Nonhyeon 2nd-floor pocha: fish cake stew, steamed egg, Yeongdong Pocha

Why Yeongdong Pocha for a second round near Nonhyeon Station

Yeongdong Pocha is a 2nd-floor Korean pocha (Korean-style pub) that's easy to drop into as you walk from the Nonhyeon food alley toward Nonhyeon Station. After our first round, we were walking that way and weren't ready to say goodbye yet, so we went to Yeongdong Pocha for a second round. It has an outdoor terrace, and the window-side mood upstairs is so atmospheric that I thought it would be great for company dinners and dates too.

There's a saying about places like this: you walk in on two legs and leave on four. The three of us are at an age where we don't have the stamina to drink until we crawl out, so we ordered just one bottle and had a long-overdue chat.

Where is Yeongdong Pocha, and is there parking?

Yeongdong Pocha is a 3-minute walk from Nonhyeon Station Exit 3, and it's not far from Sinnonhyeon Station either.

It's on the 2nd floor of Seokam Saengsogeum Gui (a salt-grilled meat restaurant), across from Obongjip, and there's a paid parking lot right next door. Parking fees aren't covered, but if you have to come by car, the lot next door is super handy! It costs ₩3,000 for the first 30 minutes and ₩1,000 for every additional 10 minutes.

The entrance of Yeongdong Pocha: the owner is nice and the snacks are friendly. You can tell at a glance it's a Korean pocha! Bossam (boiled pork wraps) and samhap (a combo plate of three items) seem to be the signatures, but we were full, so we kept our second round simple. Let's climb the stairs and soak up the retro vibe. Yeongdong Pocha is open from 16:00 to 06:00.

Inside Yeongdong Pocha: retro vibe and 2nd-floor window seats

Climb the stairs and you reach an outdoor terrace, while inside you can see a retro counter and the kitchen. We skipped the terrace and went inside.

The retro-style counter and kitchen.

The air conditioning was blasting, so it was wonderfully cool.

They say if you post the owner in an Instagram story with a tag, you get a free extra dish, haha. It sounded fun so I took a photo, but we were so busy chatting that I forgot all about it.

We were shown to a window seat, and the view over the 2nd floor of the Nonhyeon food alley is surprisingly good! It's a neighborhood that's Gangnam but doesn't quite feel like Gangnam, so it's lovely any time you go.

Yeongdong Pocha menu and table ordering

You order through a table-order system. They sell uni (sea urchin) by the full or half tray, and there were tons of tasty snacks that would work for a first round too, like gomjangeo (grilled hagfish), grilled dried pollock, chicken feet, cheese potato pancake and cream shrimp. I've only written down the signature items.

What we ordered at Yeongdong Pocha

• Multtteok fish cake stew (rice cakes in fish cake soup) ₩22,000
• Steamed egg ₩7,000
• Saero (soju) ₩6,000
• Sweet tomatoes ₩6,000

How was the food at Yeongdong Pocha?

Here's what the food looks like at Yeongdong Pocha, one of the Nonhyeon Station bars with really good snacks.

The free side snack: ramyeon-ttang (crunchy fried ramen snack).

Sweet tomatoes (6,000 won)

I'd eaten so much protein at the first round that I ordered the sweet tomatoes for myself. I should have asked them to skip the sugar, but I still downed the sweet juice (?) in one shot. I'd order the tomatoes again next time!

Multtteok fish cake stew (22,000 won)

The multtteok fish cake stew.

Ahh! The broth is so refreshing, maybe because there are clams in it. When a Korean pocha is good, every single snack is delicious, and Yeongdong Pocha is that kind of place. The green onions and clams give the broth a deep savory flavor.

The multtteok (rice cakes in a fish cake skewer style) I used to eat in Busan always make me happy. There were two, so my brother-in-law and I had one each. I'm cutting back on carbs, but I couldn't resist the multtteok.

They seem to use good fish cake too, but we were too full to finish it all, so I keep thinking about it!

Steamed egg (7,000 won)

We'd ordered steamed egg at the first round too, and we ordered it again here at Yeongdong Pocha, our second-round bar near Nonhyeon Station. This was the first time I found out my brother-in-law loves steamed egg.

Final verdict on Yeongdong Pocha in Nonhyeon

There are so many great restaurants near Yeongdong Market that I agonize every time, and it's a real problem because everything is delicious each time. If you want a bar near Nonhyeon Station that works for both first and second rounds, I recommend soaking up the retro mood at Yeongdong Pocha.