24-hour Korean restaurant near Hongdae for beef bulgogi hot pot

A short walk from Hongik University Station, open 24 hours

I had somewhere to be near Hongdae, and while deciding on dinner I wanted something warm, so I stopped by Yukjeon Gukbap Seogyo Branch. It's a quick walk from Hongik University Station, so if you're searching for restaurants in Hongdae, Seoul, the access is pretty good haha. The 24-hour hours helped too. Honestly, gukbap (rice-and-soup) is soul food for me as a Busan native!!👍👍

I'm actually more of a sugure-gukbap (beef tripe soup) and gomtang (bone broth) person than a dwaeji-gukbap (pork soup) person, but since this place does beef gukbap, I walked straight in thinking this was the one.

I thought Yukjeon Gukbap only sold gukbap, but haha, they also have deulgireum makguksu (perilla oil cold noodles), and you can choose yukjeon or wanja (meatballs) as a side — I loved that! I actually went for gukbap, but the moment I saw the ttukbaegi beef bulgogi set I got tempted and decided on that instead haha.

Hanok-style exterior with a 肉煎 neon sign — not your typical gukbap place

The tiled-roof, hanok-style exterior fit the alley atmosphere of Seogyo-dong well, and through the glass front, the inside looked cozy too, with wooden tables and rows of yellow lit signs hanging overhead...!! The 肉煎 (yukjeon) neon sign on the inner wall was a pretty and distinctive interior touch. It didn't really feel like a typical gukbap place, haha. Once seated, you order via a tablet at the table.

The menu is both a rice-meal menu and a drinking-food menu

Scanning the menu, there was such a wide range — seafood pajeon (scallion pancake), cheese seafood kimchi jeon, beef intestine jeongol (hot pot), beef bulgogi jeongol — that I already wanted to work through them one by one on my next visit. It works as a rice-meal spot, but it's also totally a great place for drinking snacks haha 🤭🤭

I was curious about the assorted jeon (pan-fried dishes) and the perilla leaf jeon I'd seen in photos, but that'll be for next time. The hamburger-style gomtang with doganitang (knee cartilage) especially seems like it'd be great in winter (gomtang and gukbap are totally my soul food...💁‍♀️💁‍♀️)

Just looking at the makgeolli (rice wine) lineup — from Jangsu Makgeolli to fruit ones like green grape, lemon, and grapefruit, plus a sampler — made me think I need to try that next time too haha🍽️🍽️

Banchan and freshly pan-fried beef yukjeon

The banchan (side dishes) were set down first — kkakdugi, napa cabbage kimchi, and an onion-and-cheongyang-chili soy pickle — all mild and clean-tasting. I don't usually eat much kimchi or kkakdugi, but this kkakdugi was refreshing with a slight sweetness, so my chopsticks kept going back for more,,,haha

The beef yukjeon that came with the set was crispy outside and moist inside, exactly the way you'd expect from something fried fresh, piece by piece. It wasn't bland — it had seasoning — so at first I just ate it plain, but by the middle it was best paired with rice. Yukjeon can easily go wrong, with the egg coating separating or a gamey smell coming through, but there was none of that here — just pure savory goodness!!

In Busan, yukjeon is a must-have holiday food, so I'm quite sensitive to how it tastes haha, and this was genuinely excellent — I decided I'd come back here whenever I want yukjeon haha. Tastes like home~~~ 🤣🤣

But if it feels a little rich, doing what the sign on the wall suggested — dipping it in soy sauce with onion and cheongyang chili on top — cut through the richness cleanly.

Ttukbaegi beef bulgogi set: a mountain of scallions and an overwhelming amount of meat

The ttukbul (short for ttukbaegi bulgogi) finally arrived haha, piled with a mountain of scallions — overwhelming just visually. There was genuinely so much I filmed a video of it haha.

At a lot of places, once you push aside the scallions and mushrooms on top, there's barely any meat underneath, but here the amount of meat was overwhelming in a good way!!!! At a price of ₩10,000-something for the set, with yukjeon included, it felt like a win on both price and taste!!

Good for solo dining — next time, jeon and makgeolli too

Overall the ingredients were good and you could feel the care put into the cooking, and above all, being open 24 hours meant I could go anytime without worrying about the clock — that was genuinely appealing. The staff were kind too, and with plenty of tables for solo diners, it felt like an easy, no-pressure place to visit haha. Next time I'll come with friends and order some jeon with makgeolli🐷🐷