Jeongja Station bar-pub with an overflowing seafood pot: Bacha Jeongja

After work I wanted a casual drink nearby, so I wandered around looking for somewhere that wasn't a BBQ place but had a good vibe, and found this new spot!! It's a brand-new chain so there are no reviews yet, but the atmosphere looked so good that I booked and ran over. This is Bacha Jeongja.

Where is Bacha Jeongja, and what are the hours and parking?

Bacha Jeongja is at 6 Jeongjail-ro 156beon-gil, Bundang-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi (Unit 110, 1st floor), open daily from 17:00 to 02:00 the next day. Free parking is available for 1 hour.

Inside Bacha Jeongja and the group seating

The inside of Bacha Jeongja has 2-person and 4-person tables. Past the bar, there's also a group area in the back that holds about 15 people, and it seemed like a lot of groups come here for gatherings.

We booked ahead on Catch Table (a Korean reservation app), and they even wrote our name on the table, haha. "Bacha" is apparently a mash-up of "bar" and pocha (Korean street-style pub). Recommended dishes are written out, and the drink selection is huge. If you can't decide what to order, I highly recommend the Bacha seafood steamed pot!!

Bacha Jeongja menu and prices

The menu at Bacha Jeongja is really, really long. The signature dish is the Bacha seafood steamed pot!! You know how menus are read from top left to bottom right? That's why the signature dish is always in the top left, apparently.

Here's what we ordered at Bacha Jeongja that day.

• Bacha seafood steamed pot ₩37,000
• Truffle cream cheese croquettes ₩12,000
• Soju ₩5,500

The free side snack is salty pretzel crackers. Keep nibbling on these and your food will arrive.

What do the truffle cream cheese croquettes taste like?

The truffle cream cheese croquettes (₩12,000) come with 6 potato croquettes, and the cream cheese is studded with truffle. Dip them in plenty of cream cheese and it's legendary,,!!

And the Bacha seafood steamed pot! In both portion and flavor it's the no-fail best seller at Bacha, so definitely order it!! You can add noodles for ₩3,000. We were too full to eat them, though.

Each croquette was pretty thick and big, and they piled on the truffle-scented cream cheese.

They're plump potato croquettes. I'd never had cream cheese with croquettes before and it honestly went so well together, lol. The truffle smell was stronger than I expected too, so truffle lovers will be thrilled ❤️

How big is the ₩37,000 Bacha seafood steamed pot?

The Bacha seafood steamed pot is packed with seafood, and the squid is whole. There was an overflowing amount of bean sprouts and bok choy, plus clams and even scallops. The portion is enormous 👍

The whole table was full,, the amount for the price is crazy T_T The highlight is that they load in scallops until the pot overflows.

Great snacks can't go without soju, cheers ❤️

Scallops, clams and squid with plenty of chogochujang

See how plump the scallops in the Bacha seafood steamed pot are? T_T Bite into a clam and the juices come gushing out.

The clams are best dipped generously in chogochujang (sweet-tangy chili vinegar sauce)!! Dunk them in so much you wonder if it's too much, and they taste best. Even with a heavy dip, it's not salty or spicy at all.

The squid is cut into big chunks.

Squid goes with chogochujang too!! lol I don't usually dip raw fish in it, but with steamed seafood I always end up dipping.

How does the broth of the Bacha seafood steamed pot taste?

The seafood stock in the Bacha seafood steamed pot was deeply simmered, so the broth was really rich, and with lots of Cheongyang chili peppers it was nicely spicy 🌶

The scallop meat is so plump haha. It was a bit big for one bite, so I cut it in half to eat!

As you'd expect from Bacha's signature dish, there was so much seafood that no matter how much we ate it wouldn't go down, lol.

The Bacha seafood steamed pot also comes with 2 fish cake skewers, the twisty kind you get at street food stalls. Boiled right to the end, they swelled up and went super tender, so good.