Second-floor Suwon bar for chestnut makgeolli and yurinchi: Ryu-eun

Today I'm bringing you a review of Ryu-eun, a Korean bar in Haenggung-dong. It sells a wide range of Korean and Western dishes, so it's a great spot for a date or a casual night out with friends!

Where Ryu-eun is and when it opens

• ✅ Ryu-eun
• 🕒 Tue-Sun 17:00-23:30 (Sat from 16:00, Fri-Sat until 01:00)
• ❗ Reservations available via Naver Reservation

Ryu-eun sits in the alley near the entrance of Haenggung-dong's main street, close to Suwon Museum of Art, so even first-time visitors to Haenggung-dong can find it easily 👍

First floor or second floor at Ryu-eun: which seats to take

The place is spread across two floors, so the seating felt quite spacious, and on nice days you can enjoy your food sitting outside ❣️ I went up to the second floor because it felt a bit more private.

Once we sat down, they brought out tofu crackers as the basic side dish, and they're this mildly savory, crunchy snack with a hint of sweetness — the kind you can't stop eating haha. You might end up too full for the main food, so pull yourself together and check out the menu.

What's on the menu at Ryu-eun

Being a Korean bar doesn't mean they only serve Korean food —

• ✔️ They also had raw beef mul-hoe (cold raw beef soup), salmon sashimi, odaeng-tang (fish cake soup), spicy mala bean sprout stir-fry, gimtae pasta, and tomato nurungji stew — Western and Japanese dishes as well!
• ✔️ Salmon sashimi, duruchigi (spicy stir-fried pork), seafood hot pot, seafood tteokbokki, yurinchi jokbal, truffle potato pancake — the menu was packed with tempting options, so I agonized over what to order haha.

And true to a bar, they also had a wide selection of distilled spirits, fruit wines, and cocktails. I was curious about the fruit wine, but since I'd already picked sashimi and yurinchi for the day, I was in the mood for makgeolli, so I ordered the chestnut makgeolli.

The order and the prices, starting with chestnut makgeolli

• Aged salmon sashimi (28.0)
• Yurinchi (19.0)
• Chestnut makgeolli (6.0)
• Zero Coke (3.0)

Not long after ordering, the drinks arrived first. I'd just had chestnut makgeolli in Gongju not long ago and figured this one would taste the same, but the chestnut flavor here was really rich and nutty — way more delicious than I expected ❣️

The makgeolli was so good I was sipping away at it even before the food arrived haha. Shortly after, the yurinchi and salmon sashimi were ready.

Aged salmon sashimi, 28,000 won: the thickness makes it

Doesn't the salmon sashimi look so appetizing? The thickly sliced salmon looked incredibly fresh and rich!

It came with wasabi, flying fish roe, onion, and radish sprouts on the side, and eating it with flying fish roe plus wasabi turned out to be really delicious — the roe went surprisingly well with the salmon.

Can you see how thick the salmon slices are! Moist yet appropriately thick — that's basically the look of 'this is going to taste amazing.' It was cut to just the right thickness to bring out the maximum flavor of the salmon!

I topped it with flying fish roe, wasabi, and radish sprouts, and you could really taste how rich and chewy the salmon was — paired with the nutty chestnut makgeolli, it was so, so good 💞 I think it was the best salmon sashimi I've had this year haha. Sure, salmon is always good no matter what, but the thickness, moistness, and freshness here really came through, which made it even more satisfying 👍

Yurinchi, 19,000 won: how spicy is it?

With high expectations, I tried the next dish, yurinchi. There's a soy sauce base underneath and finely chopped cheongyang chili peppers scattered on top, so it's spicier than you'd expect!

The pieces of meat were pretty big, and when I picked one up with my chopsticks, I could already feel how crispy the fried coating was haha. That's when I decided the fried chicken here had to be great.

Sure enough, the batter was seriously crispy, and the meat inside was so moist and tender — I felt like everything I'd ordered that day was a hit. There's a bit of chili oil under the soy sauce seasoning that adds some heat, so if you're weak with spice, watch out ❗ But I was very satisfied.

The cheongyang chilies themselves were pretty spicy too, which cut through the richness and heaviness of the fried coating, and the chicken inside was so tender that I felt like I'd finally found a great yurinchi spot after a long time haha.

Who Ryu-eun in Suwon suits best

That wraps up my review of Ryu-eun, a Korean bar in Haenggung-dong. The menu lineup is clean and unlikely to disappoint anyone, and both the food and drinks were delicious, making it a great spot for a date in Haenggung-dong or for grabbing drinks with friends ❣️