Yongsan tteokbokki spot, level 9 to 4 heat control: Hyeonseonine

Where is Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch and how do you get there?

Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch is an instant tteokbokki place within a 10-minute walk of Yongsan Station. There's a very tall chimney with "Hyeonseonine" written on it, so you can spot the restaurant from far away.

They're open daily 11:00–24:00 with last order at 22:40. On Mondays there's a break time from 14:30 to 16:00.

How much is instant tteokbokki, and how spicy is medium?

Hyeonseonine's instant tteokbokki is ₩11,000 per serving, and you can only order from 2 servings up. Honestly I came to try the Hyeonseon set, but it turned out this place does instant tteokbokki! My friend and I looked at the menu together and decided to order that instead.

We went with the medium spice, which is a little spicier than Shin Ramyun. It was listed as the most preferred option.

Some tables have induction burners and some don't — if you want instant tteokbokki, you have to sit at a table with induction!

What is the fried batter at Hyeonseonine's self-serve bar?

Hyeonseonine's self-serve bar has everything you need — salt, pickled radish, plates, ladles, tongs, even aprons! But the thing I found most unusual was this fried batter.

It was just crispy fried batter bits sitting there, and I was curious what it was for, so I scooped some onto my plate. Other tables were definitely grabbing it too.

How long is the wait, and what comes in the base order?

Since instant tteokbokki is cooked at the table, the prepped ingredients came out fast even with the place packed! Hyeonseonine's tteokbokki is a well-known Yongsan spot, so there's often a wait — usually 30 minutes to an hour, I heard. They don't use CatchTable or any app, so you line up in front of the restaurant.

Rice cake, fish cake, cabbage, egg, jjolmyeon noodles — the base toppings were really generous.

Add fried rice plus yakki-mandu (pan-fried dumplings) to the mix and it's just pure love♡

How to control the induction heat, from level 9 to level 4

Instant tteokbokki tip Boil at level 9, drop to level 4 once it's rolling, and once the ingredients are cooked switch to the H (warm) setting — that way you can eat it hot for a long time. * The key is stirring it regularly!

It's boiling within just a few minutes — that's the key part!

It was a weekday lunch, but since this is a favorite among Yongsan office workers, the place was packed — and there was a clear reason the table turnover was still so fast.

Steam kept rising and the smell was so good that I debated eating before it was fully cooked, ended up just grabbing a yakki-mandu instead lol.

The bouncy, chewy rice cakes cling to your mouth so nicely — this is exactly the taste of instant tteokbokki~

Once it had been bubbling for a while and everything looked cooked through, I turned off the power. (Turning it off automatically switches it to warm mode.)

What do rice cakes dipped in fried batter taste like?

And then the fried batter I brought from the self-serve bar!! I dipped a piece right away.

Dipping the crispy batter bits reminded me of ⭐️the dip-style tteokbokki chain! But this one uses fried breadcrumbs, so it was twice as crispy.

Finishing with two eggs and fried rice

One great thing about Hyeonseonine's instant tteokbokki — of course there's a boiled egg with instant tteokbokki~ I'm not sure if it's one egg per serving, but there were two in there.

Add just ₩1,500 for fried rice and it's a truly complete, filling meal! If you're looking for a Yongsan spot, I recommend Hyeonseonine's tteokbokki! Next time I want to try the regular tteokbokki set with a variety of options too.