CU Majesobap & Hamburg Steak Jeongsik Review [Korean Food]

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The new lunch box I’m reviewing today is the CU Majesobap & Hamburg Steak Jeongsik (jeongsik means set meal). Not long ago I reviewed the Keukadang Jeongsik, the winning dish from the in-school cooking contest for third-year students at Korea Culinary Science High School. This time, the lunch box is built from the recipe that took second place. The concept is unusual. It swaps the noodles in mazesoba, a Japanese-style mixed noodle dish, for rice, which gives you a rice bowl called majesobap. A hamburg steak joins it, so there are two mains. The flavor was quite unusual, too. Ha. Let’s find out what’s inside.

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📋 At a Glance

• Product: Majesobap & Hamburg Steak Jeongsik (jeongsik means set meal)
• Brand: CU convenience store lunch box (the second-place recipe from the third-year in-school cooking contest at Korea Culinary Science High School)
• Price: 5,900 won
• Weight and calories: 428 g · 745 kcal · sodium at 90% of the daily recommended value
• Series: the second product in a project that turns the contest’s winning recipes into products one after another (the winner was the Keukadang Jeongsik I reviewed earlier)
• Main components: 2 mains (majesobap, hamburg steak) + soft-boiled egg, egg salad, kimchi, pickles, roasted vegetables (carrot, broccoli)
• Verdict: ★3.5 — a combination so clever it’s hard to believe high schoolers came up with it; two rich meat mains make it a little heavy.

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CU Majesobap & Hamburg Steak Jeongsik: Price and Highlights

This lunch box is the second product in a project where CU teams up with Korea Culinary Science High School. The project turns the winning recipes from a cooking contest held in July into products, one after another. The contest theme was a lunch box using ham and tuna. CU reportedly chose the winners by weighing taste, lineup and even whether they could be mass-produced. The package also shows two student chefs, right? (Apparently they’re AI-generated, though.)

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The price is 5,900 won. You get two main dishes plus a soft-boiled egg, salad, kimchi and pickles. That’s a little steep for a convenience store lunch box, but the lineup makes the price fairly easy to accept. The box weighs 428 g in total, with 745 kcal. Sodium is at 90% of the daily recommended value, which is on the high side.

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What’s in the Box

Let’s check what’s inside. Lift the lid and the bottom holds the mains: the hamburg steak with vegetables, and the majesobap. The top is divided into compartments of assorted sides. With brown hamburg steak, orange carrot, green broccoli and yellow soft-boiled egg, the colors are lively. The look is pretty nice for a convenience store lunch box. Ha.

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The first main, the majesobap, takes up a wide space in the lower left of the box. Mazesoba-style seasoned minced meat is piled high on the rice and sprinkled with sliced garlic chives. The seasoning itself isn’t complicated. It feels fairly simplified to suit a rice-bowl style. In short, it feels like mazesoba with rice laid down instead of noodles.

The second main, the hamburg steak, is one big chunk. A whole carrot and broccoli come alongside, which gives it the look of a proper jeongsik set. The right compartment holds a soft-boiled egg cut in half. Below it sits a compartment of egg salad, and the small compartment at the top holds kimchi and pickles. They should help reset your palate between the rich hamburg steak and the meat rice bowl.

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Overall, you could think of it as a donburi (rice bowl) shop and a gyeongyangsik (Korean-style Western) diner combined in one lunch box. The minced-meat majesobap and the hamburg steak are the two headline mains. Soft-boiled egg, egg salad, kimchi, pickles and roasted vegetables round things out.

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Taste Test: Majesobap, Hamburg Steak and Sides

Time to dig in. I heated it in the microwave and lifted the lid. The sweet aroma of the hamburg sauce rose together with the scent of the meat seasoning. Let me start with the mazesoba. Even the smell hinted at a quite rich flavor.

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Starting with the Majesobap

I began with the majesobap. I mixed it with the minced meat and scallions. The salty-savory seasoning wrapped around the yolk smoothly, and a nutty flavor really came alive. It felt as if the mix-and-eat charm of mazesoba had moved over to rice intact. However, garlic chives have a distinctive bitter edge, so it may feel a little unfamiliar if you aren’t used to mazesoba.

Hamburg Steak and Side Dishes

The hamburg steak was thick, with a satisfying chew. The demi-glace sauce was sweet and rich enough to work as a side for the rice. The sweetness of sautéed onion paired nicely with the sauce, and it felt like eating hamburg steak at a gyeongyangsik diner. Even if it isn’t juicy like the GS25 version, it was plenty satisfying.

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Adding some of the other vegetables along the way was a pleasant experience, too. The soft-boiled egg is a bit like gamdongran (a Korean seasoned soft-boiled egg). If your mouth finds things slightly salty, it works well enough as something to eat alongside.

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Cutting the Richness with Pickles and Kimchi

Past the halfway point, the rich meat seasoning and sauce keep coming, and things start to feel a little heavy. Picking up a piece of pickle or kimchi at that moment brings a tangy, sharp kick that cuts the richness. That let me enjoy it all the way to the end.

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Final Verdict: A Clever Pairing That Runs a Bit Hearty

Personally, I found the combination clever enough that it’s hard to believe high school students came up with the recipe. That said, both mains are rich meat dishes, so it may feel a little heavy if you prefer lighter food. Curious how a school cooking contest recipe turns out as a convenience store lunch box? This 5,900-won box is an easy way to find out.

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The unusual pairing of a mazesoba-style sauce with a rice bowl made it fun to eat. For the price, you might start thinking about value for money, but I don’t think it was that bad. Still, it’s a meal you can clean your plate with, which I quietly liked.

For more on how CU turned the second-place recipe from a Korea Culinary Science High School cooking contest into a lunch box, see the (Korean source) Nongmin Shinmun report on the launch of Majesobap & Hamburg Steak Jeongsik.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How much is the CU Majesobap & Hamburg Steak Jeongsik?

It costs 5,900 won. The box weighs 428 g with 745 kcal, and sodium is at 90% of the daily recommended value. It holds two mains, majesobap and hamburg steak, plus soft-boiled egg, egg salad, kimchi and pickles.

Q. How does this majesobap lunch box taste?

Personally, I was struck by how clever the combination is for a recipe from high school students. The majesobap had a salty-savory meat seasoning that blended with the yolk, and the hamburg steak was thick, with a sweet, rich demi-glace sauce. Both mains are rich meat dishes, though, so it may feel heavy if you prefer lighter food.

Q. Which contest recipe is this lunch box based on?

It’s the second-place recipe from the in-school cooking contest for third-year students at Korea Culinary Science High School. The contest theme was a lunch box using ham and tuna. This is the second product in CU’s project to turn winning recipes into products one after another.