달인포차

As it was my last night in Seoul, I told my colleagues to take me to a local drinking place where we could hang out for the night

This extremely local seafood restaurant is on the street just behind the hotel with a couple of water tanks with live fish and seafood at the entrance. The name of the restaurant is Tarin Pocha and Pocha basically means the restaurant sells Korean comfort or market food suitable for drinking

The restaurant is medium in size and can have up to 50 people at any one time and has a very cosy and homely atmosphere with its worn-out floorboards and brick-like walls. You can tell that this is a popular spot for locals to drink after a hard day of work

I did not see the menu so I was unsure if there was an English menu since everything was already ordered when I arrived. We had a clear soup hot pot which had prawns and different types of vegetables and mushrooms left to boil on the burner. When the soup started boiling, the lady came with a mid-sized live octopus and dumped it into the hot pot

It was fascinating and scary to see at the same time as the octopus kept trying to make its escape from the side of the hot pot. I felt cruel at the start but forgot about it as we started drinking. When fully cooked, the octopus was soft and tender and very sweet while the soup had lighter flavours. There was a light spice kick from the green chillis added to the broth so the soup was very refreshing. If I had the soup for dinner, I might have found everything too bland but as it was ordered as a drinking snack, the refreshing taste was great for me to sober up in between glasses

Another dish we ordered was this panfried squid sundae which had no blood sausage at all. It was called sundae purely for the fact that it was a stuffed squid shaped like a sausage before slicing it. The slices were then nicely panfried with egg so each piece had a nice charred flavour and appearance. The squid was stuffed with some meat and glutinous but I’m not entirely sure as the egg skin covered the ingredients and it was so delicious that I was wolfing them quickly

Overall, I enjoyed my supper at 달인포차 as the food was as local as it can get with authentic Korean flavours that locals love. The food was simple yet satisfying as a supper menu paired with a few bottles of soju. I am sure they have more items for order but if you are around the area and looking for a place for supper and drinks, this is a good restaurant to patronise

Address: 25 Nonhyeon-ro 150-gil, 논현2동 Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Operating hours: 6 pm to 7 am

You can check out this blog for what they have on the menu but it is in Korean and you will need to translate it