Yongsan instant tteokbokki spot from its tent-stall days: Hyeonseonine

Last weekend I finally made it back to Hyeonseonine, a tteokbokki spot near Yongsan Station. This place holds a lot of personal memories for me, since I used to eat here back when it was just a tent set up on an empty lot in front of Yongsan Station.

These days Hyeonseonine has branches all over, so it's easy to find one nearby, but there's still something special about eating at the original (?) Yongsan location.

Where is Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch, and when is it open?

Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch sits at 2-13 Hangang-daero 39-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, between Yongsan Station and Yongridan-gil. It's open daily from 11:00 to 24:00.

This Yongridan-gil favorite sits between Yongsan Station and Yongridan-gil, and it's also close to the IPARK Mall at Yongsan Station, so I often swing by Hyeonseonine on days I'm hanging out at the mall. You can spot it easily from a distance thanks to the smokestack with the 'Hyeonseonine' name painted on it.

Here's the always-charming look of Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch. The vibe of the old tent restaurant in front of Yongsan Station is still alive here. Back then you had to wait quite a while to eat Hyeonseonine's tteokbokki, but now that there are multiple branches, it's much easier to get a seat.

Still, if you visit on a weekend evening, you might have to wait. We nearly had to wait too, haha — we got lucky and snagged a table just as one opened up.

Inside the spacious Hyeonseonine dining room

The building is a former factory space, so the interior is quite spacious. Lots of tables, a lively, bustling atmosphere — it really felt like a Saturday night.

Every time I come here, we end up talking about our twenties, eating tteokbokki on that empty lot. I love that a place full of memories like this is still standing in the same spot.

Instant tteokbokki for two at 22,000 won, plus self-serve fried rice

We ordered the instant tteokbokki for two (₩22,000) with self-serve fried rice. Usually when I come to Hyeonseonine I get the regular tteokbokki, but the weather was cool that day and I wanted to sit and chat while it simmered.

You can choose the spice level for the instant tteokbokki — we went with 'medium'... but even medium is pretty spicy. If you can't handle heat well, definitely go with mild.

First, the main dish — the tteokbokki itself — arrives.

Four yakimandu (fried dumplings) come along, which you can toss into the tteokbokki or eat on their own.

There's also a refreshing fish cake broth included in the set.

And this is the self-serve fried rice you get to cook yourself once you've finished the tteokbokki.

Then we grabbed the side dishes we needed from the self-serve corner — pickled radish and crispy fried batter flakes. They're good stirred into the fish cake broth, or added to the tteokbokki for a fun texture and a bit of a spice-tempering effect.

How to cook the tteokbokki at your table

Mix the sauce in evenly, then bring the tteokbokki to a rolling boil. The key is to keep stirring with the ladle so the rice cakes don't stick and burn. Once it's boiled enough, switch the induction burner to keep-warm mode and dig in.

It's a generously loaded tteokbokki with rice cakes, egg, chewy jjolmyeon noodles, cabbage, and fish cake. And the flavor is unmistakably Hyeonseonine's signature sweet taste.

One reason I love Hyeonseonine so much is that the tteokbokki tastes just like the corner store in front of my elementary school. So back when I first discovered Hyeonseonine while hanging out in Yongsan, it genuinely felt like finding buried treasure.

I piled a plate high with tteokbokki. Sprinkling fried batter flakes on top really completes the flavor.

I dip the yakimandu into the broth, which has reduced down to just the right seasoning...

Finishing the pan with self-serve fried rice

Once we'd enjoyed enough tteokbokki, it was fried rice time — we scooped out some of the broth, added a ladle or two back into the pot with the rice, and shook it all together.

With the nutty sesame oil aroma, tangy aged kimchi, and umami-packed seaweed flakes, it was a delicious way to finish. A meal at Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch always satisfies both the appetite and the nostalgia.