Sindang outdoor oden bar in Seoul: Sindang Oden Club

These days, Sindang has so many atmospheric bars tucked into every alley that it is hard to decide where to go!! With the weather turning cool, I was looking for a good Sindang spot and ended up at Sindang Oden Club (신당오뎅클럽).

If you love the feel of a Japanese-style oden bar, this is a place where you can have a really satisfying time. It was perfect for pairing oden with draft beer or soju!!

What was the outdoor seating atmosphere like at Sindang Oden Club?

It is open from 6 PM to 2 AM, Tuesday through Sunday, so it works nicely for everything from dinner to a late-night drink. There is also that classic oden-bar counter vibe, making it feel great for a casual drink!! The weather was just right for outdoor seating that day, and that was honestly my favorite part of the visit!! I got to properly soak up the Sindang outdoor-bar atmosphere 👍 The weather has been warming up lately, but evenings are still cool, right? Sitting outside with warm oden broth and a drink in weather like this was such a mood.

It really felt like I had come to Japan~ Eating inside at an oden bar is lovely too, but on a nice day I would also recommend sitting outside and taking in the alley atmosphere. It fits Sindang's lively energy so well, and it even gives you a little of that Japanese street-stall-drinks feeling. 😆 Getting drunk on the atmosphere..

The oden and Asahi draft beer pairing

Asahi draft beer is not a choice, it is a must, right? We ordered one bottle of Saero soju and Asahi draft beer. Draft beer really goes so well with oden!! Sip, ahh~ A bite of warm broth followed by a sip of cold Asahi draft beer was just the perfect combination. And for soju lovers, I do not even need to explain the soju-and-oden-broth combo haha.

Plated oden and the extra items we chose

We started with the plated oden assortment, packed with only delicious things.

The plated oden included beef tongue, egg, shiitake mushroom, a vegetable-and-glass-noodle tofu pouch, and daikon. (Ah, that soft-boiled egg was the key.) Having all those ingredients on one plate made it fun to try a little of everything. My favorites were definitely the egg and shiitake mushroom! Still thinking about them 👍👍👍👍

The egg had soaked up plenty of oden broth, so it was moist and full of savory, salty umami. The shiitake mushroom also matched the broth so well that I kept reaching for it. If you usually pick out only fish cake at an oden bar, the plated assortment is a nice way to try different ingredients all at once.

We also added two round fish cakes, mul-tteok (rice cake simmered in broth), suji (beef tendon), and stick oden.

Rather than somewhere for a heavy meal, it felt like an oden bar that would be great for a light second-round drink after dinner near Sindang Station. Of course, there are plenty of oden varieties to choose from, so it is more than enough for a first stop too. (We went as our first stop and absolutely feasted.)

There are various side dishes and drinks beyond oden, but ordering mostly oden as we did and picking each piece to suit your taste was quite fun too.

My top pick: round fish cake

Personally, my number-one pick from that day was the round fish cake! It was bouncy and had absorbed the broth well, with a great texture and that clean, gentle flavor that is so characteristic of oden. The stick oden was soft and easy to eat, while mul-tteok was chewy—the kind of thing I end up ordering at an oden bar at least once. If you like chewy textures, the suji would make a great drinking snack.

If you are looking for a bar with a great atmosphere in Sindang, or want warm oden with a cold draft beer, I think Sindang Oden Club is well worth stopping by.

Changing up the broth with spicy seasoning

And something I quietly loved at Sindang Oden Club was the spicy seasoning! I love spicy market-style oden, and this was exactly that flavor! Enjoy the standard oden broth warm and clean at first, then stir in as much spicy seasoning as you like midway through and the whole mood changes. I tried just a little, and the spicy umami gave it a totally different feel.

The seasoning is fairly spicy, so rather than adding lots from the start, I recommend stirring in a little at a time and adjusting the strength to your taste. It was especially delicious when I wanted to keep spooning up hot broth while drinking. Haha, the drinks just went down so easily~~🥃

So many good places have opened in Sindang-dong lately—there is a reason people call it Hipdang-dong haha. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a Japanese-style oden bar near Sindang Station, or a relaxed outdoor spot for drinks on a nice day >< 👍👍👍