Late-night solo dining in Hongdae for seafood kimchi pancake and

There was a line when I walked by during the day. There was a line when I walked by at night. I don't particularly like gukbap (Korean rice soup). But after passing this place a few times, I got too curious about why people were lining up. So I went. I went for the curiosity, not the gukbap.

10pm, and eight out of ten customers are foreign tourists

Yukjeon Gukbap Seogyo Branch. Looking it up, there's a main branch in Magok, and separate Hongdae and Seogyo branches. The two aren't even far apart, yet both are packed. That part surprised me too.

I went around 10pm last night. I sat down, looked around, and was a bit startled. About eight out of ten customers were foreign. Maybe two out of ten were Korean. Tourists eating gukbap. When people say "restaurants in Hongdae seoul," there's usually a certain image that comes to mind — this wasn't it. Tourists sitting with earthenware bowls of soup in front of them.

24 hours, solo seats, and no corkage fee

This place is open 24 hours. And it has solo seating. Those two things explain why there are always people here. People hunting for a late-night meal, people who just want a quiet solo dinner. There aren't that many places near Hongdae that welcome both.

The interior is brighter and cleaner than I expected. Wood tones, warm lighting, and a wall decorated with a roof-tile motif. Underneath it, handwritten text reads:

Jeon (savory pancakes), fried one by one, golden brown.

(So cute, but you can feel the effort behind it) You order via tablet at your table, but if you ask, they'll take cash bank transfer or let you pay after eating.

Looking at the menu, yukjeon is clearly the star. Yukjeon gukbap, yukjeon buckwheat makguksu, yukjeon bibim makguksu, beef bulgogi hot pot, stir-fried chadol gopchang, and vinegared squid. The jeon (pancake) dishes each get their own section. A sign on the wall said:

Our secret is effort.

And then I noticed something else on the wall that surprised me. BYO alcohol welcome. No corkage fee.

Wait, what.... A restaurant that sells jeon is telling you it's fine to bring your own drinks. Most places make their margin on alcohol, and they just left that door wide open. You get a sense of what kind of person the owner is. From the payment flexibility alone I could tell it was all about the customer — but this was true love from the owner....

Seafood kimchi pancake, the most surprising dish here

I ordered seafood kimchi pancake, yukjeon gukbap, and yukjeon bibim makguksu. Let me start with the kimchi pancake. This is the most surprising dish in the whole place. When you hear "seafood kimchi pancake," you usually imagine something like this: a kimchi pancake with a few slices of squid and a couple of shrimp. That's not what this was. The shrimp are big. And there's a genuinely large amount of squid. When you flip the pancake, seafood spills into view. The edges are crispy, the center is moist. The diameter fills the whole plate.

Yukjeon gukbap and yukjeon bibim makguksu

Yukjeon can easily turn chewy, but not here. It's pan-fried thin, so it's tender to chew. My husband had the gukbap. He said it was mild but got tastier the more he ate. Not a punchy broth, but the kind you keep spooning up anyway. The yukjeon bibim makguksu (cold buckwheat noodles with beef pancake) was just plain delicious. Sweet-and-tangy sauce, piled with seaweed flakes, topped with yukjeon. After a bite of the pancake, one bite of this resets your palate. Side dishes were just two kinds of kimchi and pickled onion. Not much, but it's the right amount to eat alongside jeon.

How much should two people order?

Worth mentioning the price too. Ordering the kimchi pancake, gukbap, and makguksu together came to just over ₩40,000. Given how big the pancake is — it fills the whole plate — two people could probably manage fine with just one pancake and one gukbap. (We were genuinely full, and he said the rice was good.)

Why the line

To sum up, the line makes sense. It's open 24 hours, solo dining is welcome, you can bring your own drinks, and the kimchi pancake is genuinely loaded with seafood. Whether you like gukbap or not, this lineup satisfies either way. Social proof really is reliable after all.