Pre-workout naengmyeon date with kudzu noodles at Naengmyeon Gajun

My other half and I decided to grab something good to eat near Dongtan Lake Park before heading off to work out — a bit of a date on the side. The place we visited that day was a naengmyeon restaurant I found while searching for good eats around Dongtan Lake Park, and the storefront had big photos of various menu items plastered on it, so you could tell at a glance what kind of food they served.

A window seat with a view of Dongtan Lake Park

Walking inside, the space felt more spacious and clean than I expected, and the tables had decent spacing between them, making it look like a comfortable place to eat. The overall vibe was bright and pleasant, easy to walk into without any pressure, and there were seats by the window with a full view of Dongtan Lake Park.

What I especially liked was that if you sit by the window, you get to enjoy your meal while looking out at this lake park scenery. The weather was great that day too, with the green park and lake stretching out refreshingly, so it was fun to glance out the window every so often while eating.

We'd stopped by before a workout, but with a view like this added in, it ended up feeling like a proper, mood-lifting date.

Tablet ordering and the review event

You order using the tablet set up at the table, and since it shows photos alongside each menu item, ordering was pretty convenient. We ordered kudzu noodle mul-naengmyeon and spicy bibim kudzu naengmyeon that day, plus half portions of octopus mandu (dumplings) and gray octopus mandu as sides.

Looking at a notice posted on one wall, I saw they were running several review events. There was a Naver receipt review event and a Kakao channel add event, but what really caught my eye was the blog review event! Writing a blog review gets you free kudzu naengmyeon and bulgogi — that's a pretty solid perk, so if you're planning to visit, it might be worth checking the event details beforehand.

Also, instead of staff bringing your order out by hand, this place uses a serving robot that delivers food straight to your table. Our order arrived the same way — the robot rolled up with a tray and stopped right in front of our table. There's a certain quiet fun to watching these serving robots these days, haha.

Kudzu noodle mul-naengmyeon: what's the signature broth like?

The naengmyeon and mandu we'd ordered were laid out on the table in full. Both the mul-naengmyeon and the spicy bibim kudzu naengmyeon looked appetizing just to look at!

The mul-naengmyeon had that deep color characteristic of kudzu noodles, topped generously with garnishes — clean-looking but appetizing.

The broth for this mul-naengmyeon in particular felt a bit different from a typical naengmyeon broth. They say it's made with their own secret method, and it has a distinctly deep, unique flavor — one sip and you could tell it was noticeably different from the familiar naengmyeon broth. Apparently this special broth flavor is what's earned the dish praise even among naengmyeon enthusiasts.

Spicy bibim kudzu naengmyeon: spice level adjustable

Next up, the spicy bibim kudzu naengmyeon! Red seasoning piled generously on top of the noodles — spicy just from the look of it, haha.

Here, the spicy seasoning sauce is served on the side, so you can adjust the amount to your own taste. I liked that you could try it first with just the base seasoning that comes on the noodles, then add more sauce if you want it spicier — full control over the heat level.

Mixing the seasoning evenly into the noodles, the red sauce clung to the chewy kudzu noodles and the spicy-sweet savory flavor really came alive. It was the kind of seasoning that made it hard to put my chopsticks down, and sipping the broth in between helped tame the spice just enough to keep going.

Half portion octopus mandu + half portion gray octopus mandu

And of course, the mandu we ordered alongside the naengmyeon couldn't be skipped! We got a half portion of octopus mandu and a half portion of gray octopus mandu — the red dumplings are the octopus ones, the white ones are the gray octopus ones. The wrapper was more translucent than a typical mandu wrapper, so you could faintly see the filling inside, which was a nice touch. Biting into one, the wrapper had a nice chewy texture, and eating it alongside the naengmyeon gave it a whole different kind of pairing.

I tried the octopus mandu together with the spicy bibim naengmyeon, and the octopus texture inside the chewy wrapper added a whole different kind of fun compared to eating the noodles alone.

From the refreshing, uniquely flavored mul-naengmyeon broth to the bibim kudzu naengmyeon where you can dial in your own spice level, plus chewy mandu filled with octopus and gray octopus — there was plenty to try, and it made for a hearty meal before a workout. With the lake park view added on top, it was a satisfying spot for a date, too!

32 Dongtan-daero 5-gil, 208-ho, Dongtan-gu, Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea