Giant futomaki and Halla tonic at Kro, a Magongnaru izakaya

I went on a Magongnaru date with a close noona ~.~ We were looking for a good spot for evening drinks and found this place! Here's my review of Kro, an izakaya with great vibes in Magongnaru!

Kro's location, hours, and parking

Hours 17:00 - 01:00 / Naver Reservation and Catch Table booking

It's at 168 Magokseo-ro, Lux Nine Officetel Building L, Unit 105, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, 345m from Magongnaru Station Exit 1. Parking is at Lux Nine Building L, B1-B4 (entrance next to Ssingssing Suksan), 3 hours free, then ₩1,000 per 30 minutes.

Bar table and 4-person tables — what's the vibe?

There's a bar table and also these 4-person tables! The atmosphere was cozy and clean, so it was a great spot to come with a friend or partner… 👍

The menu lineup

With everything from fresh seafood dishes to a variety of anju (drinking snacks), it was a casual dining spot perfect for pairing good food with a drink! There were recommended menu items marked, and best of all there were plenty of snacks that were easy on the stomach, which personally made me even happier… 👍

The drinks menu was super varied too, with detailed descriptions, so it was a place where you could enjoy delicious drinks as well haha

They're also running an Instagram tag event and a Naver receipt review event, so it might be worth joining!

The basic side dish is a cabbage salad

For the basic side dish, we got a salad of crunchy cabbage topped with a savory dressing

The cabbage got sweeter the more I chewed it, and since it's good for you it was nice to eat without any guilt 😊

Ordering futomaki, negi yurinki, and Halla tonic

We ordered futomaki (seaweed rice roll, ₩28,000), negi yurinki (fried chicken with scallions, ₩22,000), and a Halla tonic (₩14,000) — looks really tasty, right?! 🤤🤤🤤

Giant futomaki

It's called 'giant futomaki' because it's giant — it was so big and packed that even I, with my big mouth, couldn't fit a whole piece in one bite. Rich in flavor and filling fast, it was a great anju!

It had egg, salmon, fried shrimp, fried tofu, and various vegetables, so the textures and flavors blended really well together. Adding a little wasabi and taking a bite made it taste clean and delicious… 😭🤍

The friend I went with actually lives near here and told me she'd tried the futomaki before, paying out of her own pocket. She said it was delicious, so I ordered it too, and it lived up to expectations! The salmon inside wasn't fishy at all, it was savory, the tanginess from the vegetables and fried tofu was great, and best of all the fried shrimp was crispy and warm — honestly the best futomaki of my life 👍

Negi yurinki

The negi yurinki was fried chicken with a tangy nanban sauce that really stood out. On top of the freshly fried, warm chicken were not just scallions but also onions, bell peppers, and other vegetables cut into easy-to-eat pieces, which paired really well with the fried chicken haha

Since it's fried and has a bit of oil, it could easily get greasy, but the tangy sauce cut through it once, and the crunchy vegetables cut through it again, so it was a yurinki you could eat without getting tired of it 🥹

It seems like it would pair especially well with beer, and each piece of fried chicken was so big that as someone who loves meat, I was truly satisfied eating it haha meat + fried chicken combo, can't go wrong… 🫰

Halla tonic

Normally I just drink soju or highballs, but after eating such tasty anju I wanted to try something different. I ordered the Halla tonic, and they filled a bucket with ice for it, so I could drink it really cold

You fill it with ice, pour in the Hallasan (soju), and add tonic water — they also gave me about 4 slices of lemon!! It was refreshing through and through… 😭😭 It had such a clean taste that before I knew it, I'd sipped my way through the whole thing,,, 👏👏

Overall thoughts

Taking a bite of food, a sip of a drink, and chatting away — it was such a good time. As a self-proclaimed foodie, I highly recommend this place because the anju was excellent too 👍 This was Kro, an izakaya in Magongnaru with great vibes and great anju!