Curtained tables for two at Gunja Station bar Saechamjip, Seoul

A stone plate came out completely buried under ribs. The bone grill, boiled for 48 hours, costs ₩25,900.

It was a Saturday evening. My girlfriend and I decided to eat around Gunja Station and were looking for somewhere quiet, and the phrase "room bar" pulled us in. That's how we ended up at Saechamjip Gunja. We got there around 7:30pm and found two parties already waiting. It didn't take long, but a line formed behind us almost immediately — five minutes later and we'd have been behind five parties.

Where is Saechamjip Gunja, and what are the hours?

Saechamjip Gunja is about 153m from Gunja Station Exit 5, roughly a 3-minute walk. You can also come in through the food alley across from Megabox near Exit 6. It's on the 2nd floor, so it's easy to walk past looking only at the ground level — head up the stairs of the building with the green parking sign.

• ⏰ Daily 17:30–02:00 (last order 00:30)
• 🚫 Open every day, no closed days
• 🅿 1–2 free parking spots in front of the building (call ahead recommended)

Hovenia sticks at the table and the notices worth reading first

As soon as we sat down, they gave us two hotchgae (raisin tree) sticks — I guess meant to help anyone planning to drink. We weren't drinking that night but got them anyway.

It's worth reading the notices posted next to the menu. The minimum food order is ₩16,900, and rice or extra noodles are ₩500 each. Ask and they'll give you more broth. If there's a waiting line, your table time is capped at 2.5 hours — good to know ahead of time. Adding their KakaoTalk channel gets you ₩3,000 off, writing a Naver review gets you a canned peach, and birthday guests get a polaroid photo.

The sign out front reads, in big letters, "a Korean bar where you share warmth." Next to the Saechamjip name there's a little sparrow drawn on — and that same sparrow keeps following you around inside.

A standing signboard on the street lists all the signature dishes, so you can decide what to order before heading up. It also lists their house-ground makgeolli (rice wine) and Andong soju highballs.

The curtain that drops around every table

Inside was bigger than I expected. Long tables line the window side, and menu posters cover the walls edge to edge. By 8pm there were barely any open seats.

This is why it's called a room bar: a cloth curtain printed with the Saechamjip logo drops down over every table. It's not a fully closed room, but it blocks the next table from view. Fake flowers and hanji (traditional paper) lanterns hang from the corridor ceiling — a good spot for photos, and I saw people snapping shots as they passed through.

What we ordered at Saechamjip and what it cost

The menu is split into signature dishes, soups and stews, stir-fries and grills, and pan-fried/fried items. The signature drinks are their house-ground fruit makgeolli and Andong soju highballs.

We ordered the 48-hour boiled baekmugeunji stone-plate bone grill and beef jeon. For the bone grill we picked bone-in at ₩25,900 over boneless at ₩29,900. The beef jeon was ₩18,900.

The basic side dishes are a plate of corn crackers and a bowl of broth. That broth has baekmugeunji (aged white kimchi) and cucumber strips floating in it — a cold, refreshing sip that resets your palate after something greasy. Ask and they'll give you more.

Beef jeon, 18,900 won, with shredded spring onion

The beef jeon came out first. It filled the whole plate and was piled high with shredded green onion, with thin layers of beef brisket stacked under the egg coating.

Take a piece with the green onion and you get a savory hit first, followed by a spicy sauce underneath. I expected the egg coating to make it heavy, but the green onion kept cutting through it, so it never got tiring.

48-hour boiled baekmugeunji stone-plate bone grill, 25,900 won

Then came the main event: the stone-plate bone grill. I held my hand up next to it and the plate was about two palms wide. Ribs were stacked on top of it — could the two of us actually finish this?

The "boiled for 48 hours" claim wasn't for show. Pick up a bone and the meat just slides right off — no fighting to tear it apart. The sauce is sweetish with a lingering hint of spice at the end. Try it with a piece of the baekmugeunji served alongside: the aged kimchi cuts right through the richness of the ribs, and I kept repeating that combination — haha. My girlfriend said she couldn't eat it without the kimchi either and kept reaching for more.

Sauce pools on the stone plate at the end, and leaving it untouched would be a waste. Rice is only ₩500, so order a bowl and mix it in. Apparently a lot of people finish with a stone-plate fried rice too.

Too much for two, and how comfortable the curtained seat felt

Bone grill at ₩25,900 plus jeon at ₩18,900 — the portions were generous enough that the two of us couldn't finish everything. Each dish comes out big, so three or four people wouldn't have trouble either. Most of all, the curtained seat made it easy to talk. If you're looking for somewhere quiet near Gunja Station, Saechamjip makes it obvious why people call it a room bar.

Who Saechamjip Gunja suits best

• Anyone near Gunja Station who wants to talk without worrying about the next table
• Anyone who wants to fill up on a single dish
• Anyone who loves the combo of meat and aged kimchi
• Anyone looking for a spot for a group dinner or gathering

The downsides: the wait and the 2.5-hour limit

The downside was the wait. We arrived at 7:30 on a Saturday and two parties were already waiting, with a line forming right behind us soon after. If you're going on a weekend evening, a reservation is probably worth it. Also, if there's a waiting line, your table time is capped at 2.5 hours, so if you want to linger, aim for an earlier slot. Parking is limited to just 1–2 spots in front of the building, so public transit is the better bet.