During our trip to Seoul, we met up with friends to experience one of the city’s most authentic nightlife traditions — eating and drinking at a pocha (pojangmacha) near Jongno 3-ga Station. Known as one of the best areas in Seoul for late-night street food, Jongno 3-ga comes alive after sunset with rows of bright orange tent bars lining the streets just steps from the subway exits.
Pochas are casual outdoor tent stalls that serve classic Korean comfort food alongside drinks like soju and beer, creating a lively, social atmosphere where locals, office workers, and travelers sit shoulder-to-shoulder. Near Jongno 3-ga Station, especially around Exits 3, 5, and 6, you’ll find a dense cluster of these tents, making it one of the most famous pocha streets in the city.
We spent the evening hopping between tents, ordering popular dishes commonly found at pochas, such as tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), odeng (fish cake skewers), fried snacks, stir-fried dishes, and grilled seafood, all meant to be shared. The food is affordable, filling, and designed to pair perfectly with drinks, encouraging long conversations and a relaxed, communal dining experience.
What makes Jongno 3-ga special is its mix of old-school charm and nonstop energy. Unlike trendier nightlife districts, this area retains a more traditional feel, where many pochas have been operating for years and cater primarily to locals. The tents stay open late into the night, making it a popular stop for after-work gatherings and spontaneous nights out with friends.
If you’re looking to experience real Korean street food culture and nightlife, visiting a pocha near Jongno 3-ga Station is a must. It’s one of the best places in Seoul to enjoy authentic flavors, meet locals, and experience the city after dark — all in a fun, welcoming, and uniquely Korean setting.
Welcome back everyone. Today I'm in Seoul, South Korea and I'll be visiting a famous pocha street
with my Korean friends to show you a bit of their culture. To get there look for this metro station
and it will be right outside. Alright so we're on the main street of all the pochas here. As you can
see there's a lot of options on the left and right side here and it's a very crowded street so
definitely plenty of options here. Make sure to get here early because seats do fill up fast by
dinner time. After walking around we decided on this food spot. They had plenty of dishes and
most were around $13.
Got some milk cocktail beers.
Oh you like that one.
Alright, let's see that tornado.
Woo!
Wow!
Oh I see it.
Oh okay.
Oh I got it.
Okay.
I got a mini one.
I'm scared I'm going to throw it out.
Rice liquor right here.
That's good.
Sweet, milky and liquor in there.
Doesn't taste too strong.
See the street is getting pretty busy already.
I forgot to mention it comes with banchan.
So there's like the fish right here.
Got kimchi and sauce.
More kimchi and fish.
Alright so here we got the
zucchini pancake, we got a kimchi
pancake, bell peppers,
pork, and then
some seafood mixed in there.
Here we got the shrimp
pancakes.
The shrimp size is actually bigger than I expected.
And let's see if the batter has flavor
on it.
Mmm. It's really good.
The batter actually has some egg yolk
mixed into it, so it's like a deep fried
egg pancake, or omelette I would say.
With shrimp, and the shrimp is very tasty.
So so far, the first dish, very good.
The shrimp pancake was very tasty.
Now we're going to move on to the next plate here
which is a combination platter with a whole
different kinds of items.
The kimchi pancake caught my eye right here.
Hopefully it's not too spicy.
I'm curious to see if it's also
kind of like an omelette with egg yolk in it.
So let's see.
Mmm. It's pretty good.
It's got some spicy to it. Honestly I think
I prefer kimchi by itself and not
in the pancake form, but if you like
something that's more breaded, you'll like this.
Next up we got the pepper
one right here.
This one is a perilla leaf.
Oh, actually a perilla leaf
right there. And it's actually mixed in
with some meat I think. That one's pepper
and this is a perilla leaf.
I think it's like some type of meat
in it, but let's try it out.
Pretty tasty. There's like a ground up pork
in there, some spices surrounded by
perilla leaf, and then they can't
cook it outside, so a lot of flavor is going on in here.
If you want to try different things, I recommend getting this plate
because you'll get a lot of different options.
The final plate is the squid one here.
It's got, it's not
a pancake this time I believe, it's just squid
and it's coated in a lot of spicy
or kimchi sauce, but let's see.
Smells good.
Squid is
cooked well. It's not too like rubbery texture.
And then the spicy sauce
is pretty spicy, but adds a lot of flavor to the
squid, so if you love seafood and spicy
sauce, you should get this one right here.
For today's beer, I got the Kelly beer
and what's kind of funny is that since it's from Denmark,
but we're in Korea and this is a
popular beer here, so I'm kind of confused
why this isn't more like Korean beers
and we're drinking a European beer.
Oh, that's really good.
Oh, so I just found out there's actually
soju and beer in here. Not just
beer, but based on the beer flavor I have,
it tastes like a lager and it's very tasty.
I had a different Korean beer earlier today.
The cast one, and I think it was
flat, or they gave me a bad batch.
So far, the Kelly beer is really good.
Thank you for watching the video. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Don't forget to like,
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