Deoksugung dinner date for braised pork belly and eggplant: Huhugwan

After visiting Deoksugung Palace, my boyfriend said he wanted braised pork belly for our last meal in Seoul, so let me introduce Huhugwan :)

Huhugwan's location and hours

• 📍 Location: 2F, 2 Seosomun-ro 11-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul
• ⏰ Hours: Mon–Fri 11:00–23:00 / break time 16:00–17:00 / last order 22:30
• Closed every Saturday and Sunday
• 🅿️ Parking: none

Exterior

It's less than a minute's walk straight ahead from City Hall Station exit 10, across from Goryeo Samgyetang — just head up to the 2nd floor!

Why is the restaurant called 'Huhu'? It's the moment a dish is set on the table and, before you lift the first spoonful, you quietly blow a breath on it. They say they wittily wove together that instinctive moment of pursing your lips and blowing on hot food with the Chinese character '후 (hu),' which means 'to be filled with warm, gentle energy.'

Atmosphere, seating, and waiting

If there's a wait, you write your name and party size on the whiteboard. It's not visible in the photo, but the waiting area was actually a wide U-shape.

Huhugwan, this Chinese restaurant near Deoksugung, also left an impression with its interior. It's full of red-and-green Chinese-restaurant atmosphere and kept very clean.

Every little decorative detail stood out, and the tables range from seats for two up to a max of 8, plus a bar table that's great for eating alone. Being right near City Hall, it also seems like a good lunch spot for people who work in the area.

Each table comes set with a paper cup, small dish, utensils, and napkins, and they bring water over. They also brought each of us a side plate and a hedgehog-jujube digestive stick — such a thoughtful touch from the owner! If you take part in the Naver review event, you get a Tsingtao draft beer or mini mianbaoxia, so give it a try~~

Menu via QR code

At Huhugwan, this Chinese restaurant near City Hall Station and Deoksugung, you check and place your order through the QR code on the table.

The menu covers meals, side dishes, sides, and drinks, so I'll just share a few photos. There's eggplant rice bowl, mapo tofu rice, tomato and egg rice bowl, majiangmian noodles, beef noodle soup, eggplant fritters, yurinchi, cumin lamb ribs, braised pork belly, and much more — check the QR code for the full lineup :)

What we ordered: eggplant fritters and braised pork belly

We heard Huhugwan's eggplant fritters and braised pork belly were delicious, so we ordered both.

The full spread shot-! 📷 Both dishes were plated so neatly and looked so appetizing!

Eggplant fritters, ₩18,000

Eggplant packed with juice, fried crispy, and flavored with a secret sweet-and-sour sauce. The big eggplant fritter topped with that secret sauce plus red and green peppers looked so appetizing.

When I tore it along the grain of the eggplant, the outside was crispy and the inside was soft and tender.

Taking a bite with the secret sauce and peppers together, you can really feel that it's fried right — crispy outside, moist inside, just as you'd expect from a Chinese restaurant near City Hall Station and Deoksugung — and the sauce had a sweet, savory depth too.

You can't have Chinese food without Tsingtao, right? A bite of eggplant fritter followed by a sip of draft beer — perfection!

Braised pork belly, ₩28,000 (dinner only, limited quantity)

Pork simmered to extreme tenderness with special spices for just the right amount of time. This appetizing, brown-hued braised pork belly is meant to be cut with scissors, and it was so soft.

We cut the pork belly into bite-sized pieces and ate it with bok choy and sauce. The tender, melt-in-your-mouth pork, the subtle aroma of spices, and the texture of the bok choy were all great together.

Review event: mini mianbaoxia

The mini mianbaoxia (shrimp toast) we got from the review event. They gave us 3 pieces, and the filling between the bread slices was really generous — the tangy-sweet sauce paired so well with the crispy, moist mianbaoxia that I wanted more.

There were even palate-cleansing candies at the counter — you could really feel how much thought went into the small details.

Who is this place good for

Given its location near City Hall Station and Deoksugung, it's a convenient spot for office workers in the area or anyone visiting the palace. With seating from solo diners up to groups of 8, and such a wide range of Chinese menu items, it seems like it would suit any occasion — a date, a family meal out, or a company dinner.