Pangyo Station late-night bar for beer and soju pairings: Bacha Pangyo

I left work early the day before Chuseok break, and my boyfriend and I booked Bacha Pangyo Branch for dinner and drinks in Pangyo. We reserved 6 p.m. through Catch Table and walked in as the very first customers.

But right around the time the food started coming out, tables filled up one by one until the place was nearly full. A blind date started right next to us, and a group of friends came in further back — clearly this is a popular spot for after-work plans in Pangyo.

We ordered rocie shrimp and whole squid Nagasaki with cream draft beer and soju. Bottom line: if I had to pick just one again, I'd get whole squid Nagasaki on a soju night, and rocie shrimp on a night with beer involved too.

Bacha Pangyo Branch in three lines

• A dining bar near Pangyo Station good for taking dinner straight into drinks.
• Rocie shrimp is creamy and spicy, whole squid Nagasaki is a rich seafood broth — totally different characters.
• Quiet early on weekday evenings, but fills up fast, so reserving ahead is the safer move.

Blue lighting and a fully open front: what Bacha Pangyo feels like

The blue lighting at Bacha Pangyo Branch catches your eye from outside. Black walls, stainless steel tables, and a long blue object hanging from the ceiling push the whole space into one color.

On one side there's a bar lined with whiskey bottles and wine glasses, while the tables are loaded with soju and pojangmacha (street-cart-style) food — an oddly fun combination. The name Bacha apparently comes from combining the software term VARCHAR with 'bar & pocha.'

What I liked most was the front left wide open. Even sitting indoors, the outside air came right in, giving it the feel of sitting at an outdoor drinking tent.

I love half-open bars like this. If you're someone who doesn't want to be stuck indoors on a nice day, this layout alone will probably win you over.

At our reserved table there was a welcome card with my name handwritten on it. The back explained the meaning of the name Bacha and the signature menu — a small touch, but I ended up reading it as soon as I sat down.

Rocie shrimp, 25,000 won: the creamy rosé dish that beer was made for

Rocie shrimp has shrimp and rice cake in rosé sauce, topped generously with boneless fried chicken on the side.

The sauce is creamy but doesn't turn heavy — there's a spicy finish that follows. Rosé-style dishes can get tiring halfway through, but the spice here kept things going, making it easy to drink with.

The shrimp were nice and big, and the chicken had a separate white sauce on top. Eat a shrimp, grab a piece of chicken, chopsticks go back to the sauce — that kind of rhythm.

My boyfriend handled the rice cake. I don't usually eat much rice cake or noodles, so I stuck to the shrimp and chicken — both were so good I never got around to touching the rice cake.

This was the best dish to start with alongside the cream draft beer.

Whole squid Nagasaki, 25,000 won: the seafood broth that calls for soju

Second up was whole squid Nagasaki.

True to the name, a whole squid sits in the middle, with scallops, shrimp, bean sprouts and more seafood packed into the pot. Even before it started boiling, the pot was already full — visually, it's a strong drinking dish.

Once it started boiling, I cut into the squid and ate it — the chewy texture was great. The scallops were good too, and with so much seafood in there, the broth had a deep, concentrated seafood flavor.

For me that day, the broth mattered more than the food itself — the kind of flavor where one spoonful sends your hand straight to the soju.

Rather than going aggressively spicy like a typical maeuntang (spicy fish stew), the broth leans into deep seafood flavor, so the cycle of a shot of soju, a spoonful of broth, a bite of squid just kept repeating.

If rocie shrimp was the cream draft beer's dish, whole squid Nagasaki was entirely soju's job. The fact that the two menus never overlapped in flavor direction made ordering them together feel like the right call.

A 6 p.m. weekday visit, and how fast the tables filled

We visited at 6 p.m. after leaving work early the day before Chuseok break. We'd booked through Catch Table, and since we arrived as the first customers, I could take photos of the space comfortably.

Not long after, though, seats filled up quickly. The next table was a blind date, another was a group of friends, and before long the place was nearly full.

It didn't feel awkward for a couple grabbing drinks, and a group coming for dinner-plus-drinks wouldn't have trouble deciding what to order either.

Among bars near Pangyo Station, this isn't a second-round spot with just a couple of side dishes — it suits people looking for somewhere to start with dinner and keep going into soju or draft beer.

If I go again, I'd order whole squid Nagasaki again, and on another day I'd like to try the Bacha Seafood Jjim too.

Who Bacha Pangyo suits, and who should skip it

• People who want to handle dinner and drinks in one place near Pangyo Station
• People who want to order a soup-based dish for soju alongside a dish for beer
• People who prefer an open, patio-like atmosphere over a fully closed indoor space

On the other hand, this place suits these people less:

• Those wanting a quiet, private space for just-the-two-of-us conversation
• Those looking for a bar for just one or two light drinks rather than food

What we would order next time at Bacha Pangyo

• Reorder the whole squid Nagasaki.
• Try the signature Bacha Seafood Jjim next time too.