Chengdu-style spicy medium heat with Gunhui sauce: Lao Chongqing

These days I get anxious if I don't eat hotpot at least once a week, so I headed to Lao Chongqing Hotpot in Hwaseong.

I've been to plenty of hotpot places, but this one especially felt like a good pick for anyone looking for a Hwaseong dinner gathering spot or a Hwaseong restaurant with private rooms.

Lao Chongqing Hotpot location and hours

• 📍 Location: 149, 150-ho, 172 Dongtanbanseok-ro, Dongtan-gu, Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
• ⏰ Hours: Daily 17:00–23:00
• 🚗 Parking: Available

The exterior and waiting area

The exterior of Lao Chongqing Hotpot in Hwaseong already has that classic Chinese restaurant vibe.

There are chairs set up in front for waiting, too.

🚗 Getting to Lao Chongqing Hotpot by car

Parking is easy here, so no stress at all. Park on B2 or B3 of the Paragon building, then take the dedicated elevator for the 103-dong commercial officetel!

There's also group seating further inside, which looked good for anyone looking for a Hwaseong dinner gathering spot or a Hwaseong restaurant with private rooms. Rooms can be booked through Naver Place.

There were also so many cute dolls in the waiting area, great for photos haha.

Menu and how to order

You order comfortably from your seat via tablet. I filmed the menu screen for anyone planning a visit — take a look. Corkage is also allowed (for a fee).

Chengdu red broth + tomato broth, half-and-half

We ordered Chengdu red broth plus tomato broth, half-and-half, that day. With hotpot, sticking to just one broth can get a little tiring, but splitting it this way let us go back and forth between the spicy red broth and the tomato broth, which was great.

Promotion for the Chengdu red broth launch

They currently have a promotion running to mark the launch of the Chengdu red broth. Depending on timing and conditions, you can get a 1+1 deal or 30% off, so keep that in mind if you're planning to visit! It's a good chance to try the newly launched Chengdu red broth at a discount if you're into spicy hotpot.

Even in photos you can tell the pot is quite wide, right? At some hotpot places the pot gets so crowded it feels like it's about to overflow, but here the pot itself is wide enough that you don't have to worry about that when adding ingredients.

How spicy is the medium Chengdu red broth, really?

We ordered the Chengdu red broth at medium spice, and honestly, even that was quite spicy. I handle spicy food pretty well, but I could definitely feel the heat while eating it, and personally I found it spicier than 'hyeokbuldak' (extra-spicy fire noodles).

So I'd recommend the Chengdu red broth to people who are genuinely confident with spicy food. It's not just a tingling kind of spicy — it's the type where the heat keeps building in your mouth the more you eat, so if you're not great with spice, don't push it and go with a lower level. On the other hand, if you love spicy food, this is the straightforward kind of heat you'll enjoy.

The tomato broth was nice to eat like a stew in between. Going back and forth between the two really kept things from getting boring — I kept reaching for more. Lao Chongqing Hotpot's tomato broth has a pretty strong tomato aroma.

A wide variety of ingredients to pick and choose

Another fun part of hotpot is picking your ingredients, right? From bean sprouts, napa cabbage, beancurd sticks and noodles to various tofus, meatballs, and meat, there was a wide range to pick from based on your taste.

If you're like me and love that fully-cooked, soft texture, definitely try the soft tofu. Once the red broth soaks in properly, it's genuinely delicious.

I like ingredients like beancurd sticks and soft tofu that turn tender after sitting in the broth for a while, but at some hotpot places they need to simmer quite a long time before they soften up.

Here, though, just 1–2 minutes was enough to make them tender, which I really loved.

How to build your own sauce combo

And when it comes to hotpot, I'm all about the sauce. You can add sauce for however many people you need, ₩3,000 each.

Personally, if it's your first time having hotpot, I'd recommend trying the Gunhui sauce combo!

Gunhui sauce recipe

• 1 spoon peanut sauce + 2.5 spoons chili sauce
• 0.5 spoon minced garlic + 0.5 spoon chopped scallion
• 1 tsp peanut powder + 0.5 tsp chili powder + 1 tsp chili oil + a pinch of sugar
• 0.5 tsp stir-fried beef sauce + sesame seeds

Dipping it into the spicy red broth gives it a whole new flavor — the fact that the same ingredients can taste different depending on the sauce is part of the charm of hotpot, I think.

Overall verdict

Overall, my takeaway is that this is a place that especially suits people who love spicy hotpot!

The medium Chengdu red broth was properly intense for someone like me who likes spice, and I enjoyed it a lot. The wide pot made it easy to pile in ingredients generously, and favorites of mine like soft tofu came out tender and satisfying.

Parking is easy and there's group seating too, so it's a solid option for visiting with a group of friends — Lao Chongqing Hotpot, a Bukgwangjang favorite.