Seongnam bar for seafood tteokjjim and mentaiko pasta: Bacha Jeongja

I was looking for a spot with a nice vibe near Jeongja Station lately and ended up at Bacha Jeongja (바차 정자점)!! There are so many restaurants and bars around Jeongja Station that choosing can be hard, but Bacha Jeongja had a varied food menu and a nice atmosphere for drinks, so I wanted to share it with you.

When I make plans with friends, I often look up good restaurants or bars around Jeongja Station, and I tend to prefer places with tasty food to go with drinks rather than places that are just for drinking, so the menu matters a lot to me. Bacha Jeongja looked great for a quick drink, but also for a meal-and-drinks outing!!

Bacha Jeongja menu and our order

Bacha has lots of tasty drinking snacks, from main dishes and sides to soups, nabe, stir-fries, gambas, and seafood tteokjjim (braised rice cakes). The menu was more varied than I expected, so we spent ages deciding what to eat haha. Some bars have such limited menus, but at Bacha Jeongja you can pick and choose different things, so I think it would be easy to suit everyone's tastes when visiting in a group. After thinking it over, my friend and I ordered:

• Mentaiko bacon cream pasta
• Instant beef brisket seafood tteokjjim
• Saero

That was our order!

An atmosphere that made it easy to talk with a friend

When we went in, the place was clean overall and had a relaxed atmosphere that was great for drinks. It did not feel overly loud or hectic, so it was nice for spending time chatting with a friend. It also felt like it would be good for a light post-work drink or a date!

Pretzels came out as the complimentary snack. They are strangely addictive haha. Once you start, you cannot stop reaching for them~ We snacked on them while waiting for the main dishes.

Mentaiko cream pasta and instant beef brisket seafood jjim

The mentaiko cream pasta was ₩22,000. The pasta came out first! It was topped with mentaiko (seasoned pollock roe) and had a slight kick, so it looked really appetizing. When you are having drinks, the food to go with them really matters, and everything paired well with alcohol overall. It was not just intensely seasoned; it was the kind of flavor that kept you reaching back in, so the drinks naturally went down too haha. The portions and overall selection were also just right as food for drinks, so I was happy with it.

The instant beef brisket seafood jjim was ₩29,000. It was packed with ingredients: a whole squid on top, beef brisket and scallops, with ramen noodles underneath. It was not super spicy—sweet and exactly like tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) flavor.

Here is the whole squid!

My friend cut it up so nicely. My friend is seriously so good at cutting squid~~

For first-round drinks near Jeongja Station

Personally, I really liked the atmosphere. It was a great place to have tasty food, a drink, and a chat, and it did not feel awkward to sit for a long time. Food matters a lot these days, but I also pay close attention to a place's vibe, and this spot did well on that front too.

And because it is near Jeongja Station, it was convenient for arranging a meetup. Accessibility is surprisingly important when you are meeting friends or have dinner plans after work, right? So if you are looking for a bar near Jeongja Station, I think it is worth a visit!

I think it would suit people who want dinner with a drink as their first stop, or who want to enjoy drinks comfortably in an atmosphere that is not too heavy. If you like places with a varied menu and a nice vibe like I do, you will probably be satisfied! The staff were kind too, so we had a pleasant meal, and the place was kept clean overall, which made it even more comfortable.

There are so many options near Jeongja Station, but if you are looking for somewhere that is solid overall for food, atmosphere, and accessibility, I recommend Bacha Jeongja :) If I make plans with friends at Jeongja Station again, I would like to come back. We tried several dishes this time, and next time I want to order something we did not get to try and have another drink haha. It is an easy spot to visit for everything from a get-together with friends to a date or a light post-work drink :)