During our visit with my friend Duncan in Hongdae, we had already finished our second trip to a cat cafe. We had decided that we wanted to go get some food, and we had run across a place called Makgeolli Station that we wanted to try. Our main reason was that we could get unlimited Makgeolli for 5000 Won, and we hadn’t tried it yet.

Makgeolli Station

We had attempted to find it previously on Briana’s birthday to go get drinks, but we weren’t able to find it and had given up. But this time, we decided we were going to get it. Without data connection, we had to rely on static and rather low detail maps to figure out where it was. It was basically of no help to us.

Duncan luckily had a Korean SIM card and we were able to use a maps function to look through the streets. After quite a bit walking though, it was proving to be quite useless. We kept finding our way to alleys and streets that said it should be at, but it obviously wasn’t.

We were ready to give up when someone noticed us looking lost and asked us where we were looking to go. Once we told her, she pointed out we were at the back of the building. We simply needed to go up the street a bit, turn the corner and we’d find it.

So after another 5 minute walk and with a bit of searching we came to a place that we thought might be it. We weren’t sure though because it wasn’t labeled, so we tried to check their Facebook page to see if the images matched, and sure enough it looked like it did.

The kicker – Makgeolli Station is literally on the first floor of the building that the cat cafe was located at. The door was next to the staircase we had traversed earlier. So nearly an hour’s worth of walking for nothing really, but no matter because we had made it in the end. Makgeolli Station was a dimly lit, though cool looking restaurant.

Korean Hospitality

We were promptly brought kimchi, miso soup, and a menu. We wanted the makgeolli, but were told to order food in order for the 5000 Won deal. So we turned to the menu to figure something out. The whole thing was in Korean, with some pictures, and ultimately quite unintelligible for us.

Luckily, Duncan had a cool little app called Scanner & Translator, which allowed us to take a picture of the menu and instantly translate it to english (the app works with numerous languages). And, as to be expected, basically nothing appeared to be vegetarian which did not make Briana particularly happy. But she graciously accepted the inevitable and decided to dine on the kimchi and miso soup.

Duncan and I had no idea what we wanted, or even what the dishes really were even with translation, so we pointed to a picture and decided on that. When were the only people in the restaurant upon arrival, but it was crowded by the end.

Out Comes The Food

When the dish finally arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to find it very large, with a huge variety of dishes. Some that were even vegetarian. There were berries, salad, tofu, dotorimuk, more kimchi, tteokbokki, bulgogi, galbi, and a few other meat items that I cannot place names to but were quite good.

Briana actually ended up having a bit more to eat between the salad, extra tofu, and fruit. The meal was very filling, and amongst the three of us were not able to finish it. We had several bottles of makgeolli with our meal, which Briana and I enjoyed. Duncan didn’t particularly care for it though.

Satisfying Meal

We were satisfied with our meal, and glad that we visited this time rather than previously. Due to the higher cost of the dishes – which was fine splitting as a group, but not just the two of us – and the Korean menu, which we couldn’t have read without Duncan’s app, we probably would have just skipped the place. If you are in Hongdae, it’s worth checking out Makgeolli Station.