Squid ink risotto and abalone gonad pasta near Yangjae Station: Romaok

A day I was meeting a friend for lunch near Yangjae. While looking around for somewhere to eat, I found a place with a slightly unusual menu — Romaok Dogok, a restaurant near Yangjae Station.

I eat pasta and risotto pretty often, but when you actually look at the menu it's always a choice between cream, tomato, or oil, right? This place was different from the start. Squid ink risotto and abalone gonad pasta — dishes I'd rarely tried before, so we ordered one of each.

From Yangjae Station to Romaok Dogok, a short walk

Romaok Dogok is about 268m from Yangjae Station Exit 3. It's located at 11 Gangnam-daero 48-gil, 1F, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, so it was a quick stroll from the station.

That day I met my friend for the meal and had to head to Gwangmyeong afterward, so I didn't want to travel too far. Being close to Yangjae Station made the route easy to plan. If you're looking for a restaurant near Yangjae Station that's close to the exit, the location works well.

Romaok Dogok / 11 Gangnam-daero 48-gil, 1F, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea / 11:30–22:00 (break time 15:00–17:00)

The exterior atmosphere

I arrived at Romaok Dogok. The atmosphere is really classic and old-fashioned.

The building really is gorgeous.

The interior is calm and relaxed

Going inside, the atmosphere was calmer and cleaner than I expected.

It's also been selected for Red Ribbon's National Best Restaurants 2026.

The tables are neatly set, and it's a good vibe for chatting with a friend over a meal. Eating in a super crowded place makes conversation kind of frantic, you know?

Here, it's nice for a more relaxed meal.

It seems like a good spot for a date too, and it worked well for a lunch meetup with a friend like me.

The menu

This is Romaok's menu.

Squid ink risotto, ₩25,000

The first dish was the squid ink risotto.

The color catches your eye the moment it arrives.

It's genuinely pitch black, haha. Grilled squid sits on top of the ink risotto, and the contrast between black and white made for great photos too. It's made with grilled cuttlefish, ink sauce, dill oil, sun-dried tomatoes, and apparently Sindongjin new-harvest rice.

Before eating, I was a little worried the ink flavor might be too strong or fishy, but it turned out to be less intense than expected. The cuttlefish was plump and chewy, and it went really well texture-wise with the risotto.

Halfway through, a random thought hit me — my mouth's not black right now, is it? Haha. Eating with a friend makes moments like this even more fun. If you want to try something uncommon at Romaok Dogok near Yangjae Station, give this dish a shot.

Abalone gonad pasta, ₩25,000

And then the dish I was curious about — abalone gonad pasta. It's linguine with abalone steamed with kelp, garlic scapes, chorizo, and abalone gonad sauce.

With abalone piled on top of the pasta, this one had pretty great visuals too. Since gonad is the abalone's innards, I thought the flavor might be too intense, but eaten with the noodles it was nutty and full of savory umami.

The garlic scapes added crunch here and there, so the texture never got boring.

It's a clearly different flavor from cream or tomato pasta, and honestly this kind of dish stuck with me more. If you're after a slightly different pasta near Yangjae Station, the abalone gonad pasta is a solid choice.

Tiramisu-ssuk came free with our Naver Reservation

We'd nearly finished eating when dessert showed up. Since we visited through Naver Reservation, we got a free tiramisu-ssuk (mugwort tiramisu). Looking at the menu, it's normally a ₩10,000 item. Oh — that's a nice little surprise, haha.

I thought it was regular tiramisu, but it's actually called tiramisu-ssuk! It has mugwort syrup, mugwort mascarpone, savoiardi, and roasted bean flour. Mugwort with bean flour — I never expected a dessert like this at the end of an Italian meal. It felt totally different from regular tiramisu, and it kept things fun right to the last bite. If you're booking a reservation, check whether there's a perk when you visit.

If you want something different to eat near Yangjae Station

This time at Romaok Dogok I had the squid ink risotto and the abalone gonad pasta.

Plus the tiramisu-ssuk that came as a reservation perk! Just reading the menu names tells you it's not a common combo. I ordered them curious about the flavor, and since they were so different from my usual pasta and risotto, they stuck with me even more.

It was close to Yangjae Station so it was easy to get to, and the atmosphere was good for chatting with a friend over a meal. If you're thinking of trying something different instead of your usual order, Romaok Dogok near Yangjae Station is worth a visit. And after the ink risotto, do check a mirror.