Spicy beef tendon bulsji at Haejeongjip, a Hapjeong pub in Seoul

I've always been obsessed with spicy-sweet seasoned meat, and one day the algorithm fed me bulsji (spicy beef tendon stew)..! It looked exactly like fire chicken feet sauce but with soft, chewy beef tendon instead — there was no way it wouldn't be good. And they had ube makgeolli I was curious about too, so I headed straight there.

Haejeongjip

Haejeongjip hours, parking and location in Hapjeong

Haejeongjip sits near Hapjeong Station, tucked inside Hapjeong Rodeo Street! It's open daily from 10:00 to 23:00, with a break time from 15:00 to 17:00. There's no parking on site, so you'll need to use the nearby public parking lot (Hapjeong roadside public parking).

It's not too far from Hongdae's Sangsu area either, so it's walkable if you're in the mood. Since it opens as early as 10am, it's great for a light lunch or a decent daytime drink — a gukbap (soup with rice) spot and Korean pub in one! I came for the bulsji, but this is actually a solid Hapjeong Station restaurant for gukbap, naengmyeon (cold noodles), and full table spreads too.

What to add to the medium bulsji at Haejeongjip

To eat our bulsji even more properly and deliciously, we added seasoned seaweed rice and cheese topping to the medium bulsji!! The staff told us jjolmyeon (chewy noodles) come included as standard, so we cancelled our extra noodle order haha. The staff were also super kind!! We also went ahead and ordered the ube banana makgeolli we'd been curious about.

Seating and group rooms at Haejeongjip

Haejeongjip's interior is decorated like a tidy neighborhood restaurant, with 2-top and 4-top tables spaced comfortably apart. For group bookings, there's a 34-seat group hall downstairs you can reserve! There's also a private room that fits around 10 people, so if you want a quiet, intimate meal, it's worth inquiring ahead through Naver Reservations or similar haha. I'd also recommend it as a spot for a quiet work dinner or gathering!

Side dishes: kimchi and kkakdugi (diced radish kimchi)

After we placed our order, the basic side dishes came out — and maybe because this place is mainly a gukbap restaurant, the napa cabbage kimchi and diced radish kimchi (kkakdugi) that came out were seriously delicious. I'm usually not much of a kimchi person with heavily seasoned dishes, but the kimchi and kkakdugi were so good I cleaned out the side dish plates too... I think I need to come back for the gukbap just for the kimchi. Already decided this is my new lunch spot.

Bulsji prices and sizes at Haejeongjip

And now, the moment we'd been waiting for — the bulsji arrives! We ordered the medium size, priced at 29,000 won. If you've got three to four people with good appetites, there's a large size too — that one runs 35,000 won. Adding cheese topping costs an extra 5,000 won on top!

The visuals are, as the kids say these days, completely unfair... Exactly the color and shine you'd expect from fire chicken feet, and underneath the rich, melted cheese sits beef tendon, rice cakes, cheese rice cakes, and jjolmyeon noodles, all packed in generously.

Which bulsji spice level should you order?

Bulsji spice levels break down into level 1 (buldak ramen-lite), level 2 (buldak bokkeum-myeon level), and level 3 (I forget what they called it, but it's the spiciest). We went with level 2, the buldak bokkeum-myeon level.

There's mayonnaise on the side to cut the heat, so we figured we'd manage somehow haha — and if the mayo wasn't enough, we decided to let the ube banana makgeolli and rice ball help us out.

Why the jjolmyeon noodles in bulsji are the best part

Lift it up with your chopsticks along with the cheese and the jjolmyeon noodles stretch right along with it ㄷㄷㄷ. The sauce is sweet but spicier than expected, with a hint of that smoky, fire-grilled flavor, and it clings to the noodles so well that they're genuinely delicious even on their own ㅠㅠ.

Whoever decided to put jjolmyeon noodles in bulsji, seriously, thank you. Not udon noodles, not ramen noodles — jjolmyeon noodles specifically is a next-level genius move.. They're chewier, hold the sauce better, and don't get soggy or break apart like ramen noodles do, so it's a perfect match.

What the beef tendon (suji) texture is like

Bouncy, chewy beef tendon!! Each piece isn't huge, but that makes it feel like there's more of it, and the sauce soaks in better too! The soft, springy bite is great, and honestly it tastes like eating pure collagen on top of fire chicken feet flavor...

Eaten with just the basic sauce, the heat is noticeably strong, so I dipped it in mayo. But honestly, I'd recommend the mayo dip even if you're not sensitive to spice! It adds a softer, nuttier flavor that makes the whole thing taste even better.

Rice cakes vs cheese-filled rice cakes in the bulsji

There are two types of rice cake in the dish — regular rice cake and cheese rice cake — and honestly, both are just delicious..... The cheese rice cake is a bit better, sure lol, but really the bulsji sauce itself is so good that anything you put in it would taste amazing... It's exactly the sweet-and-spicy flavor I love. An upgraded version of fire chicken feet, for sure.

Why you should order rice balls with bulsji

Here's why you have to order the rice ball when eating bulsji. It helps cut the spice, but that's not even the main reason —

mixing it into the leftover sauce is absolutely next-level. Haejeongjip's bulsji comes with a generous amount of sauce, which I think is basically a hint that you're supposed to mix rice into it ^^. You know how after eating meat you're supposed to get fried rice, right? Same energy here — eat the bulsji, then mix in the rice ball with whatever sauce is left.. Seriously, highly recommend. I didn't leave a single grain of sauce-coated rice behind ^^.

How does Haejeongjip's ube banana makgeolli taste?

And now the review of the ube banana makgeolli you've all been curious about... It comes in a bottle smaller than a water bottle, priced at 17,000 won. That's a little pricier than expected, but it's a pretty unique makgeolli you won't easily find elsewhere...

The color is exactly the purple you'd expect from ube, but the taste leans more toward banana and sweet potato rather than actual ube flavor. The tangy, fermented makgeolli taste comes through more than expected, so don't assume it's just a sweet drink. It has a bit of a sharp, fizzy edge, so I figured it'd be a love-it-or-hate-it kind of thing — and sure enough, our table split exactly down the middle lol. I was neutral on it... worth trying once at least?

That said, it's definitely a creamy style, so pairing it with the bulsji does cut the heat well... The overall harmony was a little questionable though? ㅎㅋㅎㅋ. Still, the main dish, the bulsji, was practically perfect, and the ube makgeolli that piqued my curiosity was decent too — Haejeongjip is a solid Hapjeong Station gukbap restaurant and Korean pub I'd love to come back to for the gukbap or naengmyeon next time. Highly, highly recommend it if you're curious about bulsji.