City Hall Station Chinese restaurant for eggplant rice bowl and

There's a more detailed video in the clip below

Deoksugung food spot Huhugwan (후후관) — a newly opened Hong Kong-style Chinese restaurant

A hot new place near City Hall Station opened and fills up fast in the evenings, so I hurried over to check it out! The atmosphere, taste, service, from lunch to dinner and even a drink — I could immediately see why it's great for dates and small gatherings. Let me show you this new City Hall Station favorite!

There's a crispy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside spring roll coupon, plus a crispy fried dumpling coupon for customers who sign up for notifications.

Huhugwan's exterior, 2nd floor near City Hall Station Exit 10

The sign isn't especially big, but the lighting and mood on the 1st and 2nd floors catch your eye and make you look up. That's where you'll find the newly opened Huhugwan, right on the 2nd floor.

Going up to the 2nd floor, I got a little nervous seeing the waiting number sheet posted. It's fine until 6:30, but after that it fills up in an instant! It's been a few days since I visited — I can't help but think it's only gotten more popular since then!

There's even a waiting area set up at the entrance with liquor on display, so you know you can really enjoy yourself here.

From solo dining seats to booth seats — the seating layout

You can really feel how much more atmospheric it gets in the evening. The interior and lighting give off a feeling like you're traveling somewhere, and the table setup is varied.

There are tables near the entrance good for solo dining, booth seats further inside, and the 4-person tables mostly have high-backed chairs with partitions, so you get a nice private feel!

You order via a QR code at the table, and the dinner menu is separate so keep that in mind. There's also a review event going on where you can get spring rolls — but it must have been popular, because in the evening it was swapped for dumplings instead!

Huhugwan's menu and prices

Dinner menu

• Cumin lamb ribs ₩36,000
• Beef shank hot pot ₩32,000
• Huhuchuan (mala hot pot) ₩32,000
• Dongpo pork, limited quantity ₩28,000
• Yurinchi ₩23,000
• Shank & cucumber salad ₩20,000
• Sichuan Huhu chicken ₩19,000
• Pepper stir-fry ₩22,000

Meal menu

• Pepper stir-fry rice ₩13,000
• Eggplant rice bowl ₩12,000
• Beef noodles ₩15,000
• Majang noodles ₩13,000
• Garlic scape fried rice ₩11,000

There are plenty more menu items to choose from depending on your taste, and both meal dishes and drinking snacks are available.

Thanks to the review event, each of us got a generous serving of dumplings. Since we'd signed up for notifications, we also got fried dumplings, so the portion got even bigger. Maybe because it just opened, they were really generous with the review event freebies!

What we ordered: eggplant rice bowl and yurinchi

I wanted a proper meal but also wanted to try the yurinchi, so I picked two dishes. The eggplant rice bowl caught my eye visually too — big chunks of fried eggplant covered in sauce look quite different from a typical rice bowl.

There's plenty of sauce so it's nice and moist to eat, and we found a tip for eating it here that made it even tastier.

Then the yurinchi arrived. The peanuts were so good we asked for a refill when the food came out. They even told us the peanuts were freshly made and hot — this place clearly takes even the basic side dishes seriously!

The yurinchi's presentation is quite distinctive too. It really feels like a full spread — with fresh onion laid underneath and tomato arranged on top, which makes the dish look even better and works almost like a dessert too.

The sauce that comes with the dumplings is so good that we ended up dipping the yurinchi in it, and even mixing it into the eggplant rice bowl — we made great use of it.

The chicken is fried crispy and cut into bite-sized pieces, served with a sweet and tangy sauce, meant to be eaten along with the vegetables. The batter isn't thick, giving it a crispy texture, and even coated in sauce it stays crisp instead of getting soggy.

We ate through the dumplings pretty quickly since they're best eaten hot, and we really indulged. The yurinchi, made with soft chicken thigh and colored with squid ink batter for extra flavor, is something you can only get at this Deoksugung food spot.

Digging into the yurinchi properly now — the meat and batter separate slightly, so just hold it steady while you eat. The soy-based sauce seasons it just right while cutting the greasiness of the fried coating, giving a nice balance of crunchy texture and gentle spiciness.

Is the spice level strong?

We snacked on peanuts along the way while really getting into the flavors of the food itself. I worried the spices might be too strong and feel unfamiliar, but the flavor was tuned to Korean palates with a moderate Chinese-style seasoning — clearly a lot of thought went into it.

You can feel like you're traveling somewhere, but your palate is still a Korean palate. So I think striking the right balance really matters, and I could taste that delicate Chinese-style balance that even older diners wouldn't find unfamiliar.

I haven't tried the other menu items yet so I can't say for sure, but the eggplant rice bowl and yurinchi we ordered had flavors anyone could enjoy without hesitation — soft, moist, and easy to eat!

Even while writing this, I'm already craving it again, and I want to try other menu items next time. It's in a great location near City Hall Station, and I'd definitely recommend it as a meeting spot!

The moment you bite in, the juices burst from the fried eggplant — what a way to build a rice bowl around that! You can really feel the skill of an expert cook.

Eating the yurinchi, I finished off all the vegetables and tomatoes, and with the dumplings from the review event, I was completely full — I couldn't help but say it out loud! I thought about having a drink too but had other plans so skipped it. This is a place I'd want to visit anytime, lunch or dinner — I came back completely charmed by this Deoksugung food spot.

Huhugwan location and hours

• 2nd floor, 2 Seomun-ro 11-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea (93m from City Hall Station Exit 10)
• Hours: 11:00–23:00, break time 16:00–17:00
• Closed Sundays; also closed weekends for now due to store circumstances
• Naver Reservations available