Euljiro tteokbokki house with skewer-free fish cake: Hyeonseoni-ne

Where is Hyeonseoni-ne Cheonggye Instant Branch, and when is it open?

• 📍1st floor, 112 Namdaemun-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul (next to Megacoffee)
• 🚉 1-minute walk from Euljiro 1-ga Station Exit 3
• ⏰ Mon–Sat 19:40 ~ 21:00
• ❌ Closed Sundays / closed during Chuseok holiday
• 🚫 No parking

Right as you come out of Euljiro 1-ga Station Exit 3, you'll see Megacoffee — and next to it is Hyeonseoni-ne Cheonggye Instant Branch, an old-school Euljiro tteokbokki spot. It's diagonally across from Lotte Department Store Myeongdong, so it's easy to find.

I'm posting this again in case the tree was blocking your view — if you spot the sky-blue sign with a cute girl eating red tteokbokki, that's the alley to turn into. The inside isn't huge, so it's best to avoid the busy mealtime rush.

Inside the old-school dining room: what you grab yourself

True to its reputation as an old-school Euljiro tteokbokki spot, it had a real vintage feel and seemed to be a comfortable go-to for office workers in the area. Once you order and find a seat, plates and utensils are self-serve, and water is self-serve too — grab a paper cup and fill it at the purifier near the kitchen. Napkins are stuck to the wall, and there are wet wipes scattered around as well.

Hyeonseoni-ne's menu board and kiosk ordering

▪️Set Menus▪️ Hyeonseoni Beer Set Hyeonseoni Combo Set Hyeonseoni Set Sunny Set Baby Set ▪️Instant Menu▪️ Instant tteokbokki, 1 serving (2+ people to order) Ramyeon / Jjolmyeon / Fish cake / Vegetables / Rice cake / Egg Fried mandu / Cheese / Fried rice ▪️À la carte▪️ Tteokbokki / Assorted fritters / Sundae (blood sausage) / Mini gimbap Ramyeon / Spicy ramyeon / Cheese ramyeon Busan special fish cake / Busan long fish cake / Tuna mayo rice ball

You order at the kiosk before stepping into the alley — just check that seats are available before ordering.

True to a Cheonggyecheon snack-bar classic, they even had nostalgic Pikachu-shaped pork cutlet, fried fish cake, and fried rice cake — great to come back to when you're craving old-school flavors.

Instant tteokbokki for two: plenty without any extra toppings

We ordered the basic instant tteokbokki for two. Even without adding extra toppings, it was plenty. We also ordered fish cake on the side since it sounded good.

To show the tteokbokki in more detail — it comes with 3 fried mandu and 2 eggs, plus generous chunks of cabbage, scallion and other vegetables, so the broth already looked really promising.

And the fish cake came with the skewers already pulled out, making it easy to eat. Eating off the nostalgic tableware made it taste even better somehow.

I like fried mandu in instant tteokbokki, but I fished mine out early so they wouldn't get too soft — my companion wanted theirs cooked all the way through, so I only pulled out 2 and left 1 in.

How spicy is the medium-spice tteokbokki?

You can choose the spice level for the instant tteokbokki — we're pretty weak to spicy food, so we went with medium. Personally, instant tteokbokki felt a bit less spicy than regular tteokbokki? The color and smell seemed spicier, but the sweetness from the cabbage and scallion inside made it feel milder than regular tteokbokki overall. If you like spicy food, going for the spicy option seems like a fun option too.

The base jjolmyeon (chewy noodle) topping that comes included as standard. I usually like ramyeon noodles in regular tteokbokki but jjolmyeon in instant tteokbokki — so this was perfect for me. Chewy and delicious as always.

The rice cakes are the wheat-flour type, so they're soft and chewy, and there's one egg per person included too — I wanted to order fried rice afterward but was too full to manage it. This is Hyeonseoni-ne, the old-school Euljiro tteokbokki spot I'll definitely come back to whenever the craving hits.

Watching the video of the tteokbokki bubbling away is torture every single time. I want to eat it again, ahhhh~~~~