Songpa salad restaurant spice test: tomato soup vs mushroom, Olla Poke

Hours: 10:30 AM – 8:00 PM, closed weekends / Parking: in-building parking lot

Hi everyone! It's been so hot and humid lately — how's everyone holding up against the heat? Today I want to introduce a light and easy salad poke spot, Olla Poke Munjeong Main Branch! It's the kind of poke place office workers and solo diners can pop into without much fuss on these hot, appetite-killing days haha. Though honestly, I never really lose my appetite...

How to find Olla Poke Munjeong Main Branch from Munjeong Station

Olla Poke Munjeong Main Branch is reached by going into the basement level of Terra Tower A from Exit 3 of Munjeong Station. If you're walking, look for Woojicoffee! The store is tucked inside the building so it can be a bit tricky to find — I think I circled the entire B1 floor of building A lol. If you're driving, park in the building's basement lot, head to B1, and follow the same route. Then you'll be greeted by an entrance that looks like this...

Inside Olla Poke: the room and the self-serve bar

Walk through the entrance and you'll find a cozy, tidy little store. There's a self-serve bar set up toward the back. Maybe it's just me, but the all-white tone makes the place feel even cleaner, which suits the salad theme haha. The self-bar had lemon water with ice floating in it, warm tea, forks, spoons, sauces, paper cups, tissues, and wet wipes.

Olla Poke menu and kiosk ordering

The best-selling menu items at Olla Poke Munjeong Main Branch are the garlic shrimp poke, super protein poke, steak poke, and buldak salmon poke. Orders go through the kiosk. Time to look at the menu board! There were tons of options, including a vegan avocado poke, which seemed great for anyone eating plant-based. Each poke bowl can also be swapped to buckwheat noodles, salad, or oat brown rice as the base, so you can customize it however you like. Each table also had a small QR code — scan it with your phone, leave a Naver review, and show it to staff, and you get a free drink from the self-bar mentioned earlier. Definitely worth doing!!

What comes in the poke + soup set menu

• Solo poke + soup set
• Steak poke + spicy tomato soup
• Seafood poke + spicy tomato soup

Today we ordered two of the poke + soup set menus from the SET MENU, which comes with a solo poke and a soup. You could choose between spicy tomato soup and mushroom soup, and since both of us love spicy food, we went with the spicy tomato soup haha.

How the steak poke and seafood poke tasted

Here are the steak poke and seafood poke. The steak poke had steak, chickpeas, red onion, various vegetables, and garlic chips on top, while the seafood poke had octopus, shrimp, scallops, chickpeas, seaweed, and flying fish roe. The steak poke had more meat than I expected, and the garlic chips paired really well with it. The seafood poke was amazing too — the popping flying fish roe, chewy octopus, and soft scallops were all delicious!

How spicy is the spicy tomato soup, really?

The spicy tomato soup at Olla Poke Munjeong Main Branch was about as spicy as somewhere between buldak (fire noodles) and Shin Ramyun. And honestly, I loved this tomato soup! The occasional soft chunks you'd bite into along with the spicy kick were genuinely delicious (I honestly felt like it was healthily curing my hangover...). That said, even I — someone who can handle spicy food — found it distinctly spicy. So if you consider yourself weak to spice, I'd recommend the mushroom soup instead of the tomato one. It's spicier than you'd expect, seriously.

Weekday lunch crowd at Olla Poke and final verdict

Olla Poke Munjeong Main Branch had a clean store and good, fresh flavors. Since poke is essentially salad, I think ingredient management is really important, and every ingredient here felt genuinely fresh, with great combinations overall. It's already known as a famous salad restaurant near Munjeong Station, so even on a weekday lunch, there were tons of office workers. Groups of three or four came in together, and I also saw a lot of solo diners. I believe there's always a reason when a place draws a crowd, and Olla Poke Munjeong felt like exactly that kind of place. If you're ever near Munjeong Station and craving something light in the summer heat, or if you're watching your weight and want an easy meal, I recommend Olla Poke Munjeong, located inside Terra Tower!!