Guro izakaya fire show and 3.33-second time attack: Robatayaki Sodam

Found this hot izakaya on Guro's Kkalkkal-geori while scrolling Instagram Reels! A place where you can watch a fire show over grilled fish and skewers right at the bar counter... After work, my family and I checked out Robatayaki Sodam Guro Digital Complex Branch, a Japanese-style robatayaki premium izakaya that nails atmosphere, mood, and flavor all at once. Here's my honest weekday-evening family dinner review!

Robatayaki Sodam Guro Digital Complex Branch: hours, parking and seating

Robatayaki Sodam Guro Digital Complex Branch is open daily from 17:00 to 01:30. Men's and women's restrooms are separate, and both reservations and group visits are possible.

• Paid parking available — ₩3,000 for the first 60 minutes, ₩3,000 per additional 60 minutes (max ₩30,000)
• No parking on Guro Kkalkkal-geori food street; use nearby public lots or Kolon Science Valley 2
• Private rooms available (2–6 people)
• Group seating available (up to 12 people)
• Single seats, bar tables, counter seats, and standing tables available
• Easy payment accepted

What the premium Japanese izakaya interior looks like, curtained rooms included

Walking into Robatayaki Sodam Guro Digital Complex Branch feels just like stepping into a local pub during a trip to Japan — red lanterns on the ceiling, walls covered in Japanese posters, and Japanese-style props all come together for a genuinely exotic vibe.

Wood-toned tables and private rooms with light curtains make this a great pick for a couple's date or a group gathering. It's a cozy, quiet spot for good conversation over drinks.

Bar counter seats with a front-row view of the fire show

If you really want to experience what makes Robatayaki Sodam special, I'd definitely recommend booking the bar counter (dachi) seats. The atmosphere there is that overwhelming. There's never been an izakaya of this quality in Guro before — now I understand why the hall, rooms, and bar seats were all fully booked on Naver Reservations.

Sitting at the bar counter, you can see a big display case packed with ice holding grilled-fish ingredients like merou, rockfish, Spanish mackerel, Atka mackerel, and mackerel, plus skewer ingredients like shrimp, chicken thigh, chicken cartilage, chicken skin, chicken heart, bacon-wrapped tomato, bacon cheese rice cake, king oyster mushroom, ginkgo nuts, and garlic. Being able to check freshness with your own eyes before ordering was great, and seeing all the ingredients laid out like that was a fun, unusual sight.

The best part is watching the staff's flashy skill up close as flames burst up right in front of you while you drink... every time the fire leaps up dramatically, my dopamine spikes too! Watching the performance is so much fun that my eyes were enjoying the show even before the delicious food was ready.

With the smell of good food, the warmth of the fire show, and the lively view all combined, it's the perfect spot to let the drinks flow.

Robatayaki Sodam Guro menu: value sets to single dishes

Set menus and what each one includes

This is the menu board at Robatayaki Sodam Guro branch. From Set 1 (assorted skewers + oden nabe) all the way to Set 9 (medium sashimi + grilled merou + assorted skewers + mixed fried snacks + 2 seafood dishes + oden nabe), there's a wide range of sets to match your group size and preference. Plus, ordering any set menu gets you 10% off sake!

Premium aged sashimi and charcoal-grilled skewers

They have dry-aged sashimi and raw sashimi matured at controlled temperature and humidity to boost umami, plus a variety of charcoal-scented skewer grills — perfect drinking snacks.

Grilled fish, oden nabe and side dishes

Merou, rockfish, Spanish mackerel, Atka mackerel, mackerel, shishamo smelt and more, all grilled fresh with the fire show, alongside spicy nabe hot pots, signature dishes, fried items, and light side dishes — the menu is packed.

Drinks list: sake, soju and beer

Whiskey, highballs, distilled soju, sake, pouch sake — every kind of drink for every taste shows up here..! With so many choices, picking is half the fun. They also have great value set combos for group visits. On this trip, my family of four went through the menu focused mainly on the set options.

How did the grilled rockfish, five-kind fried platter and skewers taste?

As a basic starter, we got a fried egg — a protein snack that won't pack on pounds and is easy on the stomach. Nice touch with the soft-boiled yolk too...

If you love drinking, you know the drill: sip a drink with the starter while reading through the menu. To cool off first, everyone ordered to their taste — Jinro soju, apple chuhai highball, zero-sugar drinks... that first sip really is the most satisfying, refreshing moment!

Bacon cheese rice cake skewers: sweet and salty done right

First out was the textbook sweet-and-salty bacon cheese rice cake skewer. The soft, chewy rice cake is filled with savory-sweet cheese, delicious even on its own, and it's wrapped in salty bacon with a sweet sauce coating the whole thing — a sweet-and-salty classic that anyone, of any age, would love.

Grilled rockfish, crisp outside and tender inside

Second up, the grilled rockfish — crispy outside, tender inside at its finest. Freshly grilled over the fire show, it looked golden and gorgeous... the skin was crispy and the inside was moist. Tonight, fish beat meat! A squeeze of the lemon that came with it, plus a dab of wasabi, took the umami to another level — amazing.

Chicken skewers by cut, full of smoky char

Third dish: chicken skewers by cut, full of smoky char. The skewers that came out next had a subtle charcoal aroma baked in, making it fun to pick off piece by piece. Each chicken cut had a different texture, and the juiciness held up — genuinely nothing beats this as a beer or highball snack. Guess chicken really is my thing.

The five-kind fried platter, generous and shatter-crisp

The last snack: peak crispiness, a generous plate of 5 kinds of mixed fried snacks. This assortment was great because of the variety — shrimp fritters where you could feel the shrimp meat pop with each bite, croquettes with a thin, crispy shell and a soft filling, crunchy-chewy and slightly spicy whole squid fritters, and the always-reliable classic karaage. It all came piled up like a mountain on one plate, making it fun to pick and choose. Right when things started to feel a bit greasy, a bite of the nutty-sweet black sesame salad refreshed the palate again, so we never got tired of it.

The 3.33-second time attack discount and the vanilla cheese ice cream review event

What caught my eye the moment I walked in was this 3.33-second time attack discount event. I've tried this kind of challenge countless times at claw machine arcades and always failed, yet somehow succeed easily on Reels — this love-hate time attack game. To participate, you follow and tag Instagram in a story upload, or leave a Naver receipt review.

One thing to note: you can't double up — with a Naver receipt review you can only choose either the time attack or the dessert, not both. So I did the time attack through Instagram and the dessert through Naver, squeezing in both events.

My sibling took on the time attack event with real ambition! Landed on 3.31 seconds — missed it by an agonizing 0.02 seconds — but it was such a thrilling, fun challenge. I wonder if anyone's actually pulled it off.

The dessert snack we got after the Naver receipt review event was vanilla cheese ice cream. This is genuinely a dessert you'll regret skipping, so make sure to join in. It's that familiar butter waffle flavor — a generous scoop of rich, smooth vanilla ice cream topped with savory cheese flavor and sweet toppings, an absolutely perfect palate-cleanser dessert after the salty fish and fried snacks.

From Yeouido to the second branch in Guro: visiting every Robatayaki Sodam

Turns out the Guro branch on Kkalkkal-geori is actually the second location? The original, first branch is in Yeouido, between Yeouido Station and Saetgang Station in Yeongdeungpo-gu. Surprising, right? We had such a great time at the Guro branch today, so next time I'll have to check out the original Yeouido branch too. I hope you all get to visit Robatayaki Sodam and enjoy great snacks, a unique fire show, and fun events too!