Bokdae-dong omakase izakaya in Cheongju: 8-course dinner, Sinbakkase

I went out for omakase today 😆 I'm honestly a picky eater, so I prefer places where I can try lots of little dishes — and I found the perfect fusion omakase spot in Bokdae-dong, Cheongju! On top of that, the value for money here is insane. Its name: Sinbakkase (신박카세).

Where Sinbakkase is in Cheongju, and its opening hours

• ⛺️ 100 Jinjae-ro, 2F, Room 202, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea
• ⏰️ Mon–Thu 17:00–23:00 / Fri–Sat 17:00–24:00
• Closed every Sunday
• 🚗 Parking: roadside / lot behind the building

This is the storefront. It's in the Bokdae-dong food alley, so it wasn't hard to find at all >< It's a freshly opened place, so maybe that's why it looked so clean and new.

This is the board showing today's dishes — they cook fresh seasonal seafood right when you order 😆

Inside Sinbakkase: the bar counter and the mood

Here's the interior. There are bar counter (dachi) seats and tables, so you can sit wherever you like. It was spacious and clean, with plenty of seating, and there were even group parties in. We chose the bar counter seats!!

Once we sat down, soy sauce and vinegar-chili sauce were already set on the table, and they brought water as soon as we sat — and not just plain water, it was barley tea, which was a nice touch.

I checked out the menu and it laid out the course order along with the drinks list.

What comes in the 29,900-won course at Sinbakkase

Course 1: abalone gut soup

Sinbakkase's course opened with abalone gut soup. The savoriness of the abalone innards blended perfectly with a clean, light broth to whet the appetite! It was thin and smooth, so it went down easy.

Course 2: bonito sesame salad

A dish with sauce and bonito flakes (katsuobushi) over cucumber and tomato! The sauce was seasoned just right and had a nutty flavor. Instead of finishing it right away, we kept coming back to nibble on it alongside the other dishes 😘

Course 3: seasonal aged sashimi

On the day we visited, the seasonal sashimi was flounder and sea bream 👏👏 The flounder even came with its fin — how's that for visuals?!

We tried piling the sashimi over vinegared sushi rice to make our own sushi haha. The fish was thick-cut and chewy when we bit into it — so, so good. The flounder fin was also tender, and dipping it in the chili-vinegar sauce — wow, absolutely amazing!!!!!!

Course 4: monkfish clear soup (agu jiri)

Wow, I fell for this broth hard. It's spicy yet clean, so all the heaviness disappears — I figured it'd be amazing with rice, so I ordered extra rice on the spot 🤣 It would also be the perfect pairing for drinks.

And here's a tip for eating this!!!!!!

The owner told us to dip the monkfish meat in sashimi soy sauce. At first I figured you'd just eat it with the broth since it's a soup, but dipping the plump meat in the sashimi soy sauce paired amazingly well 🥹

Course 5: seasonal seafood

Shrimp, scallops, and clams came out, all incredibly plump and fresh — springy, chewy, absolutely perfect!!!! No fishy taste at all, and it was so delicious.

Look at how plump these scallops are, oh my...

The shrimp meat was insane.....

Abalone came out with it too, and just looking at it, you could tell it was screaming 'I'm fresh!!!!' Since we were sitting at the bar counter, we could watch the owner prep it by hand, and seeing that made me trust the food even more ><

Course 6: yukjeon (pan-fried battered beef)

The meat wasn't tough at all — soft, and the juices came out as you chewed, full of flavor and richness 🎉 Can you see how each piece of pepper was placed on with such care?! Even I, who can't handle spice, found the pepper wasn't spicy at all, so it was perfect to eat piece by piece.

Course 7: grilled chicken neck with green onion

Spicy and full of smoky char, the grilled chicken neck-thigh was the perfect finishing dish. The chicken was chewy, and with that smoky flavor plus a bite of green onion — absolutely fantastic!!! After eating all the previous dishes, we wondered if we'd have room for this, but before we knew it, we were two piglets 🐷🐷 scarfing it down because it was so good.

Last course: red-vinegar ade (hongcho ade)

The fizz of the carbonation added to the hongcho made it sweet yet tangy — a feeling of all the greasiness washing right away 👏 Finishing with a glass of this let us end the meal feeling refreshed and satisfied.

Sinbakkase's full-house event: rock-paper-scissors for Jeju flights

While we were eating, we suddenly heard a bell ring and wondered what was going on — turned out the owner was running a full-house event!?? It was a rock-paper-scissors game against the owner, and the last person standing won a round-trip flight to Jeju Island plus a 48-hour rental car voucher. I made it to the final 3... and then lost. Huh huh....

They also run a customer appreciation event where one lucky person gets a special Sinbakkase tasting voucher every Wednesday.

Is Sinbakkase worth it? Final verdict

There are lots of fun events going on, and everyone from the owner to the staff was super friendly — but above all!!!! The quality of the sashimi, seafood, and meat dishes was next level..... I couldn't believe it while eating, that this kind of quality was ₩29,900 👍👍👍 The place was fully booked when I went, and I get why. It's great for a light meal, and since so many varied dishes come out, it'd be a treat with drinks too ♡ Sinbakkase, the fusion omakase bar in Cheongju — I'll be back next time for a round of drinks with dinner.