Gunja Station bar for Andong soju yuzu highballs: Saechamjip

If you're at the Gunja Station food alley on an evening when you can't decide between grabbing dinner or heading to a bar, I'd recommend Saechamjip. The stone-plate bone grill and hanwoo daechang (beef intestine) chicken stew worked equally well as drinking snacks and as a proper dinner. The seats are divided by partitions and blinds, so you can eat pretty privately. It's open daily from 5:30 PM to 2 AM, so it's a solid Gunja Station bar for a first round or a second.

Hi, this is Saebyul. When looking for a good spot near Gunja Station, my boyfriend and I sometimes disagree on whether to have a solid dinner or just drinks with snacks. I worried a regular Gunja Station bar wouldn't fill us up. Looking for a Gunja food alley spot that lets you eat a real meal while having a drink, I picked this place, known as both a bar and a restaurant in the alley. Hearing it was a Korean bar, I looked forward to the food, and hearing it had private-room-style seating, I looked forward to the space too. So we decided to check out Saechamjip ourselves, haha.

Saechamjip's entrance: check the Gunja Station prices before you go in

Saechamjip is on the 2nd floor of a building in the Gunja Station food alley. Scoping out bars near Gunja Station, the sign for the 2nd-floor spot caught my eye.

When choosing a spot in the Gunja food alley, I tend to check prices first, and this place had the menu and prices posted right at the entrance, before you even go up. It's a hassle when you find a place you like near Gunja Station only to find the prices higher than expected, haha.

The sign reading "good for a meal, good for drinking snacks" summed up the character of this Korean bar well. I was curious how the seating would feel given it's known for private-room-style seats, but first I was excited to see what the food at Saechamjip would be like — and whether it could really double as dinner.

What is the seating like at Saechamjip? Partitions and blinds

Inside Saechamjip, there are open tables as well as seats divided by partitions and blinds. A cute bird character greets you at the entrance — a sparrow, maybe? Haha. I heard the concept is inspired by saecham, the mid-work snack farmers used to eat sitting at a pavilion, which made me even more curious whether the food would be generous, given it's known as a solid spot in the alley.

Even with the tables packed in efficiently, I noticed spots where you wouldn't be making eye contact with other tables. On a date near Gunja Station, you end up caring about whether you'll actually get to talk. This seemed like a good spot to keep the conversation going through dinner.

There were also seats good for a cozy chat, just the two of us. Even though it's known for private-room-style seating, it's not a fully closed room — more like a curtain drawn across the space, so keep that in mind. If you want a quiet spot to talk near Gunja Station, it's worth requesting your preferred seat ahead of time.

Tablet ordering at Saechamjip: about 50,000–60,000 won for two

Every table at Saechamjip has a tablet, so we picked our menu right from our seats. As someone hunting for a solid spot in this alley, I liked that the menu had so much variety. Two menu items looked like they'd come to around ₩50,000–60,000, though you'd only know the actual portion sizes once they arrived. There was something fun about browsing the menu together, tucked into our little booth. At Saechamjip we ended up choosing the stone-plate bone grill, the hanwoo daechang chicken stew, and a yuzu highball.

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The Andong soju yuzu highball and the free muk sabal (acorn jelly soup)

Saechamjip's yuzu highball is apparently made with Andong soju as its base. Sweet and tangy, it put me in a good mood right from the first sip. We sipped it together cozily while waiting for the food.

While we waited, acorn jelly soup and crackers arrived as complimentary side dishes, which made the wait pleasant. The broth of the jelly soup had real depth of flavor, and my spoon kept going back for more. Even the free side dish being this good, before the main dishes even arrived, had me happy, haha.

The two main dishes we ordered at Saechamjip

While we sipped away, the main dishes finally arrived!! The spread looked hearty enough to be a full dinner, not just drinking snacks.

Stone-plate bone grill: spice level 1 is about as hot as Shin Ramyun

The first thing that caught my eye was the stone-plate bone grill.

Each piece was pretty large for a bar snack, glossy with red sauce and looking absolutely delicious.

Wondering whether the trip here was worth it, I picked up a piece.

I worried it might be mostly bone, but there was a good amount of meat attached, more than you'd expect from a bar snack. Seeing that much meat made me feel the portion was fair for the price. It was a filling dish, true to the restaurant side of this place, and the meat came off the bone easily, so we picked it clean, haha. It was also easy to share the bone grill between the two of us in our booth.

We ordered our bone grill at spice level 1. To my taste, it wasn't spicier than Shin Ramyun, so if you like it hot, go for level 2 or above. With the sauce and green onion shreds mixed into the meat, it was sweet and savory enough to make us crave rice, haha. In the end we added a bowl of rice at this bar. It made for a filling meal at Saechamjip.

Hanwoo daechang chicken stew: beef intestine and chicken thigh under the bean sprouts

The hanwoo daechang chicken stew we ordered came piled high with bean sprouts. I was curious whether the beef intestine and chicken would be as generous as I hoped for a place with this reputation.

I thought it might just be a mountain of bean sprouts, but once they wilted down, the chicken and hanwoo daechang underneath were revealed.

It was the first time I'd seen my boyfriend compliment the vegetables in a stew, haha. The spicy broth had soaked right into the bean sprouts, too. He also liked that Saechamjip apparently uses only chicken thigh for the chicken stew. Sharing a spicy stew together in our cozy booth, I thought it would be especially good on a cold winter day.

What stuck with me most about this bar was, unsurprisingly, the broth. Between the savoriness of the daechang melted into the spicy broth and the chewy chicken, it earned its reputation. The broth was so good we couldn't resist adding udon noodles. We'd started this as a drinking snack and somehow ended up eating it as a full meal with noodles, haha. Fitting for a place known for generous portions, the noodle add-on was only ₩500, and I was surprised the amount wasn't skimpy either.

Eating the savory daechang, chewy chicken, and broth-soaked noodles together, my boyfriend kept saying how good it was. We didn't even need to order another dish to keep enjoying it for a while. If we come back to this Korean bar, I'll order the chicken stew again.

Who should go to Saechamjip near Gunja Station?

At first, I was torn between finding a good place to eat near Gunja Station and finding a good bar. But between the bone grill with rice on the side and the chicken stew with udon noodles added in, both of us — me wanting drinks and my boyfriend wanting a proper meal — ended up satisfied. For couples looking for a spot near this food alley, I'd recommend it for the cozy atmosphere where you can have both food and drinks. The menu lineup of a Korean bar combined with the separated seating of a private-room-style spot worked well for us. For friends looking for a bar in this alley, I'd recommend it as a place to share hearty snacks. On a day when you want a real meal along with your drinks near Gunja Station, or a day when you want to keep the night going with one more drink after dinner, Saechamjip is the kind of Korean bar that comes to mind.