Perilla chicken hotpot at Ari Gyegok, a Korean bar near Isu Station

I was recently looking for somewhere to grab dinner and a light drink with a friend near Isu Station, and found a great spot!! 😊 In the Isu Station food alley, there's a place with plenty of menu options perfect for sharing among a group, like hotpots and chicken dishes! It's

Ari Gyegok Isu Station Branch

💡 138 Sadang-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul

7 minutes from Exit 13!!!✨💡🚊

What does Ari Gyegok Isu Station Branch look like inside and out?

Ari Gyegok Isu Station Branch hangs a sign with a traditional pattern, so it's easy to spot in the Isu Station food alley. The inside is bigger than expected, and true to the name, there's water flowing along one side in a traditional-style interior.

The exterior has a beautiful sign with a traditional pattern that's easy to spot! The interior design feels like an East Asian painting ✨

Walking in, the space was bigger than I expected. There are several tables set up, and besides regular open seating, there's a section with more comfortable seats too 🪑

Overall, the interior keeps a traditional feel, and true to the name Ari Gyegok (아리계곡, meaning "Ari Valley"), there's water flowing along one side of the space!

The lighting inside is fairly calm, so visiting in the evening gives off that distinct bar atmosphere. The place is spacious and clean, with a mix of traditional and modern feel, so it'd be nice to bring your parents too (if you want to visit without rushing, I'd recommend avoiding peak evening hours or making a reservation!!)

Such a pretty place

Ari Gyegok menu and hotpot prices

The hotpots at Ari Gyegok Isu Station Branch are: original chicken hotpot ₩22,900, perilla chicken hotpot ₩23,900, and spicy hangover chicken hotpot ₩23,900. With so many chicken dishes, the anju (side dishes for drinking) were varied too — chicken yukjeon (pan-fried chicken), chicken thigh yurinki, black garlic fried chicken, chicken thigh stir-fried with cheongyang peppers.

Even the menu board is cute

There's original chicken hotpot ₩22,900, perilla chicken hotpot ₩23,900, spicy hangover chicken hotpot ₩23,900, and various chicken-based anju like chicken yukjeon, chicken thigh yurinki, black garlic fried chicken, and chicken thigh with cheongyang peppers. For lighter bites, there's black sesame cucumber salad ₩7,900 and wild greens chicken salad ₩9,900, plus dishes made for sharing like bubbling cheese potato pancake ₩18,900 or egg roe jjamppong soup ₩21,900.

They also have a pretty wide range of traditional liquor and highballs.

Honest review: how the perilla chicken hotpot tastes

We met up that day to eat something hearty, and what we ordered was the perilla chicken hotpot! It's described as featuring a thick, nutty broth made with plenty of ground perilla seeds, and was listed as a limited-run menu item 🔥

The visuals were insane••• They told us to let it boil a bit longer, but we couldn't hold back and tasted the broth first — the nutty, mellow flavor of perilla was already quite strong 🫧✨

Shooting laser eyes at the pot willing it to cook faster•••• pics taken along the way 🔥🔥🚨 impossible for this to taste bad with visuals like this 🤤✨✨✨

The more warm broth I spooned up, the more the nutty perilla flavor lingered in my mouth and made me hungrier. Once it started bubbling, I ate it with the chicken already in the pot, and the rich broth combined with the clean chicken flavor was just amazing ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ 🥘

The meat was really substantial too, so I ate and ate and ate and ate some more

There were also vegetables and medicinal herbs mixed in, so as I ate, a healthy, clean flavor filled my mouth ❤️❤️❤️❤️

After eating the meat that was already in the pot, we added in the extra meat served on the side and cooked it too!! That meat was really tender ✨✨🔥

Finishing the pot with a scorched rice add-on

So good it's ridiculous••• Right before we finished, we added scorched rice, and they gave us 4 pieces, which we stirred in to eat like porridge — so delicious 💡💭 I love thick, nutty hotpot broth, so I ate this incredibly happily. It's a great menu whether you're visiting with a friend for a drink, or with a group sharing one hotpot in the middle 🤤

Would the writer go back to Ari Gyegok?

Chance of returning: 30000% 💡💡🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧

Besides the perilla chicken hotpot, Ari Gyegok also has other broth styles like the original chicken hotpot or the spicy hangover chicken hotpot, so you can choose based on your taste! Next time I visit, I want to try the perilla chicken hotpot alongside other chicken dishes. Especially if you're visiting with more people, adding another anju to share alongside one hotpot could be a great way to try more flavors!!

If you're looking for a place near Isu Station to enjoy a hearty hotpot with drinks, I highly recommend Ari Gyegok Isu Station Branch 🍶🥘