Seoul Restaurant guide_Hongdae Choma

Restaurant Review - Hongdae Choma

Opened by the Songtan-based famous Chinese eatery Youngbin-ru, a new branch called Choma was added to the Hongdae area. 

This place was celebrated in many food blogs, which compelled me to pay a visit.

It is located in the alley just past the Hongdae parking strip.

Choma is located on the second floor.

According to other blogs, Yongbin-ru in Songtan is famous for their Champong.

*Champong : Spicy Chinese noodle soup.

table placement is not that different from other Chinese restaurants.

I went at four p.m. on a Sunday. Despite the fact that it wasn’t the usual meal hour, I still had to wait about 15 minutes to be seated.

The kitchen was in a flurry of activity. Over the counter hung a picture, suggesting that the young man in it is the third generation owner of a family business.

The first dish was a small serving of Tangsuyook, which is a dish of fried pork with sweet and sour sauce.

The fried pork pieces are large and well fried. I could not detect the rancid smell of poorly prepared pork, setting this establishment apart from other small Chinese restaurants.

I think the trick is that they fry the pork after the order comes in, rather than serving from a pile of pre-fried pork.

The taste was worth the wait. 

The sweet and sour sauce complements the fried pork. You can either dip the piece of pork in the sauce, or eat the pork without any sauce.

The colorful and vibrant Champong makes its appearance.

Pork, squid and onion bits are aplenty in this soup.

Unlike the Tangsuyook, the pork in the broth is chewier, and the cuttlefish is not very tender, despite the scores made with a knife.

Although it looks very red, the broth is not too spicy. It’s more pleasantly spicy than white hot. The soup has a deep flavor.

I could see why there were so many customers on a Sunday afternoon. 

The noodles were chewy and soft. Very well cooked. 

This is the white-brothed Champong my wife ordered. One taste and I fell in love with it. The broth was seasoned with chili slices rather than chili powder. It is not very spicy but whenever I chewed the chili, I could taste an indescribably exotic flavor. Because the white broth has a lighter taste, I could really savor the stir-fried squid, pork and onions. If you want to really taste the individual ingredients, the white-brothed Champong will be a better choice.

This restaurant does not sell the Chajang-myeon, a noodle with black sauce which is the usual staple in Chinese restaurants. But the Champong and Tangsuyook are so good that you won’t miss it.

It was as good as the food blogs promised it would be.

Address : 407-18 Seokyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul

070-7991-8963 

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