Sinnonhyeon izakaya terrace for first-time sake drinkers: Odeng Osaek

I met up with a friend in Gangnam after a while, and since she's recently obsessed with sake, I decided this was the time for me to get into it too. I wanted somewhere with a good atmosphere for a glass of sake, and that's how I found 'Odeng Osaek,' close to Sinnonhyeon Station 🍢 Warm oden (fish cake) with a glass of sake sounded perfect, so I went to check it out!

Where is Odeng Osaek Gangnam Station Branch, and when is it open?

Odeng Osaek Gangnam Station Branch is at 42 Seocho-daero 73-gil, 1st Floor Units 105-106, Seocho-gu, Seoul, open daily from 16:00 to 02:00 (last order 01:00). Takeout, reservations, and group bookings are all available.

It's an oden bar near Gangnam Station, about a 4-minute walk from Exit 7 of Sinnonhyeon Station! The Odeng Osaek sign and the cat out front made it easier to spot than I expected. We arrived a bit early, around 5:30pm, so it was still quiet with no other customers yet. Right next door was 'Seoul Jumak,' a place I used to go to often for birthday parties and gatherings with my college friends! Seeing a new oden bar pop up next to a familiar old haunt made me weirdly happy haha.

Out front there's a cherry blossom tree, and combined with the Japanese-style exterior, it really felt like a Japanese izakaya! There was also a menu and event panel standing outside, which was nice for checking the menu ahead of time. Especially notable: Sunday to Thursday until 7pm, a glass of Cass draft beer is only ₩2,900!! A draft beer for ₩2,900 in Gangnam — is that not an insane deal?? I noticed this event at 6:55pm and scrambled to order one in time haha. Don't be late like me — go early and enjoy it while it's cheap!

Terrace or bar seat at Odeng Osaek: which should you take?

Odeng Osaek Gangnam Station Branch has terrace seating out front, great for outdoor drinking on nice days — and the weather that day was perfect for it! So we sat right outside on the terrace. Having a drink there in the cool weather had such a great atmosphere, real outdoor-drinking-night vibes 🍺

Once we stepped inside, the place was bigger and cleaner than I expected! It has that distinctive oden bar Japanese-style feel, with both table seats and bar seats — great for drinks with friends. Overall it's not too dark or heavy a mood, but a comfortable, cozy space for a friendly drink.

Personally, I also thought the bar seats were pretty good! Sitting at the bar, the front is open so you can watch the outside atmosphere while drinking. Though with terrace customers visible, it can feel a bit awkward or exposed, but the bar seats have their own charm and are nice for a quiet chat over drinks.

What's on the menu at Odeng Osaek

Now let's look at the menu! Odeng Osaek's menu is seriously huge... from set menus to oden, skewers, fried items, and all kinds of side dishes — way more variety than I expected! Being an oden bar, you can pick from many types of oden, and beyond oden there are plenty of other snack options, so everyone can choose what they want. At a bar, it's always a struggle when everyone has different tastes, but here, since it's not just oden, there's enough variety that people with different preferences can all find something they like. Good for group gatherings too.

What we ordered at Odeng Osaek

• Busan handmade oden set ₩19,500
• Nagoya traditional handmade tebasaki ₩16,500
• Dokkuri (300ml) ₩12,000

For the handmade oden set, you choose spicy or mild and pick two types of oden — we went mild with perilla leaf oden and cheongyang chili oden! Honestly, we came that day mainly to drink sake. My first memory of sake was 'why does anyone drink this, it's gross...' so I hadn't touched it since. But my friend said sake can be clean and pretty good, and on her boyfriend's recommendation we ordered 'dokkuri,' apparently an easy one to start with!

After ordering, complimentary tuna crackers came out as a starter! You know how these things just keep disappearing one bite at a time. Cracker plus tuna on top is salty and nutty, so I kept picking at them even before the main dishes arrived.

The oden and sake came out pretty quickly! The sake was served in an ice bucket to keep it chilled. And can we talk about how cute the sake cups are? With cups this cute, the mood for drinking was fully set.

The receipt-review fish glass giveaway

And then, jackpot!!!!! They happened to be running a receipt review event where you get a fish-shaped cup!! I already thought these cups were adorable, and turns out you can get one through a receipt review! If you like these cups, definitely try the Naver receipt event! Write a receipt review and you get one random-colored fish cup, up to two per table. We joined in right away and each got a cup. Since a friend couple of ours loves sake, we ended up gifting our cups to them haha.

Busan handmade oden set, served over a burner on the terrace

Since we came to Odeng Osaek, of course we had to eat oden 🍡 So we started with the signature Busan handmade oden set! Oden... is pretty much always a win. Especially as a drinking snack, oden is incredible. With oden alone you could keep drinking forever haha. On the outdoor terrace, instead of a separate pot to hold the oden, they set the whole oden pot right on a burner at our table! Since it kept simmering, we could enjoy it hot the entire time, and the portion was more generous than I expected.

Soy sauce and wasabi containers were set up separately too! We each got our own small dish for dipping sauce, which made it easy to dip and eat comfortably.

There were many types of oden, so we could each pick different flavors, which was great! Especially with the oden soaking in the warm broth, picking pieces out one at a time made a perfect drinking snack haha. Simple but nailed it — oden really is one of the best drinking foods. And you know the broth is the key with oden, right? If it's too salty or too bland it's disappointing, but here the broth wasn't overly strong or watery — went perfectly with the oden!

They cut it into easy-to-eat pieces, and every table had scissors and tongs for cutting things up ourselves comfortably. The oden also had a firm, chewy texture without falling apart — usually if oden simmers too long it gets mushy and loses texture, but being handmade oden, that wasn't an issue here.

Pairing the oden with a dokkuri of sake

This was my first time pairing oden with sake, and — oh, this actually works. They go really well together. I don't know much about sake flavors, and I don't like anything too sharp or strong, but the dokkuri went down smoothly, easy to drink without pressure! Great recommendation from my friend's boyfriend 👏 Especially having a piece of oden then a sip of sake — so clean and good. Wait, sake isn't bad at all????

Cheers!! Bottoms up!!! It kept coming with an ice bucket to stay chilled! And the more I looked at the cup, the cuter it got... maybe it's just me, but drinking from such a cute cup made the sake taste even better.

What does the Nagoya handmade tebasaki taste like?

While we were enjoying the oden and sake, the handmade tebasaki arrived. It took a bit of time to come out. Tebasaki is actually a dish I had on a trip to Nagoya with a friend earlier this year, so seeing it here felt weirdly nostalgic! Odeng Osaek's tebasaki doesn't come alone — it's served with cabbage on the side! The cabbage alone whets the appetite, but paired with the salty seasoned chicken wings, the combo was really solid!

Odeng Osaek's tebasaki has the seasoning nicely soaked into the chicken wings, so it's fairly salty and flavorful. That's probably why the pairing with cabbage worked so well! The chicken wings weren't dry either — the meat came off the bone easily, so I kept reaching for more piece by piece. It looked like a small portion at first, but once we started eating, it was actually plenty for two as a side dish!

Dokkuri sake vs. the stronger sen sake

The pairing with sake was excellent! We finished off a whole bottle of dokkuri that way, and then decided to try another sake — the 'sen' (strong) sake! Compared to dokkuri, sen sake had a noticeably stronger aroma! There was a slight grain-like scent too, and the flavor felt more pronounced than dokkuri. Personally, I preferred the easy-drinking dokkuri.

Happy-hour 2,900-won draft beer and free broth refills

Neither of us really likes soju-style sharp-tasting alcohol, so with the sen sake I started thinking, 'uh, this might get me tipsy.' So we debated whether to have more dokkuri or switch to draft beer — and then, wait?????? Checking the menu again, draft beer was ₩2,900 from 4 to 7pm??? Why did we only just notice this. We discovered it at exactly 6:55pm — 5 minutes left! No hesitation, we ordered a draft beer right away!!

Draft beer was refreshing and hit the spot too. Cold draft beer on the terrace — just great! And the beauty of oden broth is you can keep reheating it... at this point it needed another round anyway! You can also order a broth refill via the kiosk, and staff will come refill the broth for you!

Ending with oi-tangtangi (smashed cucumber salad)

Once the beer starts flowing, it just keeps going down easily. So we ordered another, and another. If only we'd discovered happy hour a little earlier, we could've really made the most of it — a little disappointing. And isn't it strange how drinking just makes you keep wanting to eat...? Whenever I drink, my appetite explodes. That day the two of us really went for it. In the end we ordered 'oi-tangtangi' too. Oi-tangtangi has a sharp, tangy vinegar flavor that revives your appetite the moment you taste it! The crunchy cucumber texture with that tangy kick cleanses the palate — even full, this still went down easily.

Is Odeng Osaek Gangnam Station Branch worth a visit?

The two of us really ate and drank properly! From oden to tebasaki, oi-tangtangi, sake, and draft beer — we thoroughly enjoyed it all. Great meal today, as always. Especially having drinks on the outdoor terrace in the cool weather made for such a good atmosphere! With such a varied menu, it's also great for a casual drink with friends! If you're looking for a good-vibe izakaya or oden bar near Gangnam Station, 'Odeng Osaek' is worth a visit.

By the time we were leaving, quite a few more customers had come in! We visited a bit early, but once evening hit, the crowd definitely picked up. It'd probably get packed on weekends. Don't forget to take advantage of the ₩2,900 draft beer until 7pm!

I also found out there's a buy-one-get-one draft beer coupon for customers who've signed up for notifications..! Wish I'd known that before writing this review. Everyone, make sure to use it well and enjoy! I'd definitely go back myself!! 🫶