Jongno red-wall pizza pub, shrimp in white sauce: Backstreet Pizza

Backstreet Pizza location and opening hours

Backstreet Pizza is on the first basement floor at 16-2 Supyo-ro 26-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, about 122 m from Exit 5 of Jongno 3-ga Station. It is open daily 12:00–24:00, with last order at 23:15.

Today I visited Backstreet Pizza in Jongno 3-ga 🍕 Deep in the alley you'll spot a lit-up sign, and you can tell right away it's a place with atmosphere ✨ The restaurant is in the basement 🚪 Follow the standing sign next to the entrance down the stairs and you're right there. If it's your first time, just look for the glow of the sign 😆

What is the atmosphere like inside Backstreet Pizza?

The red walls and dim lighting make Backstreet Pizza feel like a little pub 🍺 Antique mirrors and picture frames hang on the walls, and gold-framed chairs and small tables are lined up in a row. The lighting is soft, so it's perfect for chatting and eating at a leisurely pace 🧡

Self-bar and draft beer

There's a self-bar on one side of Backstreet Pizza 🙌 You grab your own cutlery, small plates and water, and there's hot sauce, parmesan cheese and peperoncino (dried chili flakes) to sprinkle on your pizza. Seasoning it to your own taste is surprisingly fun 😋

They have draft beer too, so it looked like a great place for pizza and a beer 🍻 The taps sparkled under the dim lights, and I kept glancing back at them.

Backstreet Pizza menu and Quarter Street pizza price

Backstreet Pizza's Quarter Street pizza lets you enjoy 4 signature menu items on one pie, at ₩38,000 for regular and ₩50,000 for large. The menu had a really wide variety of pizzas, including Shrimp Gangster, Cheese & Patty Bomb, Potato Killer and Pepperoni Shotgun. I went with the Quarter Street pizza and ordered a nice cold cola 🥤

There was also a set menu that adds 2 draft beers, Hoegaarden or Stella, to the Quarter Street pizza 🍺 You get the ₩54,000 set for ₩50,000, so beer lovers might want to order it as a set.

Pickles come out as the side dish 🥒 They're tangy and crunchy, and a bite between slices totally resets your palate.

Four flavors on the Quarter Street pizza: which slice was best?

Backstreet Pizza's Quarter Street pizza comes with four flavors, shrimp, potato, pepperoni and cheese & patty, sharing one pie peacefully. The crust edge was baked golden brown, as if from a wood-fired oven, so it passed the looks test right away 😍

From above, the four sections are clearly divided. And so begins the happy dilemma of which one to eat first 😂

Shrimp: dipped in white sauce

I started with the shrimp 🦐 Plump shrimp were piled on generously, and the slice felt hefty when I lifted it.

The shrimp were springy, and the slightly spicy sauce went well with the cheese 😋 I was quite satisfied from the very first slice.

I scooped up one shrimp and dipped it in the white sauce 🦐 The creamy sauce on top of the spicy flavor made this combo pretty good too 😆

Potato: fries on a pizza

Second was the potato 🍟 Fries are heaped up on the pizza, and fries on pizza is basically cheating, isn't it 😂 The crispy potato and chewy cheese together made the texture really fun. I even captured the cheese pull on video 🎥

Lift a slice and the cheese stretches and stretches 🧀 Isn't this moment the reason we eat pizza? 😆

Pepperoni: densely packed saltiness

Third was the pepperoni 🍕 It's laid on densely with no gaps, so the salty, savory flavor was the real deal. Pepperoni really is the foundation of pizza 😎

Cheese & patty: a burger-like slice

Last was the cheese & patty 🧀 It's loaded with minced patty, jalapeños and onions, so it even felt a bit like a hamburger. Meat lovers will probably like this slice the most 👍

Is Backstreet Pizza worth visiting?

I was happy with Backstreet Pizza, since one Quarter Street pie lets you enjoy all four flavors evenly 🧡 If you're craving a pizza in a moody basement-pub setting and you're near Jongno 3-ga, I recommend dropping by 🍕✨