Grilled steak poke bowl on brown rice, Daehak-ro solo lunch: Sallering

What matters most for lunch before a Daehak-ro play

There's one thing I really worry about every time I watch a play in Daehak-ro: going in on an empty stomach. Because if my stomach suddenly growls during a quiet scene…

…in that moment, I become the main character. So today, before the show, I went to fill up properly at Sallering Daehak-ro, a go-to solo dining spot near Hyehwa.

Sallering Daehak-ro is on the first floor of the Rolling Pasta building, and the green sign catches your eye right away. Whenever I come to Seoul, I always look for places that don't exist in Yangpyeong, and Sallering isn't in Yangpyeong either, so I was extra glad to find it.

How to build a poke bowl at the Sallering kiosk

As soon as you walk into Sallering Daehak-ro, there's a kiosk right there.

A big message on screen welcomes group orders, and you start by choosing dine-in or takeout. Kakao Pay works too, which is really convenient. There were so many menu items that I was a little torn at first.

The Sallering bibim poke (bibim, meaning mixed with sauce) category is really varied — from plain, to vegan options like fried tofu and soy meat, to smoked duck, beef brisket, shrimp & scallop, and grilled steak.

There's also protein pasta, which you can pair with chicken breast, smoked duck, or steak.

The protein rice bowls have similar ingredients to the pasta but on a rice base, perfect if you want to fill up on carbs.

The recommended sets & popular tab has poke + soup sets and slim pack sets, good options if you want something lighter that day.

The slim packs, sandwiches, and soups are all visible at a glance too. There are homemade soups like butter corn soup and truffle mushroom soup, great as a side.

And what really caught me was the detox & tea corner. I picked the red cleanse juice from here.

The printed menu: extra dressing for 900 won

Sallering Daehak-ro also has a menu leaflet on the table. The kiosk alone can be confusing, so I gave it a once-over.

The bibim poke lineup is laid out in photos, so I could check vegan and all-in-one labels at a glance.

There's also a wide range of dressings — Sallering bibim sauce, seaweed sesame mayo, gochujang mayo, whole grain oil, and more — all addable for +₩900. The side menu lineup is solid too, with juices, yogurt, sandwiches, wraps, and soups.

Is Sallering Daehak-ro comfortable for eating alone?

Inside Sallering Daehak-ro, green tables sit lined up in a row, and there were quite a few people eating solo, just like me. The layout, set up like single seats, made it much more comfortable.

There are also tables for four, so it works fine if you come with a group!

A country-of-origin display board is posted on the wall too, which made me feel like I could trust what I was eating. Turnover is fast, so don't worry even if there's no seat right away — one opens up quickly!

What you pick up at the Sallering self-serve bar

Water, spoons, chopsticks, and straws are all set up at the self-serve bar. Order, sit down, grab these — done! The flow is simple, which makes it a really convenient system for solo diners.

Grilled steak bibim poke on a brown rice base with sweet soy sauce

What I picked was the grilled steak bibim poke with sweet soy sauce, set up together with the red cleanse juice.

You can choose the rice base from brown rice, barley rice, whole wheat pasta, or egg roll — but poke has to be brown rice, right? So I went with the basic brown rice.

I don't know if it comes through in photos, but the steak was actually steaming. Mixing the warm meat together with the brown rice was pure bliss.

From the moment the dressing was poured on, my mouth was already watering. The dressing portion was generous too, so I could keep mixing right to the end without running short.

A close-up of the steak and brown rice bite

It's packed with fresh lettuce, red cabbage, egg roll, and crab stick, so eating them together with the meat gives a really good chew.

There are quail eggs and cherry tomatoes too, so the flavor kept changing within a single bowl — never boring. And no matter how much I ate, there was still steak left — the best!

Is Sallering Daehak-ro worth it for a solo lunch before a show?

To everyone dieting, worried about a growling stomach before a play, and all my fellow solo diners — I highly recommend Sallering Daehak-ro. Next time I'm in Daehak-ro, I think I'll come back here again so I don't go into a show on an empty stomach.