I heard there was a Chinese place near Hakdong Station with great dumplings, so I went to check it out. Funny that there was a place this good in an area I go to all the time.

The front entrance

It looks small from the outside, but it goes back quite a way, so there are a fair number of seats.

Tea

When a place that feels like a neighborhood Chinese joint serves you jasmine tea, it earns a bit of trust.

The mural

For some reason it’s a little racy. I asked if it had been brought over from China, and they said a Korean art student painted it. Maybe that’s why the interior feels a bit kitschy. Personally I didn’t mind eating surrounded by paintings of beauties, though..

Golden fried rice

The fried rice didn’t seem to use much oil at all and was really light, and the jajang sauce was nicely stir-fried yet not the least bit overpowering, which impressed me. These days when I go to a neighborhood Chinese place the seasoning is so heavy that I often feel off for the rest of the day. Chasing impact means losing both flavor and health, and it’s a shame that the general restaurant trend seems to be heading only toward spicy, salty, greasy food.

Jjamppong broth

This is the broth that comes with the fried rice, and it was mild yet had a nice smoky wok flavor. More than the jajang or the fried rice, this broth showed what the place is really capable of.

Jajangmyeon

Loaded with toppings. The one problem was a bit too much onion, but if you eat around it, it tastes far better than most of the famous jajangmyeon places.

Boiled dumplings

The dumplings are what the place is known for, so I ordered them; the quality was good, but there was a slight off-note. My companion said they were fine, though. If I come back, I’ll probably go for the pan-fried dumplings.

It’s not on the menu, but if you ask for kimchi fried rice they’ll make it. Between that and the mild cooking, it felt like a restaurant rooted in the neighborhood. Getting labeled some kind of “famous restaurant” can actually make a place go downhill, so I hope it stays the way it is now, popular with the locals for a long, long time.

한국어로 읽기日本語で読む