Hongdae restaurant in Seoul with a CatchTable kiosk wait: Omil Hongdae

My brother was on leave and we were wandering around Hongdae looking for stuff to do when he said he wanted Western food, so I went looking for a good pasta place and found Omil Hongdae.

My brother likes restaurants that have their own signature dish rather than just generic food, and Omil had exactly that vibe. Turns out it's the place with the rubber duck omurice I'd seen all over Instagram Reels!!

Finding Omil Hongdae: the all-yellow entrance on Yangwha-ro

The entrance is so yellow it made me think of a rubber duck right away lol. And it turns out Omil means "Oh Meal"... total shock, never would have guessed that meaning.

The store is on the 2nd floor, and on the way up the inside stairs there's the CatchTable waiting kiosk plus photos of the signature menu items on the wall.

How the wait works at Omil Hongdae: the CatchTable kiosk downstairs

Before opening the store door, you absolutely have to register your wait on this CatchTable kiosk and wait. If you open the door without registering, they'll ask you to go back down and register — so don't climb the stairs twice, register first!!

Right at the top of the stairs to the 2nd floor there's the store door and the restroom next to it. The store door is yellow too haha 💛 (more on the restroom at the very bottom.)

Inside Omil Hongdae: seating and atmosphere on the second floor

Once our number was called, we went up and got seated. For a party of two, we were seated at a two-person table. The interior had a cozy, clean atmosphere. And there were quite a few seats by the floor-to-ceiling windows too, which was nice haha.

It's already a well-known Hongdae restaurant apparently, because even at the awkward hour of 2:30pm there were a lot of people, including quite a few foreign customers. It's kind of amazing how well foreigners know the good spots too...

Omil Hongdae's menu and how to order with the table bell

They bring you a menu and a bell, and you press that bell when you want to order haha. What we ordered was:

• Rubber Duck Omurice (₩16,900)
• Gochujang Butter Pasta (₩18,900)
• Pineapple Ade (₩6,900)

We actually thought about getting the 2-person set, but figured if there were side dishes too we'd have leftovers (we were already a bit full), so we ordered à la carte haha.

What's at the self-bar: house-made pickles and phone charging

The self-bar had a phone charging service, plus napkins, wet wipes, pickles, and water. Nice that the pickles were homemade too, and not just cucumber but cabbage as well, which acted like a booster(?) to cut through the richness between bites of food haha.

Pineapple ade, 6,900 won

The pineapple ade came out first, and true to its name it was served in a pineapple-shaped glass. It tasted way more upscale than Fanta!! It was hot out, so having something cold hit the spot. And it was refreshing enough to pair really well with both the pasta and the omurice!!

Gochujang butter pasta, 18,900 won, with beef for the price

I really love this kind of fusion food!!! The combo of Korean gochujang (fermented chili paste) and Western pasta... but then topped with gochujang butter?? This can't not-be-delicious (it's impossible for it to not be delicious).

And it has beef in it too, all for ₩18,900 — isn't that great value?! Pasta prices downtown these days are insane, so for this quality at this price, I think it's really good, haha. A great-value Hongdae restaurant!!!

When you eat it, just mix in the gochujang butter sitting on top. The surprising thing is, I expected gochujang to taste a bit heavy, but it doesn't — maybe because it meets the cream, maybe because of the butter, but there's a really savory taste combined with a rich, spicy kick... This is exactly why I ate it before the omurice even came out;;

If you take a big bite with the steak together, it's seriously so good!!!!!! I recommend everyone try shoving it all in like I did, at least once haha.

Rubber duck omurice, 16,900 won, and the free duck toy

Ta-da, the rubber duck omurice finally arrived!! Wow, it's way cuter than what I saw on Instagram lol. And they said the duck figure with the tube next to it is given as a free service item haha. If you go with a group, you might need to fight over it..(?) The duck figure was the kind of squeaky rubber duck we used to play with at the pool as kids lol (nostalgia). But honestly, the quail egg ducks were even cuter than that duck figure...

Those ducks' eyes were black sesame seeds, and their mouths were made of corn kernels lol lol lol. How did they even manage to stick in such a tiny piece of corn... precision really matters in cooking, I guess.

The free quacking duck was even cuter with the tube on. Looking closer, it's even wearing sunglasses — these tiny little details are so cute...

The fried rice inside the omurice had various vegetables and salmon!! It had a taste kind of like smoked salmon(?), and sure enough there were salmon pieces in it. Great visuals and great taste too... is this really what a Hongdae hotspot is like???

A failed photo of the two of us, fixed with a collage

I should have taken a photo of both dishes together,,,, the pasta came out and I was supposed to wait,,,,, but since I hadn't had pasta in so long, I just mixed it with the butter and dug in the second it arrived ㅠㅠ lol lol lol. Right as I took my first bite, the omurice came out, and only then did it hit me: "wait, I never got a photo of them together.." So I ended up stuck taking a photo of the messy pasta and the still-perfect rubber duck omurice separately. Lol lol lol.

But when it comes to posting on Instagram, there's always the collage feature^^ Successfully combined them into a collage and posted it looking cool(?). If this ever happens to you, I recommend the collage method~^_^

The two of us weren't even that hungry(?) but we cleared it all... the sauce was so good we scraped the plate clean ㅠㅠ lol lol lol lol lol lol.

It was so delicious. This would also work really well as a Hongdae date spot. Come to Omil, a Hongdae hotspot~~~~

Omil Hongdae's restroom: mouthwash and hand cream included

The restroom is right outside the store on the right. It was very clean ✨️, super satisfying. Plus it has hand wash, mouthwash(!!!), and even hand cream.. the mouthwash is kind of amazing.

The hand wash is in a square-shaped container.. the round one was actually hand cream. I ended up pumping hand cream while trying to wash my hands and had to scrub all over again,,^^ Make sure to look carefully and not mix up the hand wash like I did lol.