Yongsan tteokbokki restaurant for a 9pm bike-date snack: Hyeonseonine

We were riding bikes along the Han River and decided to grab tteokbokki (spicy rice cake stew) with my boyfriend in Yongsan afterward.🚲

Honestly I hadn't researched this place much beforehand, but wow — turns out it's more popular than I expected!! We went to Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch, a Yongsan tteokbokki restaurant. It's close to Sinyongsan Station and in the Yongridan-gil area, so it's a great spot when you're looking for a Yongsan restaurant or a Yongridan-gil restaurant and just want something light and casual.

Hours and location of Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch

• ⏰ Hours: Daily 11:00–24:00 / last order 22:40
• Break time Mondays 14:30–16:00
• 🚇 About 180m from Sinyongsan Station Exit 6

Still busy even at 9pm

🏠 Space breakdown

We arrived around 9pm, pretty late for dinner, but there were still quite a few people eating inside. The space itself was spacious with plenty of 2-person tables, and 4-person tables could be pushed together, so it looked like it could easily handle a bigger group too.

It was comfortable for the two of us eating casually

and it seemed like groups looking for a Yongridan-gil restaurant wouldn't have much trouble finding seats either. If it was this busy in the evening, lunchtime is probably even more packed haha.

What we ordered

🍱 Menu

We ordered just two things: 🌶 instant tteokbokki, medium spice, and 🍚 fried rice! Among Yongsan restaurants, this is one where you actually get to boil the tteokbokki fresh at the table, so it felt like a proper old-school snack meal for the first time in a while.

Medium-spice tteokbokki — how hot is it really?

🥘 Real menu review

🌶 Instant tteokbokki, medium spice. Since it said

medium, I figured it wouldn't be that hot at first.

But one bite in, I was a little surprised at how spicy it actually was, haha.

Even the medium spice level felt pretty hot to me, so if you can't handle spicy food, you should keep that in mind.

But the texture of the rice cakes was totally my style! They were soft and chewy, so even soaked in sauce they never got tough, and I kept reaching for more.

Loaded with jjolmyeon noodles

I really love it when tteokbokki comes with jjolmyeon (chewy noodles) added, and here they gave a generous amount, which I loved.

Slurping up noodles soaked in the tteokbokki broth, the spicy sauce really clings to them, giving a totally different texture from the rice cakes and making the meal more fun. Eating my way through it, I started to see why this place is known as a Yongsan tteokbokki restaurant.

Crispy fried dumplings, then soaked in the broth

And then the fried dumplings, which surprisingly stuck with me!

Not flat, hollow-feeling dumplings,

but plumper than expected with a crispy outside. Dumplings really are the best tteokbokki topping.

Then I tried dipping a few of them fully into the tteokbokki broth.

Instead of crispy, they soaked up all that spicy broth for a completely different feel! I like both, so I'd recommend eating them crispy first, then dunking the rest in the broth later.

Egg and cabbage add to the fun

You know how you're supposed to crush the egg into the sauce, right?! Cup-tteokbokki style.

I also love the cabbage that comes with tteokbokki, and here it was packed with cabbage too, which made me so happy!! With rice cakes, noodles, dumplings, egg, and cabbage all to pick through, it was so much more fun than just eating plain rice cakes — a great Yongridan-gil restaurant find.

Finishing with fried rice

🍚 Fried rice. Once we'd nearly finished the tteokbokki, we set aside some of the remaining rice cakes and bits, then fried up rice with the leftover broth. Of course, after instant tteokbokki you have to go all the way with the K-dessert fried rice.

It's hot, the toasty aroma of seaweed flakes rises right up, and the tteokbokki seasoning soaks into every grain of rice, so even when full, I kept eating more.

Especially since we'd eaten the jjolmyeon noodles earlier, the broth had gotten pretty thick by the end.

Personally, I feel like you haven't properly eaten at a Yongsan tteokbokki restaurant until you've had this fried rice! I was already full from the tteokbokki, but somehow there's always room left for fried rice... haha.

Final thoughts and things to note

✨ Ppongjulie's overall review

A great instant tteokbokki spot to stop by during a bike date in Yongsan. If you're near Sinyongsan looking for an easygoing Yongsan restaurant or craving Korean snack food at a Yongridan-gil restaurant, I'd highly recommend this place :)

✅ Recommended for:

• Anyone looking for a Yongsan restaurant near Sinyongsan Station
• Anyone who loves soft, chewy rice cakes and jjolmyeon noodles in their tteokbokki
• Anyone who wants to properly finish off a meal with fried rice at a Yongsan tteokbokki restaurant
• Good for a couple's date, and with its spacious layout, comfortable for groups looking for a Yongridan-gil restaurant too

⚠️ Note! Even the medium spice level was hotter than I expected. If you're sensitive to spice, don't assume 'medium should be fine' and let your guard down, haha.