Cherry blossom pocha near Gaebong Station for dinner and drinks: Apgujeong Sinpocha

📍 Apgujeong Sinpocha 20-10 Nambusunhwan-ro 97-gil, 2nd floor, Guro-gu, Seoul, South Korea 🚇 About 52m from Gaebong Station Exit 1 ⏰ 18:00 ~ 3:00 the next day ✔️ Naver Reservation available ✔️ Groups of 5+ should call ahead

I was looking for a spot near Gaebong Station to eat dinner and have a drink, and that's how I ended up at Apgujeong Sinpocha. This time I ordered charcoal-grilled cheese buldak (spicy grilled chicken with cheese) and donkatsu kimchi jeongol (pork cutlet kimchi hot pot) — one spicy skillet dish and one hot soup felt like a solid drinking menu combo.

The two weren't similar in style, so it was easy to switch back and forth between them, and even though I hadn't eaten dinner beforehand, it filled me up pretty well.

How close is it to Gaebong Station Exit 1?

Right as you step out of the station. It's on the 2nd floor of a nearby building, and the sign is big enough to spot from outside, so it wasn't hard to find at all. It works well whether you're starting drinks with dinner, or looking for a place to drink a bit later since it has plenty of time flexibility as a bar near Gaebong Station.

🌸 A pocha full of cherry blossoms inside

Once I got upstairs and inside, the atmosphere was a bit different from what I expected. When you think of a pocha, you usually picture something a little rougher and rowdier, but here the wood-tone tables and seats were dressed up generously with pink cherry blossom decorations.

The weather was nice that day so the windows were open too — great vibe 👍 It felt like a good place for a casual drink with friends near Gaebong Station, or for sitting face to face over dinner and drinks with someone.

The two dishes I picked this time

While going through the menu, I ended up ordering two things this time: 🔥 charcoal-grilled cheese buldak and 🍲 donkatsu kimchi jeongol. At a pocha I usually end up staring at the menu forever wanting to order everything, but this time I went with one spicy dish and one soup dish ^^

🔥 Charcoal-grilled cheese buldak, loaded generously with cheese

It comes out on a hot skillet, with cheese melted generously over the chicken and sauce, so the visual alone screamed drinking food. The cheese wasn't just piled a little in the middle — it was melted broadly all through the chicken. There's cabbage and rice cake mixed in too, along with the chicken, so it's fun to pick out one bite at a time.

Especially with the spicy sauce and cheese together, eating them in the same bite was great. The cheese blended smoothly into the spicy sauce, and I just kept reaching for more!!

Ordering a skillet dish like this at a pocha is perfect for slowly eating while sipping a drink. This was exactly that kind of dish!! The spice level can be adjusted too ♡ If you're looking for good drinking food near Gaebong Station and you like spicy, this one's worth keeping an eye on haha

🍲 Kimchi jeongol with donkatsu inside?

Inside the soup were big chunks of donkatsu (pork cutlet), along with udon noodles and egg, so the fillings were quite substantial. The hot kimchi jeongol broth soaked into the udon noodles, and they were satisfying to pull up with chopsticks.

The donkatsu wasn't served separately — it sits right in the soup, so over time the breading soaks up the broth. It's a completely different experience from eating crispy donkatsu. Donkatsu gone soft and soaked with broth, plus the kimchi jeongol soup on top — the soju just keeps going down haha.

Was it good as a dinner-plus-drinks combo?

On days when you meet up straight for drinks without eating dinner first, if the food is too light you end up ordering more anyway — but both dishes I had this time had substantial fillings, so it worked fine as dinner too. If you're looking for a good restaurant-bar in Gaebong-dong and want to handle both a meal and drinks in one go, this place would suit that well. 👍