Euljiro snack bar, five single dishes with mini gimbap: Hyeonseoni-ne

On September 14 I had snack bar food near Euljiro 1-ga Station. I got hungry walking around Cheonggyecheon and ducked into Hyeonseoni-ne Cheonggye Instant Branch. If you search for good snack bars near Euljiro 1-ga Station a bunch of places come up, but that day I wanted a table covered with tteokbokki, fried snacks, and gimbap, so I picked this one.

The walls are a bright tone and the tables are lined up in rows. Some people were eating alone, others in twos and threes, giving it that easy, casual snack bar vibe. After finishing I walked a little toward Cheonggyecheon, and since Euljiro 1-ga Station is close by, getting back to the subway was quick too. Snack bar food is the kind of thing you start craving again right after eating it, and that was true this time too.

What is on the menu board at Hyeonseoni-ne, and what to order

The menu board at Hyeonseoni-ne Cheonggye Instant Branch is posted on the wall above the counter, split into single dishes and sets. Extra noodle add-ons are listed separately too, so if the tteokbokki runs short you can add more. I stood in front of the board reading it over for a while the first time. I kept the tteokbokki as the base and picked one each of fried snacks, gimbap, sundae, and fish cakes. The bowls all came out on one tray at once and I carried them to the table.

The menu is written out in red lettering, so I scanned it and ordered right away. Not long after ordering, the bowls came out one by one on a tray, served in green speckled bowls. Once I laid them all out on the table the colors were so vivid I took photos before even eating.

How the tteokbokki and fried snacks tasted

Hyeonseoni-ne's tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) comes with long rice cakes fully submerged in red sauce. The sauce is moist enough to drip, a reddish-orange color. The first bite brings a sweet flavor first, with a mild spiciness rising at the end. The rice cakes were soft and easy to chew, and the sauce had soaked all the way through. It was also fun dipping the fried snacks straight into the sauce.

The fried snacks came piled high in a paper-lined bowl. Mandu (dumplings), sweet potato, and gimmari (seaweed noodle rolls) were fried a golden yellow, and they made a crunchy sound when picked up. Dipped into the tteokbokki sauce and pulled back out, the outside turned moist while the inside stayed crisp, so I kept reaching for more.

Mini gimbap, sundae and fish cakes ordered as single dishes

The gimbap comes in bite-sized pieces. It's mini gimbap (small seaweed rice rolls) with yellow pickled radish peeking out between sesame-sprinkled seaweed, making it easy to pop one in between bites of spicy tteokbokki. The dark red sundae (Korean blood sausage) was chewy, and after one piece a savory taste lingered. In the fried snacks bowl, the half-moon shaped mandu stood out the most. The sweet potato fritters were cut into long strips and the gimmari was fried black, so the colors varied a lot. The sundae came sliced thick in a dark reddish color, and the fish cakes were folded without skewers and sitting in broth, making them easy to scoop up with a spoon.

The fish cakes sit folded in a clear broth. The broth is clear, so a spoonful resets your mouth after the numbing spice of the tteokbokki. Going around in a cycle — a bite of tteokbokki, a spoonful of fish cake broth, a bite of fried snacks — the bowls emptied out fast.

After finishing everything I walked out full.

The combo worth repeating at Hyeonseoni-ne

I didn't set an eating order. I'd eat a rice cake, pick up a piece of gimbap, dip a fried snack in the sauce — my chopsticks kept moving from bowl to bowl. The food colors popped against the green bowls, which also made for easy photos. The combo I reached for the most was dipping the fried snacks in the tteokbokki sauce.

It's close to Euljiro 1-ga Station and not far from Cheonggyecheon either, so I think I'll drop by again if I'm in the area. Next time I want to try the dishes I didn't get to order this time.

It's close to Cheonggyecheon, so it's a good spot to drop into while walking around the area. I think this will come to mind when I'm looking for a good snack bar near Euljiro 1-ga Station.

Next time I'm planning to try the Pikachu one, please look forward to it haha