Yongsan tteokbokki spot with draft beer and fritters: Hyeonseonine

Why Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch after the Seoul Fireworks Festival?

I got hungry after the Seoul Fireworks Festival on Saturday, so I stopped by. You can spot the tall chimney with 'Hyeonseonine' written on it from far away.

Hyeonseonine is a tteokbokki chain, and Yongsan is where the flagship location sits. I was curious just how good it must be to have spawned so many branches.

Is there a wait at 10pm, and how do you order?

It was already close to 10pm and the line kept growing. Normally they'd be closed by then, but they extended their hours that day because of the festival.

While waiting, you have to pick between instant tteokbokki and original tteokbokki. It seemed like most people preferred the signature original tteokbokki.

Inside, there were plenty of tables and it was busy, but the flow was steady and quick. Thanks to that turnover, even with a wait, we didn't have to wait long.

You can see photos from Hyeonseonine's old-school street stall days on display. To think how long Hyeonseonine has held on to become a go-to Yongsan tteokbokki spot...!

Once your number is called, you enter and order at the kiosk. When it's busy, staff will assign you a seat, so just wait after ordering.

The self-serve bar has pickled radish, small plates, and soy sauce. There's usually fried batter crumbs to add to the odeng broth too, but it was sold out, sadly.

What comes in the Hyeonseonine Combo Set for three?

We ordered the Hyeonseonine Combo Set for three.

• Original tteokbokki
• Sundae (Korean blood sausage)
• Gimbap
• Kkoburi eomuk (curly fish cake skewers)
• Fritters
• Gimbap was sold out that day and replaced with rice balls

The spread was so varied and generous that picking through it all was half the fun. With tteok-twigim-sundae, odeng, and rice balls too, there was never any worry of not having enough — we ate until full.

Mild broth tteokbokki with draft beer at Hyeonseonine

The tteokbokki has a thin, broth-like sauce closer to guk-tteokbokki (soup-style rice cakes), and it's very mild. It tastes less like today's trendy tteokbokki and more like the old-school street-stall version.

I liked that it wasn't too sweet, and the wheat rice cakes had a nice chewiness I enjoyed. The odeng had soaked up the sauce nicely too, giving it a salty, tasty kick.

One thing that sets this Yongsan tteokbokki spot apart is that you can enjoy cold draft beer alongside it! Not many tteokbokki restaurants serve draft beer, so this gets full marks from me.

Dipping the fritters in the moist broth is genuinely delicious, so give it a try. I used to agonize over what to eat on Yongridan-gil, but now I know to come here.

Chewy kkoburi eomuk in anchovy broth

The kkoburi eomuk (curly fish cake skewers) hadn't gotten soggy, so they kept their full chewiness. The broth is made from anchovy stock, so it's refreshing — one spoonful and you can't help but let out an old-man sigh of satisfaction.

I like fish cakes with some bite to them, and the kkoburi eomuk hit just the right firm texture. They're not loosely threaded but packed on a bit tighter, which somehow makes them even tastier.

There's also fried tofu soaking up plenty of the refreshing odeng broth. I found some rice cake skewers in there too, discovered a bit late into the meal.

Are the assorted fritters crispy or greasy?

You can't pick which fritters you get, but you get a variety of types. This place is clearly skilled at frying — none of the fritters tasted like they'd soaked up excess oil.

Kimmari (seaweed-wrapped glass noodle rolls), vegetable fritters, sweet potato. The batter was rough-textured and completely crispy. The vegetable fritters in particular were so good I remember rationing them.

Mandu (dumplings) and squid fritters. Usually yaki-mandu only has glass noodle filling, but these actually had meat filling inside too. The squid fritters had big, plump pieces of squid clearly visible.

Tuna rice balls when Hyeonseonine's gimbap sells out

I really wanted to try the gimbap, but of course, being such a hot spot, it was sold out. Tuna rice balls came instead, and they were so good I scarfed down every last bit!