Hanok bar in Daegu with burrata potato pancake: Sangbong

On the walk home from work, with a chilly breeze starting to blow, have you ever telepathically agreed with a friend: “Today, we absolutely have to drink an ice-cold highball!”? 🍻🍺 There’s honestly no better healing than a crispy potato pancake and a cool highball. Unable to resist, we headed straight to Sangbong Dongseong-ro (상봉 동성로), the hanok bar near Banwoldang Station that’s famous as a Dongseong-ro hot spot.

A U-shaped hanok bar in a Dongseong-ro alley

Finding a Daegu bar with a great atmosphere is hard these days, right? This place is so full of feeling from the entrance that you can’t not pull out your camera. 😚 A traditional hanok (Korean traditional house) bar near Banwoldang Station that feels this cozy and trendy must be rare. Its especially glowing, intimate mood in the Samdeok-dong bar alley makes it perfect for both dates and gatherings with friends. It’s also easy to find, right in central Dongseong-ro.

Sunday through Thursday, it is open 18:00–01:00, with last orders at 00:00. Friday and Saturday hours are 18:00–02:00, with last orders at 01:00. Reservations and group visits are available; it is wheelchair accessible and offers paid corkage.

As you walk through the Dongseong-ro alleys, Sangbong, a cozy hanok bar hidden among the buildings, suddenly appears right in front of you!

The entrance is such a vibe, isn’t it? The charm of the traditional hanok is completely intact, and the soft, warm lighting and cute little details had my heart fluttering before I even opened the door.. 🫶🩷

This is unusually built in a U-shaped hanok layout. The warmth of the space itself is truly something else. 👨👩👦👦

Especially when the weather is just right, sitting at an outdoor table lets you fully enjoy that Daegu outdoor-drinking-bar vibe! Isn’t the thought of sipping a highball in the cool night breeze thrilling already? 🍺🍻

You can get some truly great photos at this atmospheric Dongseong-ro bar, too!!

Inside, there’s a warm, cozy hideout that feels completely different from outside. This area also has the U-shaped hanok layout—interesting, right? 👀

With old-fashioned exposed rafters paired with warm lighting, doesn’t it rank first for atmosphere among Daegu bars? One wall has a spot where guests can freely leave notes, which is fun to look at. I think it would be popular for a Dongseong-ro date, a special anniversary, or an intimate small get-together. 👩❤️👨

Atmospheric objects throughout the bar, plus trendy music tickling your ears! 🎶🎵

In this quiet, hideout-like space, you end up having fun without noticing the time pass.

The menu and choosing highballs

Looking at the menu puts you in the happiest dilemma: what should I choose? Sangbong says it makes even its sauces in-house and puts real care into every bar snack.

There is garlic boiled pork and regular boiled pork, made by trimming domestic A++-grade Korean pork in-house, as well as soft tofu hot pot with ramen, udon, or sujebi (hand-torn dough soup) add-ins to suit your taste. The burrata cheese potato pancake, enough to make your heart skip a beat on looks alone, comes with crispy shredded potato, moist burrata, and fresh salad. 😭😭😭

There are also Sangbong cream udon and mala cream udon with garlic scapes, plump shrimp, and egg yolk; garlic soy sauce chicken; Shin Ramyun risotto; ugly-duckling cheese rolled omelet; and soy sauce egg rice. Highballs come in lemon, Earl Grey, hibiscus, mango, yuzu, peach, and more. Other than peach, they can be made non-alcoholic, so it’s great for friends who can’t drink to join in too. They also have ice draft beer served in a frozen glass.

We ordered the burrata cheese potato pancake, an Earl Grey highball, and a lemon highball.

Complimentary gangnaengi and two highballs

Once you sit down, a complimentary snack comes out that keeps making you glance at the table. 👀

Crispy, nutty gangnaengi (puffed corn) comes as the complimentary snack. The bowl is full of round, tempting pieces, and you just keep reaching for them. Hahaha. Chatting with a friend and picking them up one by one, before you know it, you can see the bottom of the bowl. 😭😭

Wow, at last, two gorgeous highballs landed on the table, nice and cold. 🍻🍺 The lemon highball in front of me was ₩8,000. Ice and yellow lemon slices floated in the clear glass, and it looked refreshing just to see it. 🍋

Through the straw, it tasted as though fresh lemon juice had been squeezed right in, bursting with brightness across my mouth. The lively carbonation ran down my throat, and it felt as if all my built-up fatigue was being washed away! I loved that thrilling, cooling finish.

I also had a sip of the Earl Grey highball my friend ordered. It was ₩8,000, and even its deep brown appearance stood out. First came the sweetness of Earl Grey syrup and the fragrant aroma of black tea.

The moment it settled in my mouth, the whiskey flavor and tonic water’s refreshing fizz felt satisfyingly full-bodied. Rather than disappearing lightly, it left a long, deep, clean finish as though I were drinking tea. It went down smoothly, too. As you drink, the alcohol gently rises from within, making it nice to savor slowly rather than get drunk in a rush.

A crispy, creamy bite of burrata cheese potato pancake

Wow, Sangbong’s signature burrata cheese potato pancake, ₩20,000, came out next!

A large plate was covered with a broad, tightly packed and crisp pancake of thinly shredded potato, topped with a generous pile of salad leaves and dressing. 🥬🥬

In the center, a pale, round burrata sat wearing a cherry-tomato hat—an absolute attack on the heart from the visuals alone.. 🫶🩷 When my friend cut the cheese in half with a knife, its chewy outer skin burst and its soft, creamy center flowed over the salad like snow, making my mouth water.

But the shredded potato pancake was so thin and crisp that it really would not cut with a knife. Hahaha. 😭😭😭

We asked a staff member to snip it into easy-to-eat pieces with scissors. Every time the scissors touched it, you could practically feel that crisp crunch—doesn’t that make it sound so delicious?

I piled plenty of the soft burrata that had burst open onto a piece of crispy shredded potato pancake, added the tangy dressed salad, and ate it all in one bite. First came the loud crunch, then the creamy, nutty flavor of the burrata rushed in with real weight. 😭😭😭

The cherry tomatoes and salad cut through the richness and left my mouth clean. This perfect three-part harmony.. I found myself squeezing my eyes shut without realizing it. Savoring nutty cheese and crispy potato together was blissful.

If you want to take care of the atmosphere as well at a lovely Dongseong-ro bar in Daegu, Sangbong’s burrata cheese potato pancake is not a choice—it’s a must!

The moment you clink cool highballs with a friend right after work and say “cheers~,” the refreshing sip running down your throat makes the fatigue built up through the day softly melt away. One bite of crispy-outside, creamy-inside burrata cheese potato pancake and one sip of tangy highball, and there is honestly nothing more to want. 👩❤️👨

Taste ★★★★☆ / Atmosphere ★★★★★ / Would visit again ★★★★★

It was a great place to quietly shake off after-work fatigue with a friend amid serene hanok charm. Waiting while picking at gangnaengi, then enjoying crispy potato pancake, creamy burrata, and a zippy highball—the combination was perfect! If you want both a cool outdoor-drinking mood and hanok atmosphere, stop by Sangbong.