Yullyang-dong rice cake shop pizza sulgi tray, 22,000 won: Tteokmama

For anyone who loves bread, rice cakes, or unusual desserts! If you're after Tteokmama Cheongju's new pizza tteok, a kids' snack, a quirky dessert, or a tasty rice-based treat, meet the cheese pizza sulgi (steamed rice cake) from Tteokmama. Here's my review after buying this fun, fusion rice dessert — 'pizza sulgi.'

Where is Tteokmama Yullyang, and where do you park?

Tteokmama Yullyang Branch is on the 1st floor of 94 Gonghang-ro, Cheongwon-gu, Cheongju, Chungbuk. Hours are Mon–Sun 09:00–21:00, and it's closed for Chuseok on Sep 25–26.

• Address ; 94 Gonghang-ro, 1st floor, Cheongwon-gu, Cheongju, Chungbuk, South Korea
• Hours ; Mon–Sun 09:00–21:00
• Chuseok closure ; Sep 25–26
• Notes ; Takeout, delivery, group use available, reservations, Wi-Fi, waiting area, separate men's/women's restrooms
• Parking ; Lot between the Tteokmama building and the next building — easiest to back in and back out.

This is the exterior of Tteokmama Yullyang, Cheongju's custom event-rice-cake specialist.

Tteokmama Cheongju Yullyang also sells table-set spreads for baby's 100th day (baegilddeok) and first birthday (dolddeok), available in various sizes, so there's plenty of choice and no pressure about which to pick.

Inside the Tteokmama rice cake café: seating and drink menu

The interior of Tteokmama Yullyang is modern, clean, and comfortable. Doesn't it make you think you could sip tea here while eating delicious rice cakes and call it a meal? Even on the late afternoon I went to buy pizza sulgi, I saw families and an elderly couple enjoying rice cakes and sikhye (sweet rice drink) — such a cozy, relaxing café, right?

Being a proper rice cake café, Tteokmama has a wide drink menu. There's clean americano, espresso, café latte, cappuccino, vanilla latte, macchiato, café mocha, dolce latte, as well as decaf Dutch coffee, cold brew, ube latte, matcha latte, mugwort latte, misugaru (roasted grain) latte, choco latte, strawberry latte, and sweet potato latte. Smoothies include strawberry, mango, blueberry, yogurt, and iced tea — quite a range, right? There's also sikhye, ssanghwa tea, jujube tea, and various health fruit juices that suit a rice cake café perfectly. With such a varied menu, anyone of any age could visit and find something satisfying.

Rice cakes, hangwa and gift wrapping on display at Tteokmama

The refrigerated case at Tteokmama Yullyang holds sikhye drinks and rice cakes, while the room-temperature shelves have handmade orandeu (rice puff snacks) made from Korean rice. There are also green tea cream rice cakes, red bean jeolpyeon, and walnut injeolmi in pretty gift boxes — wouldn't these make great gifts?

There are also cup-portioned rice cakes for light snacking or small gifts. Since I arrived late, many items were already sold out. If you're visiting, it's a good idea to call ahead or place a reservation for anything specific you need.

The gift wrapping here is beautifully upscale. Rice cakes go into gift boxes wrapped in bojagi (traditional cloth), and even the ribbon shape on the yellow cloth looks like a flower.

Individually sold and small-packaged items include barley jeungpyeon (steamed rice cake) at 3,000 won and mugwort gaeddeok at 4,000 won. Korea's first easy-dip capsule jocheong (rice syrup) — for dipping jeolpyeon anytime, anywhere — comes in single-serving packs for 700 won. Jeolpyeon comes with mini jocheong included for 3,500 won, and bite-size ddeok is 5,000 won.

There's also yugwa (puffed rice snack) that melts in your mouth.

Honey yakgwa and pastry salt yakgwa are sold boxed as well as individually wrapped. There's also old-style honey kkwabaegi and other hangwa (traditional Korean sweets). I tried the salt yakgwa and it was delicious — more savory-salty than sweet, which was really appealing. Just as salt bread is popular, salt yakgwa was a hit too.

Chapssaltteok (mochi), traditional drinks and fruit chapssaltteok

The chapssaltteok (glutinous rice cake) stays chewy even refrigerated, and comes in varieties like strawberry-mugwort-milk, chocolate, plain milk, and chewy mochi.

Traditional drinks like sikhye, sujeonggwa, and 12-grain misu are here too. The slow-brewed sikhye has a gentle, healthy sweetness rather than an artificial one, and it really pairs well when eating rice cakes.

The fruit chapssaltteok filled with red bean paste and pretty fruit looks lovely. Sold from a 3-piece taster set up to gift sets and return-favor tteok, Tteokmama makes these fruit chapssaltteok with seasonal fresh fruit — mainly strawberry, orange, tangerine, Shine Muscat, kiwi, and apple grape. They're a very satisfying gift item.

The prettily colored honey tteok comes flattened, candy-shaped, and even in songpyeon (half-moon rice cake) shapes.

A 2026 Chuseok songpyeon price sheet is also posted. There's five-color sesame songpyeon, bean songpyeon, and mosi (ramie) songpyeon (mung bean or sesame). With premium bojagi wrapping included, Tteokmama is a good-value option for holiday rice cake gifts.

What comes in a 22,000-won tray of 9 pizza sulgi?

Tteokmama's pizza sulgi comes as a tray of 9 pieces for 22,000 won. Each piece is individually packed at 80g, with a total weight of over 700g.

Here's the packaging box for the pizza sulgi.

Today's menu — Pizza sulgi, 1 tray (9 pieces) ; 22,000 won

The main ingredients are rice cake made from domestic non-glutinous rice, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni. The toppings are simpler and more subdued than a typical pizza's, which lets them blend really well with the rice cake — I'd say it's a flavor almost anyone would like without much divide in opinion.

Opening the pizza sulgi 4 hours later: how is the cheese?

I opened the pizza sulgi 4 hours after taking it home, and the cheese was still soft but starting to firm up a bit. Cutting it in half to show you the cross-section, you can see just how much cheese is packed in. I thought about microwaving it to show off a big cheese pull, but since I like the chewy texture, I just ate it as is. Who knew rice cake and pizza would go together so well!

Being individually wrapped makes it easy to eat, and this pizza sulgi is loaded with stretchy mozzarella. The moist texture of the sulgi and the savory cheese flavor come together perfectly, letting you enjoy the best of both rice cake and pizza in one bite. Stretchy cheese, soft sulgi, and appetizing toppings — it's all packed deliciously into a single piece.

Who is Tteokmama Cheongju Yullyang best for?

Tteokmama's pizza sulgi is a healthy, mild flavor that kids who love pizza and adults who love soft baeksulgi (plain steamed rice cake) alike would enjoy — really something for all ages. Chuseok is a week away now. For kids who prefer pizza over songpyeon, buying a tray of pizza sulgi alongside your songpyeon sounds like a great way to make the whole family happy this holiday. Hope this helps if you're weighing up your songpyeon purchase for Chuseok.