Takeout poke bowl base test: oat brown rice vs buckwheat noodle, Olla

Today I visited Olla Poke Munjeong Main Branch, a salad and poke restaurant near Munjeong Station! Nothing beats a poke bowl when you're dieting, and this place manages to be filling without leaving you hungry — here's my review of Olla Poke in Munjeong-dong.

Location and parking for Olla Poke near Munjeong Station

Head to the basement level of the Munjeong legal town complex — there's a row of restaurants connected right to the station. Go into Terra Tower A building and you'll find it. 🚗 There's in-building parking too, and it's free for 2 hours.

Since it's a restaurant in the Munjeong legal town, it's closed on weekends. Monday–Friday: 10:30am–20:00, break time: 3pm–5pm.

I visited around 2pm on a weekday and there were no other customers — but this place gets absolutely packed with office workers at lunch. Still, the interior is spacious and pleasant, so it works well whether you're eating in or taking out 👍🏻

How to order at Olla Poke

Here's how ordering works at Olla Poke 🥗 First find a seat if you're eating in. After choosing your menu, pick a base — buckwheat noodles, salad, or brown rice. Then choose a recommended sauce or one of your own choosing, and you've got yourself a delicious poke bowl!

The menu is huge, so I had a mild case of decision paralysis. Tuna sashimi / garlic shrimp / super protein / seafood / raw salmon / steak / avocado / smoked duck / chicken breast / buldak (spicy fire chicken-style) salmon / buldak octopus / fried tofu 🥗 There are also sides like soup or sandwiches, plus buldak salmon or buldak octopus kkakdugi (diced radish kimchi).

There's also a chart of recommended sauces and calories for each poke bowl 🥗 I tend to trust the owners' picks, so I always go with the recommended sauce — the experts know best.

The yuzu soy sauce and sesame soy sauce that come as the default base on every poke are at the self-serve bar. Lemon water, wet wipes, and utensils are all ready to go too! If cleanup sounds like a hassle, dining in is totally the move.

Steak poke + oat brown rice

I packed these up carefully to take home 🥗 the steak poke and the smoked duck poke.

I couldn't decide on a base, so I got both! One with oat brown rice and one with buckwheat noodles — and salad comes included as standard, which is great 🫶🏻

For the steak poke, the recommended sauce is wasabi mayo. This stuff — this stuff is an absolute treasure. The spicy kick of the wasabi mayo is the real highlight.

Olla Poke Steak (₩14,500). It comes with 100g of skirt steak, with the fascia and fat trimmed off so it's basically pure protein.

I'll definitely order the steak again next time I'm at Olla Poke near Munjeong Station! Honestly, if you're not great with meat, steak can sometimes be tough and chewy and not so tasty — but this one was tender and delicious. Especially good because it's lean and clean without being greasy, yet still soft.

It comes with salad, garlic flakes, oat brown rice, pineapple, chickpeas, and lentils.

I carried it home as takeout, dangling from my hand, but it was still plated so neatly and prettily 🥗 I didn't add any extra toppings, but the portion was still generous enough to leave me completely full.

Yummy — want to eat solo near Munjeong Station and feel properly satisfied? Come to Olla Poke and get the steak brown rice version 👍🏻 Even finishing the whole thing with sauce, it's only around 400 calories, with 23g of protein — perfect for dieting.

Wasabi mayo tastes great on anything you drizzle it over, and teriyaki is sweet, so it's a good pick if you don't like spicy.

The takeout packaging is neat and the portions are generous. Takeout is great near Munjeong Station, but I'd also recommend delivery! It really was much tastier than the DIY poke bowls I've made at home — the experts just do it better 🫶🏻

Smoked duck poke + buckwheat noodles

Olla Poke Smoked Duck (₩11,000). It's loaded with smoked duck toppings, and I paired this one with buckwheat noodles! I personally went with the recommended teriyaki sauce, but I think sesame soy sauce or yuzu soy sauce would be delicious too.

It comes with smoked duck, seaweed, pickled radish, salad, garlic flakes, pineapple, and more. With sauce included it's around 350 calories with 22g of protein — great for meal-prepping 👍🏻

Brown rice or buckwheat noodles?

This one also comes with 100g of smoked duck, no extra toppings added either. The portion is generous, but maybe because it's buckwheat noodles, I got hungry again pretty quickly — so I'd recommend brown rice if you want it to last. But if you want something light today? Buckwheat noodles are the way to go.

The yuzu soy sauce goes so well with the buckwheat noodles. Teriyaki might work nicely with brown rice, but the soy-based sauce paired incredibly well with the buckwheat noodles. It really is lighter thanks to the noodles, making it perfect for a simple, easy dinner 👍🏻

My verdict

This was my first time trying Olla Poke Munjeong Main Branch, a go-to diet-friendly spot near Munjeong Station. Honestly, I'd been disappointed by another salad place in Munjeong-dong before this, so even though I came as part of a sponsored campaign, I worried this one might be underwhelming too... but it was genuinely delicious 🫶🏻 Next time I want to come back and pay out of my own pocket to try the buldak salmon poke!