Sindang Station izakaya birthday dinner for 5: Lucky Dragon JCB

Sindang Station bar, the izakaya Lucky Dragon JCB Sindang

Four hours in the car, back to my hometown of Sindang-dong

Hi, this is Chubap! On this day I headed up to Seoul because it was a friend's birthday. My car had broken down, remember, so my kid and I were originally going to just take the train up together. But the tinting on the car finally finished on Saturday, so my husband and I decided to all go up to Seoul together.

Going up to Seoul really does take forever. ㅠㅠㅠ On Saturdays you're supposed to leave early in the morning, but we left in the afternoon, so it took almost 4 hours..ㅜㅜ Time spent on the road feels like such a waste! But if I think about it positively with my husband, the car is actually a good place to talk a lot and really focus on conversation!

About the timing—at first the navigation said around 2.5 hours, but once we entered Seoul it just kept getting longer, haha. Coming back to my hometown, Sindang-dong, after so long put me in a great mood haha.

Maybe because it had been so long, but Sindang-dong felt just like Seongsu-dong—actually even more so, since Dongdaemun is right next door, so there were lots of fashionable people around and it felt really hip. There are also so many places to eat all through the Sindang-dong alleys!

What we ordered and how much it cost

• Fried rice (Chahan) ₩8,900
• Chinese-style soba ₩10,900
• Handmade yaki gyoza ₩6,900
• Mapo tofu ₩14,900
• Cross buta ₩16,900
• Yakisoba ₩10,900
• Cucumber salad (Paihuangqua) ₩6,900

The place we visited is an izakaya-style bar, and it seemed like a great spot for a friend's birthday party, so we booked ahead through Naver Reservations before visiting.

A total of five of us gathered that day. The birthday friend and I met up first!! While deciding what to order, I went with my favorite—one sweet and sour pork and one fried rice—first.

For drinks, everyone else had draft beer while I had a non-alcoholic beer! I feel like I've been on non-alcoholic beer for such a long time now. This time it wasn't overdrinking, it was over-non-drinking lol. Sindang Station bar, izakaya, great for side dishes.

Square-cut sweet and sour pork and budget-friendly fried rice

The sweet and sour pork was uniquely shaped—pressed flat into squares—with a tangy sauce on the side, and it came loaded with paprika, which I love, so it was easy to pick up and eat.

The fried rice was excellent value. It's cheap but comes in a generous portion—basically egg fried rice. Great for filling up before drinking if you're hungry. Gotta load up on carbs too, haha.

Mapo tofu and yakisoba, bigger portions than they look

One more friend arrived, so we ordered a couple more dishes—one mapo tofu and one yakisoba! The mapo tofu had a bit of a mala (numbing spicy) kick, giving it a distinctive flavor, and I bet it would be delicious mixed into rice too.

Yakisoba is basically a stir-fried noodle dish, but honestly every single side dish here was delicious. The portions were much bigger than they looked—not small at all, haha.

Paihuangqua, the cucumber salad I want the recipe for

Then another friend showed up and we ordered dumplings plus paihuangqua (cucumber salad), and that paihuangqua was totally my style... It's a smashed-cucumber salad and it's so good. Comes with peanuts too—I really want to know the recipe. It tastes like something I'd love to make at home!

The birthday friend said she wanted something with broth at the end, so she ordered the Chinese-style soba, but we'd ordered so much already that by the time it arrived we were too full to touch it. ㅠㅠ lol

The flower shop right next door: a tip for birthdays and dates

Right next door there's a flower shop, and since I've lived in this neighborhood for a long time, I knew it's been around for ages too~~ So I bought a single flower for my birthday friend!! When I said it was a gift for a friend, the owner recommended one called a teddy bear flower! Apparently it's named that because it's fuzzy like a bear~ The flower's meaning is 'support'!

If you're visiting with a partner, this is such a good spot for guys to pull off a surprise romantic moment... just something to keep in mind!! lol Sindang Station bar, izakaya, highly recommended date spot^^

Business info

• Lucky Dragon JCB Sindang
• Address: 43-8 Dasan-ro 42-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea (1st floor)