Yongsan instant tteokbokki eating order, noodles first: Hyeonseonine

When you say tteokbokki (stir-fried rice cake) in Yongsan, there are a few names people have known for a long time, and Hyeonseonine is one of them. I'd walked past it a few times before, but this time I went specifically to properly try the instant tteokbokki.

With a yellow chimney and red roof visible from a distance, there's no way even a first-time visitor would walk right past it. Compared to the sleek new restaurants popping up around Yongsan these days, it's definitely a different vibe. If anything, I thought this look suited Hyeonseonine well.

What's the inside of Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch like?

The inside of Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch is roomier than the exterior suggests, and every table has an induction burner installed for cooking the instant tteokbokki. It's a good setup whether you go as a pair or in a bigger group sharing dishes.

From the outside I thought the place would be small, but once inside there are quite a lot of tables. Each table has an induction burner in the middle for boiling the instant tteokbokki. The interior isn't flashy or trendy, but that actually makes it easier to focus on the tteokbokki. It looked good for two people, or for a group ordering a bunch of things to share.

My whole purpose that day was the instant tteokbokki from the start. When the pot first came out, the portion was already pretty generous. With rice cakes, fish cakes, noodles, vegetables, and even egg, it's closer to a full meal than just tteokbokki. What I liked most was cooking it right there at the table.

Hyeonseonine instant tteokbokki: why you should eat the noodles first

With Hyeonseonine's instant tteokbokki, the broth thickens the longer it boils and the noodles soak up the sauce, so it's best to pull the noodles out first. For me personally, it tasted best about 5 minutes after it first started boiling.

At first the sauce and ingredients look like they're just sitting separately, but once it starts boiling hard, everything changes completely. Moisture comes out of the vegetables and the sauce loosens up, so the broth gradually thickens. That's when the rice cakes and fish cakes really start soaking up color.

Personally, when I eat instant tteokbokki, I tend to eat the noodles before the rice cakes. Boil them too long and the noodles soak up way too much broth. At Hyeonseonine too, I lifted out the noodles first. The sauce was coating the noodles evenly, and the style wasn't too thick and clumped — there was still some broth left. If you like the taste of noodles in tteokbokki sauce, you'll probably be pretty satisfied with this part.

The rice cakes get softer as they cook and the fish cakes soak up the sauce properly too. Personally, about 5 minutes past the initial boil was my favorite point. So if you're looking for a good tteokbokki spot in Yongsan and prefer the boil-it-yourself instant style over broth-based tteokbokki, Hyeonseonine gives you a clear reason to pick it.

Dip the fried food and egg in the tteokbokki broth

The fried food that came with the instant tteokbokki was better eaten one piece crispy first, then the rest dunked into the tteokbokki once the broth had reduced. The egg was also much tastier cut in half and dipped generously in the tteokbokki broth.

The fried food that came alongside is also not to be skipped. At first I ate one piece crispy, then put the rest into the tteokbokki broth. This will be a matter of taste, but I preferred the latter. The crispy batter absorbs a bit of the sweet-and-spicy sauce and softens up, while the inside stays as is. Especially once the tteokbokki broth has reduced a bit, the sauce clings on thick when you add the fried food.

Same with the egg. Rather than eating it plain, cutting it in half and dipping it generously in the tteokbokki broth was much better. Just looking at the photos tells you how much sauce I put on that egg that day. Mixing in pickled radish and warm broth along the way also helped reset from the spice.

Should you definitely order the Hyeonseonine fried rice?

If you're eating Hyeonseonine's instant tteokbokki, you should definitely get the fried rice. It's made by mixing rice, seaweed flakes, corn, and kimchi into the leftover tteokbokki sauce, and this fried rice — not the rice cakes — was actually the dish I remembered most that day.

After eating a good amount of the rice cakes and noodles, I was pretty full. I could have stopped there, but you can't skip the fried rice when eating instant tteokbokki. I added rice to the leftover tteokbokki sauce and mixed in seaweed flakes, corn, and kimchi. The sauce was much more concentrated than when I was eating the tteokbokki itself, so it paired really well with the fried rice. Spreading it out flat on the pot and pressing it down a bit for a crispy layer gives you yet another flavor.

If I had to pick the most memorable dish of the day, surprisingly it's this fried rice, not the rice cakes. I thought I'd eaten almost all of the tteokbokki broth, but adding the rice brings the sauce back to life. If you're ordering instant tteokbokki, it's a good idea to save some room for the fried rice from the start.

Would I go back to Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch?

If I go back to Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch, I plan to order the instant tteokbokki again and finish with the fried rice. It's less about a new style of tteokbokki and more a place where you can properly enjoy the fun of classic instant tteokbokki.

Hyeonseonine isn't so much a place showing off some brand-new style of tteokbokki — it's closer to a place where you can really enjoy the fun of instant tteokbokki as we know it. You wait for the pot to boil, pull out the noodles first, eat the rice cakes and fish cakes while dipping the fried food in the broth, then finish by frying rice in the leftover sauce. I liked how the flavor shifts a little at each stage depending on the order you eat in.

That said, since the broth keeps reducing the longer you eat instant tteokbokki, it's best not to boil it too long from the start. I'd recommend eating the noodles first, then slowly working through the rice cakes and fish cakes afterward.

• Once the pot is boiling, pull out the noodles first
• Let the rice cakes and fish cakes simmer slowly about 5 more minutes
• Dip the fried food in once the broth has reduced
• Cut the egg in half and load it up with broth
• Finish with fried rice made from the leftover sauce, rice, seaweed flakes, corn, and kimchi

This is a place worth remembering in Yongsan when you don't just want a light plate of Korean snack food, but want to properly work through tteokbokki, fried food, egg, and fried rice. If you're hunting for a good tteokbokki spot in Yongsan, the regular tteokbokki at Hyeonseonine is fine too, but I know I'll order the instant tteokbokki again next time. And I'll probably get the fried rice again too.