Seongnam bar for spicy seafood stew and tender squid: Bacha Jeongja

A friend had been twice and strongly recommended it, so I’d been thinking I absolutely had to go. Once I tried it, I could see why she recommended it so enthusiastically. It felt like having fresh seafood stew by the seaside, and the squid was unbelievably tender and delicious. The broth was nice and spicy too, so it was great with drinks. We only had the Bacha Seafood Stew and Mozzarella Chili Shrimp that day, but now I’m so curious about all the other dishes at this Jeongja Station favorite 💙

Bacha, a Jeongja Station restaurant and bar

Hours: Daily 17:00–02:00 1 hour of free parking available Tables / semi-private rooms can be reserved via Naver

Menu

Why I recommend Bacha Jeongja as a Jeongja Station bar: it can satisfy just about every kind of bar-snack preference! First, if you love seafood, I definitely recommend ordering their signature Bacha Seafood Stew. (It’s incredible as a drinking snack!) There are also plenty of options for people who can’t eat seafood, so when I think of a Jeongja bar that isn’t overly noisy and has delicious food, I think Bacha will come to mind.

▪️ Bacha Seafood Stew 35.0 ▪️ Mozzarella Chili Shrimp 22.0 ▫️ Soju 5.5, beer 5.5 This is what we ordered. Please refer to the menu photos for the other items.

Interior

We visited right when they opened on a weekday, so it felt like we’d rented out the whole place haha. More guests came in as we ate. The space has a clean black interior, with an open area and semi-private rooms. The open area wasn’t like one of those bars where everyone is loudly shouting, so it was really nice for conversation. But if you reserve ahead, I think a semi-private room would be great too. They’re not completely separate rooms, but they’re a little darker and more atmospheric—a good space to chat and linger in, separated from the main hall.

Bacha with a wide selection of drinks

The food at Bacha Jeongja is so good, but it also has a wide selection of whiskey, cocktails, highballs, wine, and more, so I really want to recommend it to anyone who loves a drink. There were so many tempting choices, including wine, cocktails, and highballs, but having only one drink felt like a shame... so I ordered somaek (soju-and-beer mix) for the first time in a while that day. (I also thought soju would go perfectly with seafood stew!!)

The seafood-stew broth was spicy and wonderfully savory, so it went incredibly well with somaek!!! (I barely wrote about it, haha.)

Bacha Seafood Stew: packed with fresh seafood in spicy broth

It was even more abundant in person than it looked in the photos! It comes with a whole squid, and that really is the star. Honestly, I’m not very fond of dried squid or dried seafood, so I wasn’t expecting much, but dried squid and boiled(?) squid are completely different! It was so tender, chewy, and delicious haha.

It had been a while since I’d eaten clams too, and they were so, so delicious. It had been ages since I’d seen the sea, and I’d been missing it; having this delicious seafood stew at Bacha Jeongja satisfied that feeling, even if only a little.

Mozzarella Chili Shrimp: plump shrimp with fries

The perfect drinking snack 😋 As someone who loves cheese, this was a menu item I found very hard to resist! Since it’s called Mozzarella Chili Shrimp, I assumed it would simply be chili shrimp with mozzarella sprinkled on top, but the owner’s touch was seriously brilliant. It came with fries too!!!

As someone who almost never skips fries as a snack with beer, I was beyond happy with this dish!!! Ah... next time I want to try other menu items too, but the seafood stew + this was so delicious that I think I’ll be craving it again.

The sauce was a slightly spicy chili sauce, but even people who aren’t great with spicy food (the kind who can’t go above level 1 at Yupdduk) could enjoy it!