Ansan Korean snack restaurant for spicy tteokbokki: Yum Bbokki

Visiting Yum Bbokki near Ansan Cultural Square and parking

If you love tteokbokki in Ansan, you may have heard the name Yum Bbokki (얌볶이) at least once. That day, I suddenly had a serious craving for spicy tteokbokki. Not just moderately spicy—I wanted the kind that slowly makes you sweat as you eat. So I chose Yum Bbokki, a fairly well-known tteokbokki spot in Ansan. This time, I decided to properly round out the spicy tteokbokki with sundae and fritters, too.

• Location: 112, 1F, 61 Gwangdeokdong-ro, Danwon-gu, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
• Getting there: Near Gojan-dong New Town No. 1 Town, in the ground-floor retail area by the Seven Eleven and Saemaeul Geumgo buildings
• Parking: Available for customers (parking support)
• Hours: Tue–Sun 11:00–22:00; last order 21:30; regularly closed every Monday

Yum Bbokki is not far from Ansan Cultural Square. If you often pass through this area, it is probably a place you have spotted before. Its orange sign really stands out, so it was easy to find even on a first visit. There is also a small space in front of the shop, which looked nice for waiting outside briefly when the weather is good. Ansan Cultural Square is one of Ansan’s main cultural spaces, connected to the Gojan New Town commercial area, so it also makes for a pleasant route to look around after your meal.

And if you are driving, I recommend checking the parking arrangement beforehand. There was a separate notice inside about free parking, including the password needed when exiting. On a first visit, like mine, it can be slightly confusing to know where to park. If you confirm the parking location and procedure with a staff member while ordering, it will be much easier. Checking this one detail before visiting should save you from wandering around over parking.

Inside Yum Bbokki and kiosk ordering

When I stepped inside, my first impression was that it was much cleaner than I expected. When you think of a tteokbokki place, you can picture a slightly crowded, hectic atmosphere, but

Yum Bbokki had a bright interior with orange accents, giving it an overall fresh feel. It is not a huge place with loads of tables, but it felt like a comfortable size for two people or a casual family meal.

Looking at the menu is where the quiet deliberation begins. Tteokbokki is not all the same here: you can choose both the variety and the heat level, so I found myself studying the menu for quite a while, wondering what to have that day.

If you love spicy food in particular, choosing the heat level is quite fun. On the other hand, if you are with children, you can order non-spicy options as well, which made me think it would be a good place for a family visit, too.

You order at the kiosk, and pick up anything you need, such as utensils or cups, at the self-service station. I actually found that system convenient. There is no need to call a staff member whenever you need something—you can simply grab a cup or spoon right away. Since the shop is not large, the route from ordering to taking a seat was not complicated either.

Ordering both spicy and mild tteokbokki

At last, our order arrived. The main event that day was, of course, the spicy tteokbokki. I also ordered a mild tteokbokki for the children, plus sundae and fritters. With red tteokbokki and cream-colored tteokbokki together on one table, the contrast was obvious from the look alone. A bite of the mild one when the spicy food got tough, then another bite of spicy tteokbokki. This combination worked better than I expected.

The set included sundae (Korean blood sausage) and assorted fritters. When you eat tteokbokki, it somehow feels incomplete without those two. Spicy tteokbokki goes especially well with plain, nutty foods such as sundae and fritters, which soften the heat from time to time. We started by eating each item separately, but by the end, we were dipping everything into the tteokbokki sauce. That is part of the fun of eating tteokbokki.

A heat level that felt like fire noodles

I started with Yum Bbokki’s spicy tteokbokki, which I had been most curious about. It was not the type that hits you with nothing but heat from the first bite. At first there was a lightly sweet flavor, then the heat slowly rose up after a few pieces. To me, it felt about as spicy as the heat you get from fire noodles. It was hot, but not so aggressively spicy that you could not taste anything; it was a sweet-and-spicy style that kept drawing me back in.

The dish I ordered for the children, on the other hand, had a completely different feel. Even the color looked gentler. It centered on a creamy, mild flavor instead of heat, so it was certainly less demanding for children to eat. I had a bite or two whenever my mouth started tingling after the spicy tteokbokki, and it quietly did a great job of calming the heat. If adults and children are visiting together, ordering both flavors is a good option.

Fritters and sundae dipped in tteokbokki sauce

And what I was looking forward to after the tteokbokki was the fritters. They are fine on their own, but fritters from a tteokbokki restaurant are only complete when they are thoroughly dipped in the sauce. The sweet-spicy sauce soaks into the batter, bringing up the nutty fritter flavor and the spicy sauce flavor at once. Personally, this was my favorite combination after the tteokbokki itself.

You cannot pass up the sundae either. I picked up a chewy piece and gave it a light dip in the spicy tteokbokki broth—this pairing never fails. The spicy sauce comes through strongly, then the sundae’s own mildness reins it in, so I got tired of it much less quickly than when eating only tteokbokki. If the heat feels like too much, I recommend alternating bites with sundae.

Last came the boiled egg. I split it in half to the yolk and coated it properly with the remaining spicy tteokbokki sauce. This is a combination you really have to try when it feels too wasteful to leave any sauce behind. The soft egg took the edge off the heat while letting me enjoy the thickly clinging tteokbokki sauce in one final bite. In the end, I worked hard on every bit of sauce left in the bowl that day, too.

My overall take on Yum Bbokki in Ansan

If you love tteokbokki in Ansan, this is a place worth trying at least once. As someone who likes spicy food, I was especially impressed that it was not simply hot: it started sweet, then the heat built as you ate, making it an addictive flavor. Personally, I would most recommend the combination of spicy tteokbokki, sundae, and fritters. If you are with children, adding the mild tteokbokki to share is a good idea as well. If you are looking for spicy tteokbokki in Ansan or want to fully enjoy tteokbokki with sundae and fritters, Yum Bbokki is worth putting on your list. I think I would order the spicy tteokbokki and fritters again next time.