Jonggak second-round bar with Mom: ale and jambon pizza at Sudowonui

After dinner with my mom in Jonggak, we went looking for a place with finger food for a second round, and found a restaurant called Sudowonui Bimil Jeojanggo (수도원의 비밀 저장고)! A little spoiler: it's perfect for a casual work dinner, you know, the light kind of get-together, not the serious, stiff kind of team dinner!! I highly recommend it for that~

Where is Sudowonui Bimil Jeojanggo and when is it open?

Sudowonui Bimil Jeojanggo is in the basement level (B1) of a building in the Jonggak Station food alley, at 47-1 Samil-daero 17-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul. It is open daily from 17:00 to 24:00, with last order at 23:00.

Please note that it's in the basement!! We were wondering where it was too, so look for the spot with lots and lots of signboards.

The moment I saw the sign, I knew: we had to eat wood-fired pizza.

Monastery-themed bar atmosphere and seating

Sudowonui Bimil Jeojanggo is a monastery-themed bar. A monastery that's a bar? The opposite is always more tempting! You just head down the holy stairs.

I only managed to photograph the seats by the door, but there's a really big seating area inside! But what's this.. it was full on a weekday evening, haha. So we squeezed into the one remaining dajji (bar-counter) seat.

What we ordered at Sudowonui Bimil Jeojanggo in Jonggak, and the prices

The two of us ordered ale draft beer, arugula jambon (cured ham) pizza and carbonara cream pasta.

• Ale draft beer ₩7,900
• Arugula jambon pizza ₩26,900
• Carbonara cream pasta ₩18,900

Is the ale draft beer okay for people who don't drink much?

The ale draft beer here had a fruity aroma and went down so smoothly! The craft beer came out first, and honestly we don't know much about beer. But my mom doesn't drink much and even she said it was delicious, so it must be really good!

We sat at the bar, so we could watch them pour the draft beer themselves~ People were really drinking a lot, haha.

Naver review event roulette

If you join the Naver review event, you get to spin a roulette. We joined and won a free can of soft drink! Haha. You should join the review event too, haha.

How does the carbonara cream pasta taste?

The carbonara cream pasta tasted like a Korean-style cream pasta, which I hadn't had in ages! It came out while we were drinking beer, and it had that unfussy flavor I remember from childhood.. You catch bits of ground whole black pepper here and there, and it was so good!

Oh, and we ordered the arugula jambon pizza, but preparing it ran a tiiiny bit late, so they apologized and gave us a cheesecake! You can also get this cheesecake from the roulette event~

Arugula jambon pizza: how much arugula is on it?

The arugula jambon pizza is piled with so much arugula that I'd never seen a pizza with that much! Haha. The pizza we'd waited and waited for finally arrived, and it was truly as good as the wait was long~ They must farm arugula, because they were so generous with it. There was so much I thought, hmm, is it a bit bitter..? Haha (in a good way!)

Is it a good second-round or casual work dinner spot in Jonggak?

Sudowonui Bimil Jeojanggo was so nice for a light second round. If you collect 10 stamps, you get free gnocchi. In Jonggak, instead of a heavy meat restaurant, I recommend pizza and finger food like this!

• Unusual monastery-themed atmosphere, recommended for dates and gatherings
• Tasty wood-fired pizza and pasta with a varied menu, so satisfaction is high
• Close to Jonggak Station for easy access, and the atmospheric interior is great for taking photos