Yeonnam-dong bar with a traditional liquor tasting set: Ijillirya

A Yeonnam-dong date with my boyfriend. We met after work, sat through about two and a half hours of a personal color wedding consultation, and by the end I was starving ㅠㅠㅠ. What we needed wasn't a loud, crowded spot but somewhere a bit calmer where we could actually talk. Wedding prep is such chaos!!!! So much to do.

Ijillirya Yeonnam — even the name has this strange pull that puts you in a reflective mood.

Where is Ijillirya Yeonnam? Hours and parking

Ijillirya Yeonnam sits at 1F, 262-8 Donggyo-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, open daily from 17:00 to 01:00, with no parking available. It's tucked into an alley just off Yeonnam-dong's busiest stretch, so even the walk there felt relaxed.

Once we opened the door, the mood inside felt even cozier and warmer than the exterior suggested.

Inside Ijillirya Yeonnam: wood-toned interior and the welcome drink

The main room at Ijillirya Yeonnam pairs unpretentious, tidy wood-toned furniture with soft lighting for a comfortable feel. As soon as you sit down, they bring out a welcome round: basic anju and a glass of traditional liquor each.

It's less a rowdy drinking spot and more a calm mood suited to honest conversation.

As a welcome drink, they give you one drink each along with basic anju and a glass of traditional liquor.

What to order from the Ijillirya Yeonnam menu

Two signature items caught my eye on the Ijillirya Yeonnam menu — spicy beef belly hotpot and seafood banga jeon (herb pancake) — so I ordered them without hesitation.

What I liked most was not having to raise my voice over loud music.

How the self-serve traditional liquor tasting set works

Ijillirya Yeonnam is known for its traditional liquors, so we ordered the tasting set to sample three kinds. The bottle on the bottom shelf of the self-serve bar is the bitterest, and they get sweeter as you go up.

Once you find the one you like best, you can order the matching recommended liquor.

Spicy beef belly hotpot: how hot is the broth?

The first dish to arrive was the spicy beef belly hotpot. A pot bubbling away on the burner, packed to the brim with ingredients — the visual alone grabbed my attention.

• Broth flavor: the moment a spoonful hits your mouth, there's a deep, rich stock with a hint of savory depth. A hot, clean, almost mala-like spiciness lingers faintly. It's not spicy just for the sake of it — the nuttiness that seeps out from the long-simmered vegetables and beef belly rounds it out and it genuinely clears your head.
• Texture and balance: the thin, tender beef belly soaked up the broth and stayed juicy, while the generous butter and vegetables added variety to the texture. There's no better dish for sipping a drink and spooning up broth in between.

Seafood banga jeon, a savory pancake full of banga leaf aroma

Next came the seafood banga jeon. A golden, crisply fried pancake generously studded with fresh seafood, and above all, that distinctive fragrant scent of banga leaf (a herb similar to Vietnamese mint) drifted past my nose.

Texture: the outside was fried crisp enough that you could still feel the crunch of the batter, while the inside was moist and chewy where the banga leaf and seafood came together. Kind of like a minari (water dropwort) jeon, a little.

Flavor balance: the distinctive, fragrant flavor of banga leaf cleanly cuts through any fishiness the seafood might otherwise have. If you're someone who likes herbaceous greens, this is a flavor almost anyone would fall for. A light dip in soy sauce works, but the jeon's own flavor is so good that eating it plain filled my mouth with plenty of enjoyment too.

Final verdict: who should visit Ijillirya Yeonnam

In the middle of a busy everyday routine, it's nice sometimes to set everything down for a while and just rest with good food. While we sat with the carefully made anju in front of us, all the tangled thoughts felt forgotten for a moment.

If you want to have a quiet conversation over thoughtful anju in Yeonnam-dong, or you're after some solo reflection or deep time with someone important to you, it's worth a visit at least once. Not a flashy place, but the kind that stays with you for a long time.