Snack bar near Euljiro 1-ga with hand-rolled rice balls: Hyeonseoni-ne

Hyeonseoni-ne Cheonggye Instant Branch: an after-work snack bar by Euljiro 1-ga Station

I got off work on a weekday and suddenly craved tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), so I headed to Hyeonseoni-ne Cheonggye Instant Branch.

A friend who works nearby said it was delicious, so I'd been wanting to try it — I was pretty excited haha.

I was looking for somewhere to have dinner near Euljiro 1-ga station and ended up here — it was pretty busy, probably because it was weekday after-work hours. Looked like a lot of office workers come here too.

How long is the wait, and what is the room like?

Hyeonseoni-ne Cheonggye Instant Branch tends to be on the crowded side, so depending on the time you might have to wait a bit. I wanted tteokbokki so badly that I just waited it out haha.

The atmosphere had that comfortable old-school feel — the kind of place you can walk into, eat a plate of snacks, and head out. You know tteokbokki always tastes better in a place with this kind of unpretentious vibe!!

Instant tteokbokki, regular tteokbokki and the Hyeonseoni Combo

True to its name, Hyeonseoni-ne Cheonggye Instant Branch serves instant tteokbokki as well as regular tteokbokki. Instant tteokbokki is fun since it simmers right at your table, and when you want something simpler you can just order the regular kind — I liked having that option. Since I wanted to try a bit of everything that day, I ordered the Hyeonseoni Combo.

How the tteokbokki tastes at Hyeonseoni-ne

The Hyeonseoni Combo comes with tteokbokki, sundae (Korean blood sausage), fried snacks, gimbap (seaweed rice roll), and fish cake all together — a great lineup if you love snack food. The tteokbokki itself was sweet and spicy. At first you taste the sweet sauce, and as you keep eating, the spiciness builds up behind it. The sauce was rich and clung well to the rice cakes, which were soft and went well with the seasoning.

Fried snacks and sundae dipped in the tteokbokki broth

Personally I think tteokbokki tastes even better paired with fried snacks or sundae. Dipping the fried snacks lightly into the tteokbokki broth was delicious — the crispy batter soaked up the sauce nicely. The sundae had a chewy texture and wasn't overly gamey, so it was easy to eat. It's fine on its own, but as always, dipping it a little into the tteokbokki broth made it even better.

The gimbap and fish cake in the combo

The gimbap wasn't heavily seasoned, so it went well alongside the tteokbokki. Eating a piece of gimbap between bites of the spicy tteokbokki gave a nice balance.

The fish cake also paired well with the warm broth. And then I made and ate the rice balls from the review event.

Rolling the review-event rice balls by hand

Rolling them into little round shapes myself was surprisingly fun. They're fine plain, but dipping them lightly in the tteokbokki broth added a spicy-sweet kick that made them even tastier. Eating a rice ball alongside the tteokbokki worked better than I expected.

What I liked most about the Hyeonseoni Combo was being able to try several kinds of snack food at once. It's a great order when just tteokbokki alone isn't enough and you also want sundae, fried snacks, and gimbap. It's also a good spread for two people to share. If you're looking for somewhere to eat dinner after work near Euljiro 1-ga station, this place is worth a stop.

And on days when you're craving Euljiro-style tteokbokki, it's a nice perk that you can choose between instant tteokbokki and regular tteokbokki depending on your mood. It was a day I left work and filled up on spicy-sweet tteokbokki with sundae and fried snacks :) If you love tteokbokki, I'd recommend trying the Hyeonseoni Combo at Hyeonseoni-ne Cheonggye Instant Branch to taste a bit of everything.