Saturday day drinks at a Hapjeong Thai restaurant: Saeng Augustine

Daytime drinks at Saeng Augustine, a Thai spot in Mesa Polis at Hapjeong Station! Chili sea bass and tom yum noodles: order these as your summer soup-and-drinks food~

How do you get to Saeng Augustine Hapjeong Branch from Hapjeong Station?

Enter between Exits 9 and 10 of Hapjeong Station and walk straight into B1 of Mesa Polis, and the restaurant is right in front of you. Going left is a bit faster and easier to find.

I've eaten plenty of Korean food, so let's put Korean flavors aside for now and head to Thailand~~ It's connected directly to the subway station, so it's easy to reach.

Saeng Augustine Hapjeong menu and drinks: highballs, draft beer, soju

It's a Thai restaurant, but there's Vietnamese pho too, plus highballs, draft beer and even soju. The menu is the usual this and that, and I've had the phat phong curry (stir-fried crab curry) and leng saeb (spicy pork rib soup) before, but not the chili sea bass! Trying something you haven't tried is another of life's little joys, right?

Pho places usually don't have soju, which was a shame... but this one does~ It's Saturday, so daytime drinks, let's go~~

Exotic interior and complimentary pickles

The interior feels exotic. That sparkly thing over there looks like an opened-out mirror ball, and the glitter really lifts the mood. The ceiling is left open and sprayed black, so it doesn't feel stuffy and still looks clean, getting both benefits. It's not in the photos, but the back area also makes good use of lumber and sheet film, so the interior was done cost-effectively.

The pickles were nice: not too sour, not too sweet, just right.

How does Saeng Augustine's tom yum rice noodle soup taste?

The tom yum noodle soup at Saeng Augustine Hapjeong Branch has a very balanced ratio of sweet, salty and sour. This place does a good tom yum!! I'd heard of Saeng Augustine a lot and was curious, and I only just made it here...

I think I've had tom yum goong roughly ten times so far, and this place is really good! Some places are a bit more sour, some have very strong spices, but here it's just right~~ the kind of taste everyone would like.

The tender meat, the soft-boiled egg and the other toppings were tasty too.

Do the tom yum rice noodles go soggy?

The noodles aren't the kind used in Vietnamese pho but thinner ones, and they went well with the tom yum broth. The chew is a little like glass noodles, and I wondered if being so thin they'd get soggy fast, but they didn't go soggy until I'd finished...

Why extra cilantro is a must with tom yum

You have to get extra cilantro. We're cilantro maniacs! Cilantro divides people, and I think only true cilantro masters understand its flavor, haha

Put some noodles, bean sprouts, meat and broth on your small plate, sprinkle on the cilantro, and your happy daytime-drinks time is complete. How do they get that savory depth in tom yum? Is it the lemongrass? I got curious about the recipe.

What is the chili sea bass at Saeng Augustine?

The chili sea bass at Saeng Augustine Hapjeong Branch is a sea bass scored deep to the bone, fried, and topped with chili sauce. A gentle heat comes through the chili sauce, which makes it a treat~ So this is what sea bass is like, haha. Eaten with pineapple, it goes well with the savory flavor of the fried fish.

It was a great lunchtime drinking snack. Mesa Polis has lots of good restaurants, and many of them seem proven, mostly chains.. I'd guarantee Saeng Augustine has almost no chance of letting you down~

How to eat Saeng Augustine's chili sea bass

Eating the salad in between is refreshing, and they told us to remove the head and tail and just pick out the flesh, but

when I just kept picking away at the flesh, the head and tail were what was left, lol

The cuts were well made, so it was easy to pick apart. We kept praising it: sea bass is even tastier than grilled butterfish!

The flesh is soft and the outside is nutty and crisp. As a white fish it has a mild, clean flavor that pairs well with the chili. The chili sauce tasted a bit like one I've had many times, but paired with the sea bass it felt more upscale.

What's this, fish cake? It seems to be a chicken breast ball. The broth was so good I didn't leave a single drop!

Is Saeng Augustine worth a return for day drinks near Hapjeong Station?

It was a Saturday afternoon of daytime drinks at Saeng Augustine, a Thai spot near Hapjeong Station~ I'd thought about sushi but came here instead, and it was a good menu choice. From now on, when I crave tom yum goong, I'll come here. My friend enjoyed it too, which made me happy. For a summer soup, tom yum goong is the best!