Daegu group dinner bar with tteokbokki and dakbal: Room Pojangmacha

Feels like fall is here... though it's still a bit warm in the daytime. Today my husband and I headed downtown after a while, to one of Dongseong-ro's hot spots — a bar that really stands out on the Dongseong-ro backstreets, Room Pojangmacha.

Where Room Pojangmacha is and when it opens

Room Pojangmacha is on the 1st floor at 34 Dongseong-ro 4-gil, Jung-gu, Daegu, near the Rodeo Street. It's open from 5:00 PM to 10:00 AM the next morning, every day of the year.

This Daegu hot spot has such a wide range of dishes and such a good atmosphere that you almost can't walk past it, haha.

The retro storefront you can spot from down the street

This Daegu bar has such a distinctly retro look that it caught my eye from a distance. The retro vibe brought back memories from my college days, which made me like it even more.

About 50 dishes and drinks until 10am at this Dongseong-ro bar

They have about 50 dishes to choose from, haha. I always struggle with what to order as a drinking snack, so having this many options at this Samdeok-dong-area Daegu bar was really nice.

Sometimes I work nights or just want a relaxed drink at dawn, but there was never anywhere to go except gamjatang or bean sprout soup places. This place stays open until 10am, haha — perfect for Daegu office workers' group dinners.

200 seats: a group dinner spot in Dongseong-ro

This Dongseong-ro bar, popular for Daegu group dinners, has about 200 seats indoors, so renting it out for year-end or Christmas gatherings and company dinners would be great, haha.

It's also a comfortable place for a casual first or second round, and a lot of young people were there when we visited.

Inside Room Pojangmacha: separate private rooms

Walking in, the interior really has that street-cart pojangmacha feel... it seems like a comfortable place for a drink with friends. True to a Daegu hot spot, it's set up with individual private rooms, giving it a slightly moody vibe that would suit a rainy day at this Daegu group bar.

You can order right at the table. Now comes the fun part — picking the food, haha. So many options it's hard to decide. Lol. I glanced around to see what other people were eating... everything looked good, so I just picked what I usually like. With fried foods, stir-fries, hot-pot stews, soups and more, there's a lot to choose from.

Places full of young people are always lively and fun, but usually too loud to talk properly. Since this place has private rooms, it's really nice for chatting comfortably with friends.

What does matcha draft beer taste like?

I haven't been drinking much lately so I almost skipped it, lol, but the food looked so good I ordered a matcha draft beer anyway... Is it a drink? Is it alcohol? Haha. I tasted it and it was sweet beer. Pretty much perfect for me.

Room Pojangmacha's tteokbokki: too loaded to call bar food

I usually love tteokbokki (stir-fried rice cakes), so we ordered that along with dakbal (chicken feet). I eat tteokbokki often, so I was curious how theirs would taste. I didn't expect much since it was bar food, haha.

But my husband said it was the best bar snack he's ever had — the portion was huge, and it was loaded with vegetables, fried glass-noodle rolls, fish cake, and even dumplings. Oh... I almost mistook it for a proper tteokbokki specialty restaurant.

The rice cakes were chewy and the fried glass-noodle rolls were nice and crispy — so good. The spiciness was just right in the tteokbokki... ahh. You really have to try it. This place is basically a tteokbokki specialist.

Soupy dakbal with extra udon, and why it's the popular order

The second dish we ordered was soupy dakbal (chicken feet). I usually only eat spicy boneless dakbal, not the soup version. This was my first time trying the soupy kind, and at first I thought, why would anyone eat this, lol — but then I got it. I understood why it's such a popular order.

With bean sprouts and the udon noodles we added, eating it in the spicy broth worked both as a drinking snack and as something like a rice side dish... really good.

Why Room Pojangmacha is worth a second visit

With that strong retro, street-food-tent vibe, spicy snacks and a glass of soju just felt so good. It seems like it would have even more atmosphere on a rainy day... the kind of place you want to visit when you've had a stressful day and just want to chat over drinks without thinking too much. The food is great, but it's really the atmosphere that makes me want to come back — I'd recommend Room Pojangmacha as a top spot for drinks and food in Dongseong-ro, Daegu, and a great place for group dinners there.