Fried chicken and gguabaorou with spicy tteokbokki in Yeonnam-dong, Seoul

Eungkeum Tteokbokki Yeonnam Branch, a well-known spot for spicy tteokbokki in Yeonnam-dong, catches your eye right away with a red exterior that just screams spicy rice cakes.

The pretty but scary lady at the photo zone

Um... so who is this scary-looking lady standing where the sign says "Eungkeum Tteokbokki Photo Zone"? The brand's mascot is supposed to be small and goofy-looking, but this pretty-yet-terrifying woman looks like she should be in Itaewon on Halloween.

Anyway, once you step inside, there's a door to the restroom in the middle, and to the left is our pretty-but-scary Snow White.

To the right there's an open window. The AC was blasting cold enough to freeze, but with the window open it wasn't quite as chilly. The restroom is unisex but super clean — a nice surprise, since the inside felt completely different from what the outside suggested.

Eungkeum Tteokbokki Yeonnam Branch's receipt review event: free Asahi bottled beer, Chamisul soju, cola, or Sprite, your choice.

Menu and spice levels at Eungkeum Tteokbokki Yeonnam Branch

From the menu at this Yeonnam-dong favorite, we ordered the new item: Eungkeum Tteokbokki plus half a chicken.

There's a regular tteokbokki set too, like the tteok-twigim-sundae (rice cake, fried food, blood sausage) plus gimbap plus two drinks combo, plus a rosé version and an udon-plus-fried-rice set.

You can pick Eungkeum Tteokbokki's spice level from Original up through Level 4, five total levels, and even the Original is spicier than Shin Ramyun. Since we came in on empty stomachs, we went with Original. We also added extra fish cake and extra glass noodles.

If spicy tteokbokki feels like too much, there's Eungkeum Bonjour Cream Tteokbokki, Eungkeum Gonghwachun Jjajang Tteokbokki, and rosé tteokbokki.

It's a tteokbokki place, but plenty of people come for the chicken

Eungkeum Tteokbokki's rice cakes are delicious, but the chicken is jjjust as good, if not more so. So even though it's named a tteokbokki restaurant, a lot of people come here for the chicken. In fact, on the day we visited, some foreign tourists came in and enjoyed chimaek (chicken and beer). How did they even find out this place was good? It was kind of amazing.

Maybe they saw this sign while walking by?

True to a Yeonnam-dong comfort food spot, the menu goes from fried rice to pork cutlet set meals, spicy stir-fried pork, and grilled pork bulgogi! There's also an assorted fried platter and

popcorn mandu (dumplings) and popcorn squid. There was so much we wanted to try, but our stomachs have limits, so after much deliberation over what looked the tastiest, we ordered the gguabaorou.

Before the food arrives, you grab a self-serve apron. Above the apron rack is the register, where there's a draft beer machine. They post the date the beer line was last cleaned — the day before our visit was written up there. Sounds like they clean the lines every night after closing. Clean lines mean clean draft beer! You can trust Eungkeum Tteokbokki Yeonnam Branch on that front.

Complimentary chapssal sundae and Original tteokbokki

The complimentary sundae we got. It's a generous portion for something billed as just a taste. Whether it was to celebrate the Yeonnam branch opening or just a regular thing, either way it made us happy — we've never gotten free sundae at other branches. This was chapssal sundae (glutinous rice blood sausage), so it was chewy and warm, and it went perfectly with our empty stomachs. About three minutes after the sundae arrived, the tteokbokki came out too, and dipping the sundae into the tteokbokki sauce made it even better. Once Eungkeum Tteokbokki starts boiling, you just turn off the burner.

The wide glass noodles were 2 to 3 times wider than the ones I usually know, and I loved that. A single strand of regular glass noodles doesn't even give you much to chew on, right?

If you like fish cake, you absolutely have to add it — the flavor is rich without any fishy smell, genuinely delicious. The texture is great too, of course. Eungkeum Tteokbokki's Original is spicier than Shin Ramyun, but it's the kind of delicious-spicy that makes you want to stir-fry rice into the leftover sauce once you're done. Still, eating it on an empty stomach is rough, so make sure to fill up on other dishes first.

Try dipping sundae into the gguabaorou sauce

Our strong recommendation for an "appetizer" (sort of) is the gguabaorou. I want to eat it again just writing about it now.

No gamey meat smell, tender inside, super crispy batter outside, and the sweet and tangy sauce drizzled on top makes it extremely, extremely good. It was so good that my picky-eater companion tasted it and gasped in delight, so I ended up giving it to them and only got one piece for myself. Tteok-twigim-sundae is a famous combo, but tteok-gguabaorou-sundae deserves fame too. Dipping sundae in tteokbokki sauce is the standard move, but I bet you've never dipped it into gguabaorou sauce — try it once, it's seriously, seriously good. The best!

Me for ordering the gguabaorou, praise! Me for dipping sundae in the gguabaorou sauce, praise again!

Half a chicken, thin batter, super crispy

Half a chicken with a proper drumstick included. It came out last, so it was the hottest and freshest dish of the meal. Wow, the batter was so thin — I wondered if they made it with ice-cold batter — and so crispy that I fell for it after one bite. When eaten together with the tteokbokki you might not notice, but if you rinse your mouth and eat the chicken alone, you catch a spicy kick. That makes it even better. If you want it spicier, try dipping it in the tteokbokki sauce. It was a bit of a shame there was no pickled radish for the chicken, but the chicken itself was so good that it was still a satisfying dish. And if you want it a bit more sweet and tangy, brushing on the gguabaorou sauce is perfect.

Even after the appetizer and the chicken, if the tteokbokki is still too spicy for you, just ask for pickled radish.

Dessert Americano: an iced can-sealed coffee

The Americano we ordered for dessert. The menu just said Illy coffee, so I didn't expect it to come can-sealed like this. My family regularly drinks Illy coffee capsules, so naturally I assumed it would be a hot Americano — but it turned out to be iced. It was a hot day, so that was a pleasant surprise. The coffee had a rich aroma and strong flavor, making it a great choice for dessert.

Hours and parking

• Hours: Open 24 hours, every day of the year
• Parking: Not available
• Address: 257-1 Donggyo-ro, 1st floor, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea