Busanjin bar for tomato motsunabe and quiet drinks: 12.24

A quiet izakaya near Jeonpo Station: 12.24 Seomyeon Branch

It’s a five-minute walk from Exit 7 of Jeonpo Station, and about a 10-minute walk from Exit 6 of Seomyeon Station, behind the former NC Department Store!

This is 12.24 Seomyeon Branch, an izakaya in Jeonpo! Its cozy exterior, glowing with orange light, really catches your eye!

There’s a standing menu board right in front of the restaurant, so you can check the menu before going in!

Here’s the inside of 12.24, the Jeonpo izakaya! There’s a long counter and tables for four! The counter is great for couples to sit side by side, or even for drinking alone...!!

Korean beef tartare and tomato motsunabe ordered by tablet

Here’s the menu at 12.24, a bar in Jeonpo-dong! Ordering is easy with the tablet at your table. 12.24 was opened by an owner who worked at the Swissôtel in Osaka! They had a wide range of izakaya dishes, from sashimi and nabe to kushikatsu, mackerel pressed sushi, and futomaki!

Everything looked delicious, so I had a hard time deciding what to get. In the end, I ordered the marked-as-popular Korean beef tartare for ₩23,000, tomato motsunabe for ₩28,000, and Jinro for ₩5,000!!

After you order, they bring out the complimentary snacks and small plates!

The complimentary snacks were corn salad, cabbage, and fried sweet potato!! Usually at an izakaya you only get something like cabbage, but 12.24 gives you three things, which was nice!! Haha. And the corn salad and fried sweet potato were so good I kept reaching for them.

As we chatted and waited, the tomato motsunabe and Korean beef tartare arrived!!!

Tomato motsunabe, simmered for 10 minutes

This is the tomato motsunabe! It was loaded with ingredients...!! They explained that I just needed to let it simmer for about 10 minutes before eating it!!

Since it’s tomato motsunabe, there are tomatoes in the middle! It also comes generously filled with daechang (beef large intestine), wood ear mushrooms, and tofu!

Korean beef tartare with egg yolk

And here’s the Korean beef tartare!! First off, just look at that color! It looks so fresh!

The bright red, fresh Korean beef tartare is topped with an egg yolk to pop, plus finely chopped scallions!

On one side, there were ginger, rakkyo (pickled scallions), wasabi, and radish sprouts!

I put a piece of tartare on my small plate! Even the little plate looked elegant and pretty, haha.

I lightly coated the tartare with egg yolk, added radish sprouts and a little wasabi, then ate it in one bite! The texture was tender, and the rich, savory umami of the beef was delicious...!!!!

At lots of places that don’t specialize in beef tartare, the tartare can be a little disappointing...!! But 12.24’s Korean beef tartare was fresh and delicious!! Maybe because it’s always busy and the ingredients turn over quickly, the food tasted so fresh!

After eating some tartare, the tomato motsunabe started boiling, so I gave it a little stir! I barely dipped in the ladle and came up with a whole handful of daechang. I stirred it well while it cooked and waited for those 10 minutes... haha. As soon as 10 minutes passed, I filled my small plate—and there was so much!

Can you see? I only filled one plate for myself, but it was packed with daechang and vegetables!

I picked up a piece of daechang first, and it was plump and chewy—so good...!!! Perhaps because it has a tomato base, its much cleaner taste than a typical motsunabe really stood out! The rich tomato’s sweet-tart flavor paired better than I expected with the savory, deep flavor of motsu (offal)!

The restaurant was quiet and great for conversation, so after ordering two dishes and chatting away, we polished off two bottles of soju in no time!! I guess we talked for too long, haha, so after finishing everything, we headed somewhere else for a second round.

For days when you want a drink without the noise

If you’re looking for somewhere in Jeonpo where you can comfortably have a drink and talk without it being too rowdy, I’d recommend 12.24!!!

First of all, I loved that the atmosphere was cozy and mellow. Plenty of bars are overly crowded or have a very youthful vibe, but 12.24 is great for calmly talking over drinks, so we were in our 30s and didn’t feel out of place at all, haha.

12.24 is known for its bar food, so I went in expecting good food—and it was every bit as delicious as I hoped! The Korean beef tartare was fresh and tasty, and the tomato motsunabe felt a little different from the motsunabe I’d had before.

There’s a flavor you can only experience at 12.24!

They give familiar dishes their own little twist, and while eating, I kept thinking, “This place really knows its bar food.” With a great atmosphere and delicious dishes, it’s somewhere I’d like to return on a day when I want to chat comfortably over good food and drinks rather than go to a loud bar.