentiful basic table setting, haha. I was so happy that Bongdam has a place like this! Every single item was seasoned just right. Restaurants are so salty these days that it can be hard, but this place did not have an overpowering seasoning taste—it was truly, truly delicious!

There were loads of banchan (Korean side dishes) that everyone likes but does not easily make at home, such as stir-fried anchovies, salted squid, stir-fried zucchini, and stir-fried eggplant.

There was even donggeurangttaeng (Korean pan-fried meat patties), japchae (stir-fried glass noodles), and miyeok-guk (seaweed soup). I was so surprised by how delicious the japchae was!!!

On the other side, there were various salad options, including ssam vegetables for wrapping, caprese, and lettuce!

They also had mango juice, lemon juice, and even a coffee machine that is perfect for dessert!!

And the individually wrapped sanitary cutlery that I really love!! When a place has this, it just makes me feel good right away because it seems so clean and well managed!

Herbal boiled-pork set meal with vegetable barley rice

Herbal traditional boiled-pork set ₩17,000 Par-cooked Korean pork belly, 180 g ₩18,000

Wow! There were seriously so many side dishes that the table almost was not big enough!

When you order the boiled-pork set meal, it comes with lightly flavored herbal boiled pork, barley rice, and doenjang-jjigae (soybean paste stew)!

Being able to bring a variety of vegetables from the self-serve bar and mix them into the barley rice was such a huge, huge advantage!! The herbal boiled pork was tender and just the right amount for one person, with a gentle herbal aroma and a soft texture!

Each table has sesame oil ready, so you can add as much of this expensive oil as you want!

I piled lots of vegetables into my barley rice like this and happily ate it with the boiled pork!!!

Par-cooked pork belly grilled on a stone plate

Next came two portions of pork belly. It was 180 g per portion, but there was seriously so much! Along with the meat, they gave us bracken fern to grill like at a Jeju pork restaurant, plus cabbage, green onions, shishito peppers, mushrooms, and garlic!!

The three of us had one boiled-pork set and two portions of pork belly, and it was the first time I had ever been full from meat! The pork was thick and, above all, incredibly fresh!! Maybe because we grilled it on the stone plate, it was so delicious, and the bracken fern tasted even better grilled in the pork fat too!!

This is the doenjang-jjigae that comes with the boiled-pork set. It was so delicious that I genuinely wondered what soybean paste they use, and it was packed with tofu too!!!

Why it was great for taking your parents

• You can grill par-cooked pork belly on a stone plate with delicious bracken fern.
• There is a self-serve bar with more than 20 items and free barley rice! The free side dishes include japchae, seaweed soup, and heaps of different vegetables!
• With its spacious interior and private rooms, it is a great restaurant in Bongdam for taking your parents.
• Easy parking and kind staff! I especially remember the kind woman owner, or someone who seemed like the owner, who handled the bill.
• It is a clean Korean set-meal restaurant in Bongdam with a lovely atmosphere for families.

Hwadamga was a great Bongdam restaurant for taking your parents out, and the charm of its pork belly par-cooked in a wood-fired oven was incredible.