Window-seat date at Ilsim, a Jongno izakaya: cheese tteokbokki

When our department has a gathering in Jongno, it's never easy finding a restaurant that can fit a big group. After looking around, I found Ilsim, a Jongno restaurant with a private room that made it perfect for a group hangout!

I've actually been here several times for department gatherings — it's spacious and comfortable, so I'd recommend it if you're looking for a company dinner or group meeting spot. This time I came for a date, and the vibe was so pretty haha. Great for dates and great for company dinners — let me introduce Ilsim in Jongno!

Location and hours

• 94 Building, 2F, Room 204, 94 Sambong-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul
• Within 5 minutes on foot from Exit 2 of Jongno-gak Station
• Mon–Sat 17:30–24:00 (last order 23:00)
• Closed on Sundays

Menu and prices

There are lots of izakaya classics like sashimi, sukiyaki, and motsunabe (offal hot pot).

There are fried dishes, skewers, and stir-fried udon that go great with beer, plus lighter bites like tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) and rolled egg, so it works well whether you're here for a proper first round or a lighter second round haha.

Exterior and interior atmosphere

Ilsim is on the 2nd floor of the 94 Building. You can take the escalator up once you enter the building, or there's an elevator too, so just head up whichever way is easy.

There's a menu banner out front, so it's nice to check it before going in!

The exterior has a pretty clean izakaya feel — it'd be perfect for a company dinner too.

How many people can the group seating hold?

Inside there's a shoes-off room for groups, plus lots of seats where couples can enjoy a quiet, cozy time. The group table seats up to 16 people!

Since I came with just my boyfriend this time, we sat at a window seat looking out. So many delicious-looking dishes on the menu that we agonized over it, but since we'd already had a heavy first round elsewhere, we ordered the seafood cheese tteokbokki (₩23,000), which looked amazing just from the visuals, and the chicken skin skewer (₩7,000)!

Two plates: seafood cheese tteokbokki ₩23,000 · chicken skin ₩7,000

The base side dish is sweet peas. Last time I came, it was seaweed stem, and I remember my friends and I ate a ton of it lol.

Fried chicken skin

The fried chicken skin we ordered as a single dish arrived! Even from the gif you can tell how plump and springy it is.

With chicken skin, the level of frying matters a lot — cook it too much and it burns, too little and it's just chewy. But this was fried perfectly crisp on the outside and tender inside, and the shichimi sprinkled on top matched it so well!

It came with mayo and wasabi for sauce, which paired really nicely with the savory flavor of the chicken skin. I'd recommend ordering it as a light single dish! My boyfriend and I liked it so much we ordered it twice haha.

Seafood cheese tteokbokki

While we were eating the chicken skin, the seafood cheese tteokbokki arrived!

Honestly, a lot of dishes with 'seafood' in the name barely have any seafood in them, so I didn't expect much... but wow, what came out looked absolutely perfect from the get-go.

How much cheese did they pile on there????

I've never seen a place pile on cheese this generously before ..🤤

Mussels, shrimp, blue crab, squid — true to the name 'seafood' tteokbokki, they didn't hold back, and you could really taste the sweet, deep flavor of the seafood in the rice cakes. The quality felt like it could beat plenty of dedicated tteokbokki restaurants. If you visit Ilsim, you absolutely have to order this — not ordering it would be a real loss.

To sum up

From the seafood cheese tteokbokki loaded with cheese and seafood to the plump, savory fried chicken skin — nothing at 'Ilsim' fell short as a side dish. With comfortable group seating for company dinners or gatherings, and an atmosphere nice enough for a cozy date, I highly recommend giving Ilsim a visit!