Terrace dinner and grilled jokbal at Ryu-eun, a Suwon bar

It had been a while since my husband and I had a date in Haenggung-dong. The weather has been so nice lately, and wandering through the pretty little alleys of Haenggung-dong together made me feel so happy!

We weren't quite ready to head home, so we stopped by Ryu-eun, a Haenggung-dong bar with a lovely outdoor terrace, for a light dinner and a drink!

Ryu-eun’s exterior in a Haenggung-dong alley

Here’s the exterior of Ryu-eun, a bar in Haenggung-dong. Since it sits in one of the neighborhood’s alleys, it was nice to browse the lanes on the way there. The atmosphere was lovely from the outside, and the area in front is so prettily decorated that lots of people were taking photos there!

The terrace and second-floor atmosphere

This is inside Ryu-eun, a Haenggung-dong cooking bar. It was a modern space with a vintage feel.

The lighting wasn’t too bright and the tables were nicely spaced, making it just right for drinks with friends, dinner with your partner, or a date!

The standout feature was the outdoor terrace connected by folding doors. When there’s a cool breeze like this, you simply can’t pass up an outdoor table, right? As an outdoor-bar fanatic, I claimed a terrace seat. It looked out onto a garden and trees, so it didn’t feel closed in, while the walls still gave it a cozy feel.

The bar also has a second floor. A large chandelier sits in the center upstairs, and there is group seating, so it looked great for get-togethers. There was a large party there on the day I visited, too.

It really felt like the kind of Haenggung-dong bar where you can enjoy food and drinks at an easy pace while having a conversation.

With the big windows upstairs, you can have drinks while looking out at Haenggung-dong, which gives it a completely different feel from the first floor.

By the way, the restroom was incredibly clean!! I’m not the only one who thinks restrooms matter when choosing a bar, right?! Haha

I snapped this staircase on the way down because it was so pretty. Even the spots you could easily walk past were decorated beautifully with different objects, which made them fun to look at.

Ryu-eun’s menu and what we ordered

Let me show you Ryu-eun’s menu, too. Swipe across to see more of it. These are Ryu-eun’s food dishes.

Here are the alcoholic drinks and beverages. As you’d expect from a Haenggung-dong bar that sells lots of Korean traditional liquor, there were many traditional drinks I had never seen before. I wanted something light, so I ordered gamjasul (potato rice wine), which has a relatively low alcohol content.

The food prices were quite reasonable, too, so even with two dishes, alcohol, and a drink, we ate for around ₩50,000. I ordered grilled jokbal (pig’s trotters), gamtae pasta, gamjasul, and Coke Zero.

Dinner with grilled jokbal and gamtae pasta

For the basic snack, they bring out mild tofu chips. They were light and crisp, nice when you wanted a little something to nibble on and quite good to snack on before the proper bar food arrived.

Soon after, the gamjasul and drinks arrived. My husband had to drive, so he ordered Coke Zero, and I loved that they filled the drink with ice all the way to the top.

Gamjasul is said to be a traditional folk liquor from Gangwon-do. It is apparently the only yakju (clear Korean rice wine) in Korea made with potatoes as its main ingredient, and its subtle aroma from the potato-and-grain blend was memorable. I expected a strong grain-wine character like makgeolli, but surprisingly it was smooth rather than heavy and a perfect match for Korean-style bar food!! I didn’t have any hangover at all the next day either, which was great!

Then the gamtae pasta and grilled jokbal we ordered arrived. You can order the jokbal half-and-half, but I skipped the spicy jokbal and ordered only the grilled version. Since they sell such a range of drinks, from traditional liquor to cocktails and wine, they also have varied food that crosses Korean and Western styles, so choosing what to eat was fun too!

Easy-to-eat boneless grilled jokbal

This is the grilled jokbal. Since we came for dinner as well as drinks, I ordered this filling dish. It had a good balance of chewy skin and meat, with grilled king oyster mushrooms on the side. Unexpectedly, those mushrooms were seriously delicious?! They were good enough to hold their own against the meat *_*

The jokbal was seasoned just right, so it was delicious on its own and even better with the dried shredded radish that came with it. Since there were no bones, it was easy to eat, too.

Gamtae pasta that paired well with traditional liquor

Next was the gamtae pasta. It is a creamy seafood pasta with gamtae, a seaweed often called the herb of the sea. If you think pasta goes only with cocktails or wine, think again. Pasta actually pairs perfectly with traditional Korean liquor, too.

This gamtae pasta especially had a super-delicious sauce, with assorted seafood in a smooth cream sauce. The thick fettuccine carried plenty of that amazing sauce, so every big bite was so good. It was tastier than many dedicated pasta restaurants. It was packed with seafood too, from clams and squid to shrimp!

I had such a lovely time at Ryu-eun, a Haenggung-dong bar, with my husband after so long.

If you’re looking for a Haenggung-dong bar or a Korean-style bar with delicious food, I recommend the atmospheric Ryu-eun!