Cheongju tteokbokki restaurant for a nostalgic sauce: Bubuduri

For days, my guy kept singing, “I want tteokbokki.” Ugh haha. I thought he would say it for just one day, but after several days of tteokbokki talk, we finally came out around 3 PM and said, “Fine! Let’s go eat!”

The place we went to was Bubuduri Tteokbokki, a great tteokbokki spot in Bongmyeong-dong, Cheongju! My family has been regulars here since the days when it was sold from a truck.

My family especially loved the red eomuk (fish cake) here so much that we would take it home and eat it with rice, haha. I have loved tteokbokki since I was little too, and this is still somewhere I visit now and then.

No matter when I eat it, the sauce tastes just like it did back then. First it is sweet, then a little spice follows! I ate it with my family as a child, now I come with my guy, and sometimes I even stand out front and eat it alone, haha.

So much time has passed, but one bite of the tteokbokki is still familiar. This is not a place I visit to hunt down a new flavor; it is an old favorite I return to whenever it comes to mind.

Bubuduri Tteokbokki Bongmyeong Branch information

It is open Monday and Wednesday from 11:00 AM to 2:30 AM, and Thursday through Saturday from 11:00 AM to 3:30 AM. It is regularly closed every Sunday. Takeout and delivery are available, along with Wi-Fi, group use, and easy payment options.

Because it stays open late and you can have drinks in the shop, it is a great snack restaurant for a late-night meal or a second stop too!

There is room for two or three cars behind the shop; if it is full, you will need to park nearby! There is 10-minute no-parking enforcement in front of the shop on weekdays!! Parking is possible there after 8 PM on weekdays!

Getting to Bubuduri Tteokbokki

It is tucked inside the Bongmyeong-dong dining alley in Cheongju. Since it is near the dining alley and bar street, it is nice for a second stop too! It is right in front of the Bongmyeong IPARK bus stop, near Ddonggwang Noraebang, and across from Bongmyeong-dong Saemaeul Geumgo.

The tteokbokki shop I ate at from its food-truck days

This is somewhere I have eaten since I was little in Cheongju. It was not always a place where you ordered and ate inside a shop like it is now; there was a time when it sold food from a truck. My family loved it from then on!

Especially the red eomuk! My family could practically eat a meal with just red eomuk, haha. So when I hear the name Bubuduri, tteokbokki and red eomuk naturally come to mind together.

There are so many new snack restaurants these days, but places you have eaten at for a long time feel a little different. You do not only remember the flavor—you remember who you ate with and where you ate, and those memories come along too.

Kiosk and table-tablet ordering

There was no such thing before, but now the shop has a kiosk, and you can order from a tablet at the table! It was convenient because I could look over the menu while seated and order more right from my seat while eating.

From the perspective of someone who has been coming since its food-truck days, seeing this ordering system made me think, “Wow, it has really changed a lot,” haha.

Even though I visited around 3 PM, there were lots of delivery orders and takeout customers, so I noticed people using it in plenty of ways beyond eating in.

A shop people visit from daytime through late night

Since it is open late, in the evening you can see friends come by for drinks with snack foods as anju (food served with alcohol)! Haha. I have had drinks here with friends too, hahaha.

It is popular for snacks or a meal during the day, snack foods in the evening, and a late-night meal or second stop later on, haha.

The menu and what we ordered

We ordered one serving of Duri Tteokbokki for ₩6,000, chewy sundae for ₩6,000, and Bubu fried snacks for ₩8,000, for a total of ₩20,000.

My guy had been singing about wanting tteokbokki for days, and in the end he properly polished off fried snacks and sundae too, haha. Wish granted.

I still come sometimes, and the sauce tastes the same

This is not somewhere I only ate at as a child and forgot—I still visit now and then! Every time I come, I feel that same sauce flavor I ate back then.

The sweetness comes first and the spice follows behind..! It is not intensely spicy; the sweetness and spice are together, making it the kind of flavor that has you reaching for another bite!

When I take it home, I add rice too... and eat tteokbokki plus rice, haha.

There is fish cake in the tteokbokki too: one rice cake, one fish cake, then a spoonful of sauce.

Before you know it, you keep reaching for it with your chopsticks, haha. This time too, as soon as I had my first bite, I thought, “Yes, this is the flavor!” hahaha.

Rather than the surprise of discovering a new great restaurant, it feels good to find the flavor I have always eaten still exactly the same!!

What comes in the Bubu fried-snack set, and its crispness

The Bubu fried-snack set has eight pieces in total: three fried squid, two gim-mari (fried seaweed rolls), two fried sweet potatoes, and one dumpling.

The fried snacks came whole, so I used scissors to snip them into easy-to-eat pieces.

I really love how crisp the fried snacks themselves are.

Chewy sundae comes with liver too

One serving of chewy sundae is ₩6,000! The sundae comes with liver too! One thing I pay attention to when I eat sundae is any gamey smell,

but to me, it was fine to eat with no off smell! It has that pleasantly chewy texture unique to chewy sundae, and it tastes mild on its own.

My guy kept dipping the liver in the tteokbokki sauce, hahaha.

If you are looking for tteokbokki in Bongmyeong-dong, Cheongju

Cheongju has so many snack restaurants! Still, Bubuduri Tteokbokki means something a little different to me. My family ate there from its food-truck days, and I can still taste the sweet and spicy sauce we loved then!

If you want to eat tteokbokki, fried snacks, and sundae all at once, or are looking for a snack restaurant open late, Bubuduri Tteokbokki would be a good place to visit!

With an old favorite you have visited for years, it is even more welcome when the flavor you remember is still exactly the same!

It is such an old neighborhood regular spot... sometimes I run into friends here. Oh? Hi! Since I have spent so long in Bongmyeong-dong, my friends come here from time to time too, and that is how we occasionally meet by chance, hahaha.