Mapo-gu — home to Hongdae, Sinchon, and Hapjeong — is Seoul's youth and arts district, defined by its university population, live music venues, and creative energy. The food scene is diverse, affordable, and experimental: trendy cafés, late-night pojangmacha, global street food, and boundary-pushing restaurants all compete for attention in this perpetually buzzing neighbourhood.
Whenever I ask my husband or daughter their most memorable meal in Seoul, they name the seafood tteokbokki at Owl. We went on a cold October day, and this place was cosy and welcoming. From what I can gather, it hasn’t been talked about a lot on social media (great), and it was mostly Korean young couples. We waited no more than 10min for a table, but only because this place is tiny. The hot pot came very quickly, starting with a few morsels of fried goodness before the seafood came to a rolling boil. The seafood pot had deliciously smoked spices, adding a lot of depth and very different from every tteokbokki place in the area. We were given a big pair of scissors to cut the octopus. Every table ordered an extra serving of fried rice, but we got the karaage (fried chicken) instead, which was much more crunchy than ones in Japan…still good but def can skip. There’s a LOT of good food in Seoul, but we’re looking forward to coming back here again.
Big pot for sharing with various ingredients, octopus is fresh and delicious and overall good mix. Can request for less spicy which almost can’t taste any spice.
Great experience kind staff offered translated menu ordered the seafood portion for 2 people was a massive serving and tasted amazing good spice levels
Korean blogger posts. Links open original posts on Naver.
