Yeonnam-dong restaurant, ₩10,000 spicy stir-fried pork: Eungkeum

A restaurant that recently opened in Yeonnam-dong — a spot for tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), chicken, pork bulgogi, fish cake soup and other drinking snacks, plus soju and beer, all 24 hours a day: 'Eungkeum Tteokbokki Yeonnam Branch.'

What is Eungkeum Tteokbokki Yeonnam Branch? A 24-hour snack restaurant in Yeonnam-dong

In English it's spelled 'ungkeum Tteokbbokki' haha. Tteokbokki doesn't seem to be the only star here — chicken looks like a main event too, with the kind of chicken logo you'd see on a whole-chicken restaurant. And Open 24 hours! A Yeonnam-dong hotspot running around the clock!

The interior~! Six tables for four (or was it five?). Behind the hall there's a pretty spacious kitchen. Even though it just opened, delivery riders keep coming and going — must already be busy with deliveries.

Next to the window seats there are coloring supplies set out on the windowsill. Guests from all over the world have left notes and drawings — fun to look through.

Sat down first! My friends said they'd be about 15 minutes late... Oh~ a receipt review event! Cider, cola, and soju as rewards are common enough, but giving out Asahi bottled beer too? Couldn't not participate!

The Eungkeum Tteokbokki Yeonnam menu: far more than tteokbokki

The menu! Given the name and signage, I figured tteokbokki and chicken would be the mains — but that wasn't all. So many set menus, lunch and dinner specials, 'giant baby' gimbap, sundae, fish cake soup, pork bulgogi, rice bowls, stews, yukgaejang (spicy beef soup), udon, and on and on! Too many dishes to even show all the photos! And tteokbokki itself isn't just one spice level — there's original, bumuri tteokbokki, vegetable udon tteokbokki, cheese bomb tteokbokki, rosé tteokbokki and more. Feels like you'd need 100 visits to try everything!

Led by the Hwayo set, there's also cheongha, soju, beer, a 200cc taster draft along with regular draft, bottled beer, soft drinks, strawberry latte, ades, and even pineapple sorbet — a really wide drinks and alcohol menu!

Tteokbokki, sundae, fried snacks — that's usually the standard order at a tteokbokki place, but here the menu is so vast it was hard to decide alone. Started with a draft beer while waiting for my late friends!

Tablet ordering: pick your rice cake type, spice level and toppings

Once my friends arrived, I clicked to order the 'original tteokbokki' on the tablet — and wow. After picking the dish, you choose wheat or rice rice cakes, then the spice level (heads up: the default is slightly spicier than Shin Ramyun!), then all the vegetables, sausage, fish cake, cheese, ramyeon, udon and so on before the order's complete. Factor in every combination and there must be thousands of possible menus!

₩10,000 spicy stir-fried pork, a draft beer dish in the middle of Yeonnam-dong

The second order, one of the 'anju' (drinking snack) menu items — the pork bulgogi — arrived first. Oh~ nice smoky char and a generous portion. With prices these days, getting a whole plate of pork bulgogi as a beer snack in the heart of Yeonnam-dong for just ₩10,000! Tastes pretty great too! If you come for lunch, the pork bulgogi rice bowl seems like a good call too.

With all three of us finally together, cheers~! One friend was driving, so she ordered some zero-sugar lemon drink. Zero sweetness, all tang and freshness! Feels like it'd go great with soju mixed in too haha.

Original tteokbokki with wheat rice cakes at default spice, plus vegetable gimbap

First visit, so no extra toppings — ordered the 'original tteokbokki' at the basic spice level! Slightly spicier than Shin Ramyun! You can't go milder than this. Even at this spice level I was sweating a bit... life of a spice lightweight, haha. Went with wheat rice cakes. There's a small amount of fish cake included by default. This tteokbokki is spicy-sweet in a way that seems hard for anyone to dislike!

'Giant baby' vegetable gimbap (seaweed rice roll). Was going to order tuna gimbap, but since it was our first visit, went with the basic vegetable version instead! Glad there was no cucumber in it. It had pickled radish, ham, sausage, fish cake, and burdock root, I think. It's way thicker and more generous than what you'd call 'mini gimbap' — probably why they call it 'giant baby gimbap' haha. Dipping it in the tteokbokki sauce is the ultimate snack move!

Sundae for ₩6,500 with a liver add-on: a generous portion

Then came the basic sundae with a liver add-on. The sundae alone is ₩6,500, and the liver add-on was maybe ₩1,000 or ₩1,500 — can't quite remember — but the portion was really generous.

The sundae was tasty too~~ and dipping the liver in the tteokbokki sauce? Another top-tier bite. Good for a lunch meal, good for an afternoon snack, and from evening onward, great for pairing delicious food and bunsik dishes with a drink — Yeonnam-dong's tteokbokki spot 'Eungkeum Tteokbokki Yeonnam Branch' really does it all.

Near the end of the meal, the Asahi bottled beer we got from the review event arrived! Haha. Even the friend who had to drive poured about 100cc into a glass just for the cheers and photo! Good food or good drinks are always better shared!

Final verdict: 500m from Hongik University Station Exit 3, open 24 hours year-round

Maybe because it just opened, the food was really tasty and good value — plus the photo zone on the building's exterior wall, and every little design detail inside was so stylish, which made this Yeonnam-dong tteokbokki spot even more memorable.

Thanks to a kind opportunity, I got to enjoy tteokbokki, pork bulgogi, sundae, gimbap and more — all dishes I love — along with draft beer, and had a fun evening catching up with friends who'd come a long way to visit Hongdae again after a while!

Located about 500 meters from Exit 3 of Hongik University Station! Yeonnam-dong's tteokbokki spot 'Eungkeum Tteokbokki Yeonnam Branch' — open every single day of the year, 24 hours a day!!!