Guro bar for spicy whelk somyeon: Apgujeong Sinpocha

Late at night, I was craving some simple bar snacks, so I visited a pocha. Rather than somewhere huge and noisy, I looked for a cozy, atmospheric spot—and it was perfect for spending some time at a relaxed pace.

The atmosphere at Apgujeong Sinpocha near Gaebong Station

Apgujeong Sinpocha, where I visited, is near Gaebong Station. It is right by Line 1, so getting there is easy, and even late at night the streets were bright and full of people.

Apgujeong Sinpocha is on the second floor of a commercial building, and its wall-to-wall windows made it feel wonderfully open. They had the windows wide open too, so a cool evening breeze came in, which I loved.

Inside, it felt more modern and neat with an izakaya-like mood than like an old-school pocha. The owner, who has been in the restaurant business for 13 years, cooks here personally, so the snacks are a safe bet from the start.

A wide range of drinks and bar snacks

Apgujeong Sinpocha had reasonable prices, plus lots of drinks and dishes to choose from. There were so many tempting mains, including flame-grilled cheese buldak, flame-grilled spicy pork, whelk somyeon, grilled whole tofu kimchi, and stir-fried chicken gizzards with whole garlic—and the prices were quite good.

There were plenty of soup-style snacks too, such as spicy jjamppong soup, assorted fish cake soup, and kimchi udon. When you are drinking, you start craving a hot bowl of broth, right? There were lots of good options to have alongside drinks. They also had plenty of dried snacks, including giant grilled filefish, semi-dried squid, and grilled dried pollack, as well as easy sharing dishes like butter-grilled scallops and shrimp, assorted skewers, and okonomiyaki.

If you order two or more dishes from this huge snack menu—whether mains or sides—you can get discounted soju and beer.

They had Saero omija, hardy kiwi, and apricot flavors, so I honestly wanted to try every kind. Saero was also available at the discounted soju price. I was feeling pretty unwell, so I could not drink that day, but I am definitely coming back for Saero next time.

A cozy, pretty space

Apgujeong Sinpocha was lovely because the space itself was pretty and cozy.

The seating layout was a little unusual, and it felt nicely separated too. There were not a lot of tables, but customers came and went constantly. At bars, people usually stay for a long time, but somehow the timing worked out perfectly here: as one table left, new guests would arrive.

As you would expect from a bar, there were lots of people even late at night. I liked that there was not a single table shouting or being overly loud; everyone was drinking at a comfortable volume, so the mood was nice.

Whelk somyeon with deliciously chewy noodles

The dish I was looking forward to most at Apgujeong Sinpocha was whelk somyeon—whelks with thin wheat noodles. Whelk somyeon can be really delicious, but surprisingly, not many places do it well.

A lot of places do not manage their whelks properly, so I have even eaten spoiled whelks before. Often the sauce is not good either, and I end up having only a few bites. But Apgujeong Sinpocha's was delicious.

The portion was quite generous, and it looked great too!

The noodles had a pleasantly chewy bite, and they were really good.

If somyeon is cooked too long, it goes soft and breaks easily, so the texture is not as good. It is not easy to preserve this chewy texture in thin noodles, but these noodles were excellent.

The whelks were big, and there was no fishy or off smell at all, so they were really tasty.

Chewy somyeon, cabbage, cucumber, and whelks all coated in spicy sauce—this is truly the ultimate drinking snack!

I heard that the “sin” in Apgujeong Sinpocha means the Korean word for spicy, and the seasoning was generally on the spicy side. It was the delicious kind of spicy that makes your nose run, yet you keep eating until the very end.

It was sweet and tangy, with the flavor deeply soaked into the ingredients, so I kept reaching for it. In particular, I think the seasoning was even better because it is homemade with freshly ground apples, pears, and more.

For some reason, I always prefer places that serve homemade food over ones that use ready-made sauces.

A cherry syrup highball that can be non-alcoholic

They said highballs can be made non-alcoholic too, so I had the cherry syrup highball.

They added lots of red cherry syrup, making it wonderfully sweet, while the tang from the lemon slice spread through it nicely for a sweet-and-tart flavor. Since the whelk somyeon was spicy, I kept sipping the cherry highball in between, and it paired incredibly well.

Highballs can be stronger than you might expect, so I liked being able to have it non-alcoholic without any 부담.

Nostalgic old-fashioned patbingsu

For dessert at the end, I had old-fashioned patbingsu, shaved ice with red beans. Just as its name suggests, it was the old-style patbingsu I used to eat a lot long ago.

Red beans, Corn Frost, sweetened condensed milk, and fruit cocktail—there is no way that combination could taste bad. I love shaved ice so much that when I was little, we even had an ice-shaving machine at home, so it brought back so many memories.

The portion was much bigger than I expected, and I ate until I was completely full. For anyone having drinks, it would be just right for sobering up afterward.