Yeouido IFC Mall lunch with a kid, sesame mini gimbap: Hyeonseonine

Found this place while looking for good eats at Yeouido IFC Mall — Hyeonseonine! It's a tteokbokki place I really, REALLY love, but I'd only ever been to the original branch, so this was my first time at the Yeouido location!

I think anyone who loves tteokbokki has probably heard of it at least once. Hyeonseonine started as a street cart back in 2004 and now runs several branches, haha. I went to Yeouido with my daughter that day and wanted something quick for lunch, so we headed to Hyeonseonine..!

Hyeonseonine doesn't just do tteokbokki — they've got mini gimbap, sundae (Korean blood sausage), fried snacks, and eomuk (fish cake) too, basically all the snack-food favorites in one place, haha. With so many menu items, it's a great spot to go with a group and pick a bit of everything.

Where Hyeonseonine Premium IFC Mall Branch is, and its hours

The Yeouido branch of Hyeonseonine is on basement level 2 of IFC Mall, at 10 Gukjegeumyung-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. It's open Mon–Fri 11:00–21:00, and Sat–Sun 12:00–21:00.

It's inside IFC Mall so the layout can be a little confusing the first time. You follow the underground passage connected to the subway, past a long row of shops, and keep walking inward until you finally reach Hyeonseonine. Even I found myself thinking 'is this really it?' after walking for a while, haha.

What comes in the 23,000-won Hyeonseoni Set

You order at the in-store kiosk, and the menu is surprisingly varied — single items, sets, even instant-style tteokbokki cooked at your table!

We wanted to try a bit of everything, so we ordered the Hyeonseoni Set for 23,000 won. It comes with tteokbokki, sundae, fried snacks, and mini gimbap all in one — pretty satisfying if you're a fan of Korean snack food.

How spicy is Hyeonseonine's medium tteokbokki?

Hyeonseonine's tteokbokki comes in three spice levels: mild, medium, and spicy. Mild is good for eating with kids, medium is apparently a bit spicier than Shin Ramyun, and spicy is the very hot level Hyeonseonine is famous for.

Normally my favorite combo at Hyeonseonine is half spicy, half mild, but since I was eating with my daughter that day I behaved and ordered medium, haha. We got medium tteokbokki and it was exactly the standard flavor!! Sweet with just a slight kick?? Just a warning — ordering all-spicy is risky, lol. I nearly died the last time I did that 😂😂

Order the sesame-oil mini gimbap with it

And now for my personal favorite menu item at Hyeonseonine!

It's the mini gimbap (seaweed rice roll). Inside you get egg, pickled radish, ham, imitation crab and more, and the outside is brushed with sesame oil, giving it that nutty, salty flavor that's honestly so good, ㅠㅠ. Even my daughter said the gimbap here was really tasty — she knows what's up, lol.

It's great just eaten piece by piece, but dipping it lightly in the tteokbokki broth gives you that flavor you can only get at a snack restaurant, haha. If you're going to Hyeonseonine for the first time, I really recommend ordering the mini gimbap alongside everything else!!

The sundae and fried snacks in the set

The sundae was generously packed with lung and liver, so as someone who loves organs I ate it very happily. (The type of person who orders sundae just for the organs 🙌) It had no off smell and was pretty clean-tasting, so dipping it lightly in salt was delicious.

There were also several kinds of fried snacks.

Squid, gimmari (fried seaweed rolls), sweet potato, vegetables, mandu — all sorts were mixed in, so it was fun trying one of each.

The batter wasn't soggy at all, nice and crispy, and eating it together with the tteokbokki..! No need to say more, ㅠㅠ.

Self-serve bar and how long the wait is

There's a self-serve bar out front with pickled radish, frying powder, soy sauce, salt, small plates, and a ladle, so you can grab whatever you need yourself — really convenient! The staff also prepared our order quickly once it came in, so we didn't have to wait long for the food. One set is quite a generous portion too, plenty for 2–3 people like us!

Who Hyeonseonine at IFC Mall suits best

Next time I want to try the instant-style tteokbokki, which we didn't get to that day. If you're out at Yeouido IFC Mall or The Hyundai Seoul and want something quick to eat, or you're looking for a place in Yeouido that's easy to enjoy with kids, this is a solid spot to check out.

And if you want to try tteokbokki alongside mini gimbap, sundae, fried snacks and eomuk all in one go, I'd definitely recommend going for the set menu.