Yongsan tteokbokki, ₩26,000 mild fish cake skewer combo: Hyeonseonine

Some days you don't want just a plate of tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes). You want sundae (Korean blood sausage), fritters, gimbap (seaweed rice rolls) and fish cake all spread across the table, a proper snack-bar feast. This time I was in Yongsan and stopped by Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch (현선이네 용산본점), a well-known tteokbokki place near Sinyongsan Station that has been around for a long time, haha

Hyeonseonine lets you order tteokbokki, mini gimbap, handmade sundae, mixed fritters and twisted fish cake skewers all at once, so you don't have to agonize over each dish. We ordered the Hyeonseon Combo with twisted fish cake skewers in the mild version. Conclusion first: ₩26,000 got us a generous snack-bar spread, and the dishes went so well together that we kept reaching for something different until the very end, haha

Where is Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch, and what are its hours?

The address is 2-13 Hangang-daero 39-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. It's about 180 m from Exit 6 of Sinyongsan Station, so it's easy to find by subway. Official channels and Seoul tourism info list it as open daily from 11am to midnight, with last order at 10:40pm.

You turn off the main road near Sinyongsan Station and walk a little way into the alley. Between the tall buildings around Yongsan Station and Sinyongsan Station, there are lanes that still keep an old neighborhood feel, so the walk itself was fun, haha. The shop isn't right on the main road, but its red roof and sign stand out, so it was easier to find than I expected. The alley isn't wide, so walking from Sinyongsan Station looked much easier than driving, lol

The eye-catching red roof out front

Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch sits in a low building, and its red roof and bright outer wall caught my eye from far away. With so many tall buildings around, the modest exterior felt even more charming, haha. I expected a small snack bar, but inside it was much bigger than it looked from outside. It keeps the feel of an old neighborhood snack shop while being neat and tidy, so it's comfortable for a meal. Just finding it along the alley felt like visiting a hidden Yongsan favorite, lol

How does ordering work at Hyeonseonine, and what's the seating like?

When you walk in, you first see the ordering kiosk and the self-bar. You order, then pick up your food yourself when your number is called, so it wasn't hard to figure out even on a first visit, haha. Inside there were several tables for two and four, and overall the seating was fairly roomy.

You might picture a tteokbokki place as cramped and crowded, but here the aisles were relatively wide and the seats comfortable. It may get busy at lunchtime or on weekends, but snack food turns over fast, so waiting long didn't seem likely, haha. Inside, photos showing Hyeonseonine's history hang on the walls. You can feel that it has held its spot in Yongsan for a long time, and I caught myself looking at the sign and photos again, lol

What's at the self-serve bar?

Next to the kiosk at Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch is a self-bar stocked with small plates, pickled radish, fritter crumbs, salt for the sundae, soy sauce and more. If you run out of pickled radish or want soy sauce for dipping fritters, you can just grab it yourself without calling staff, haha. Everything was neatly covered and the plates were piled up generously, so it was easy to use.

You can also sprinkle a little of the fritter crumbs into the tteokbokki sauce. The crunchy crumbs soak up the sauce and add a nutty flavor, so if you like the sauce itself, give it a try, lol

When I visited, there was also a Naver Place receipt review and save event. The notice said that if you take part in a review, you can choose either a slush or a tteokbokki size-up, but it's best to check the event details again when you go, haha

How much is the Hyeonseon Combo with twisted fish cake skewers, and what's in it?

The Hyeonseon Combo with twisted fish cake skewers costs ₩26,000 and includes tteokbokki, sundae and offal, mixed fritters, mini gimbap and two twisted fish cake skewers. Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch has a wide range of snack-bar food, including regular and instant tteokbokki, sundae, mixed fritters, mini gimbap, fish cake, ramen and rice balls. You can choose the spice level of the tteokbokki, so you can pick based on how well you handle heat. To try lots of things at once, we went with the combo, haha

We chose the mild tteokbokki, and for the sundae we picked the version with regular sundae plus two kinds of offal. With everything piled on one tray, it looked hearty, and we briefly couldn't decide what to eat first, lol

How spicy is Hyeonseonine's mild tteokbokki?

The mild tteokbokki looks quite spicy by color, but what I tasted first was sweetness. Tteokbokki was the first thing I tried: long wheat rice cakes and fish cake generously coated in red sauce, haha

A gentle, tteokbokki-style heat lingers at the end, but it's mild enough that people who don't handle spice well can eat it fairly comfortably. The rice cakes aren't too thick and chew softly, with a springy center, haha. The sauce coats the surface evenly, so every bite was evenly sweet and spicy. Thin, soft fish cake is mixed in too, which gave more texture variety than eating rice cake alone. After a bite, I'd cleanse my mouth with pickled radish and go back for more, and it tasted like familiar, keep-reaching-for-it snack bar tteokbokki, lol

Bite-sized mini gimbap

The mini gimbap in the combo is rolled small, perfect for popping into your mouth in one bite. Sesame seeds were sprinkled on top, and it was packed with the basics: pickled radish, crab stick, egg and vegetables, haha. It's just a smaller version of regular gimbap, so it was more filling than I expected. Plain, it was nutty and mild, but dipped lightly in the tteokbokki sauce the flavor got much stronger, lol

The sweet-spicy sauce soaks in between the rice and seaweed, making that familiar snack bar combo you hope for. When you need something milder between tteokbokki and fritters, it's easy to pick up one piece at a time, haha

Sundae and two kinds of offal

The sundae at Hyeonseonine came as regular glutinous rice sundae plus two kinds of offal on one plate. Getting several cuts rather than sundae alone is a satisfying setup for sundae and offal fans, haha. The sundae was cut reasonably thick, moist inside, with chewy glass noodles.

The offal didn't have a strong gamey smell and was mild, nice with a light dip in salt. Dunking the sundae deep in the tteokbokki sauce also worked, with the nutty sundae and rich sauce matching well, lol. If you like the sauce, you can spoon a little over the sundae or eat it together with the mini gimbap, which was a decent combination too.

A varied plate of mixed fritters

The mixed fritters at Hyeonseonine included gimmari (glass noodle seaweed rolls), dumplings and several other kinds. It wasn't a lot of just one type; the shapes and fillings differed, so picking through them was fun, haha. The coating was crisp overall, and the fillings like vegetables and glass noodles gave a different texture with each bite.

The fried dumpling in particular had a thin wrapper that shattered crisply over a soft filling, and it went well with the tteokbokki sauce, lol. The gimmari was crisp outside with moist glass noodles inside, great for a generous dunk in sauce. Fritters can go soggy over time, so eat them crisp when they first arrive, and the leftovers can be soaked in the tteokbokki sauce, which also worked well, haha

Warm twisted fish cake skewers

The twisted fish cake (eomuk) came as two skewers of long fish cake folded onto sticks. The clear broth had a little chopped green onion on top, nice for sipping warm broth between other dishes, haha. The thin parts and the folded parts had different textures, so even one skewer had a variety of chewiness.

The broth is warm and mild rather than sharply salty, and it reset the sweet-spicy tteokbokki flavor each time, lol. After tteokbokki and fritters, a spoonful of fish cake broth loosened up my mouth and sent me back to the other dishes. Having fish cake and broth in the spread made the whole meal feel more filling, haha

Is the Hyeonseon Combo enough for two?

Depending on appetite, the Hyeonseon Combo was a quite filling amount for two people. It wasn't one tteokbokki with small sides added; each item came as a proper plate, and with the tteokbokki, mini gimbap, sundae, fritters and fish cake all laid out, the table filled up fast, haha

It's a good order when you want to taste a bit of everything, like we did. What I liked most was that the dishes didn't feel separate; they connected naturally around the tteokbokki sauce, lol. We dipped the mini gimbap and sundae in the sauce, and enjoyed the fritters both crisp and sauce-soaked in turn. Sipping the warm fish cake broth in between settled the spiciness, so we never got tired of it until the end, haha

Craving a full Korean snack spread in Yongsan?

Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch is close to Sinyongsan Station, so it's a good stop when you're around Yongsan Station or Yongridan-gil. The space is large and ordering is simple, so it looked easy for a casual meal with a friend or for a group sharing snack food, haha

Above all, I liked that you're not just eating tteokbokki alone but getting sundae, fritters, mini gimbap and fish cake too. The mild tteokbokki was sweet at its core and easy on the palate, and the chewy texture of the wheat rice cakes came through, lol. Add handmade sundae, assorted fritters and bite-sized mini gimbap, and ₩26,000 bought a pretty generous snack-bar meal. If you're looking for a tteokbokki place in Yongsan where you can taste many snacks at once, keep Hyeonseonine Yongsan Main Branch in mind 😊