Dish guide · Pancakes and market food
Tteokbokki
떡볶이
Spicy simmered rice cakes
Chewy cylinders of rice cake simmered in a sweet and fiery red sauce, usually with fish cake. It's Korea's best-loved street snack.
What it is
- The red sauce is based on gochujang (red chili paste). Fish cake, green onions and boiled eggs are the usual additions.
- Sindang-dong in Seoul is known for a hot-pot style cooked at the table, with add-ins such as ramen noodles.
- Gungjung-tteokbokki is the older, non-spicy kind: rice cake stir-fried with beef and vegetables in soy sauce.
How to eat it
- 1Stalls serve it on a plate or in a cup with a toothpick or skewer. Ask for less spicy if you can't handle much heat.
- 2Dip fried snacks, gimbap or boiled egg into the sauce.
History
- A soy sauce version was a royal court dish long before chili peppers reached Korea.
- The red version is usually credited to Ma Bok-rim of Sindang-dong, around 1953. The popular story says a rice cake fell into a bowl of black bean noodles, but it isn't documented, and details vary between sources.
Allergies and diet
Usually contains
- Fish cake is standard, and the sauce is often made with anchovy stock, so it's rarely vegetarian as served.
- Some rice cakes are made from wheat rather than rice.
Recipes differ between restaurants. If you have an allergy, always ask the staff before you order.
🗣️ Allergy card for the staff
Pick your allergy to see the sentence in Korean.
📍 Where to try it
- 🍢
Mabokrim Halmeoni Jip 마복림할머니집
Street snacks · Dongdaemun, Seoul · Since 1953
The shop that started Sindang-dong's famous tteokbokki alley. A big pan of rice cakes, fish cakes, ramyeon, chewy jjolmyeon noodles and dumplings is set on a burner at your table and simmers in a sweet, mild sauce of chili paste and black bean paste. Finish by frying rice in what's left.
Try: Jeukseok tteokbokki set (for 2, 3 or 4)
Short wait - 🍙
Myeonghwadang 명화당
Street snacks · Myeongdong, Seoul · Since 1980
A second-floor snack shop in the middle of Myeongdong, serving gimbap, tteokbokki and chewy jjolmyeon noodles since 1980. It's where Seoul office workers and old Myeongdong regulars grab a cheap, fast lunch, and where many Koreans ate after school decades ago.
Try: Myeonghwadang gimbap
Locals' pickShort wait 
Cheongdam 91 Tteokbokki 청담91떡볶이
Street snacks · Gangnam, Seoul
A tiny snack shop in Cheongdam known more for its gimbap than its tteokbokki. Rolls are thick with filling, especially the sweet egg, and the fried snacks tossed in tteokbokki sauce are the other favorite. Stylists, office workers and wedding-dress shoppers from the area grab a quick meal or a takeout bag here.
Try: House gimbap with egg
Locals' pick- 🌶️
Jongjeom 종점
Street snacks · Dongdaemun, Seoul
A long-running shop on Sindang-dong's tteokbokki street, serving bubbling pan tteokbokki at the table since 1979. It pairs the rice cakes with fiery chicken feet, and stays open through the night when the famous neighbours have lines.
Try: Pan tteokbokki cooked at your table
Locals' pick - 🌶️
Kokkiri Bunsik 코끼리분식
Street snacks · Yeouido & Mapo, Seoul
A tiny decades-old tteokbokki shop in Mapo where you cook rice cakes in a pan at your table. Add noodles or dumplings, then finish with fried rice. It sits right next to the more famous Mapo Wonjo Tteokbokki and usually has no queue.
Try: Pan tteokbokki cooked at your table
Locals' pick Monyeo Gimbap 모녀김밥
Market food · Jongno, Seoul
The Gwangjang Market stall credited with making mayak gimbap famous: finger-sized seaweed rolls of rice, carrot and pickled radish, dipped in a sharp mustard sauce. The nickname "mayak" ("narcotic") is a joke about how hard they are to stop eating.
Try: Mayak gimbap
Short wait- 🌶️
Wooirak Mangwon 우이락 망원본점
Market food · Hongdae, Seoul
The original shop of the Mangwon Market stall famous for gochu-twigim: giant mild green chilies stuffed with seasoned meat and deep-fried until crisp. Inside it is a Korean-style pub, with soupy tteokbokki, pancakes and creamy makgeolli to go with them, and many people take the fried chilies to the Han River park nearby.
Try: Gochu-twigim (stuffed fried chili)
Short wait - 🍢
Wow Sinnae-tteok (Noryangjin) 와우신내떡 노량진점
Street snacks · Noryangjin, Seoul
A Blue Ribbon tteokbokki shop loved by Noryangjin's students, known for its heavily cheese-topped rice cakes. You choose your spice level, so it's good for anyone who wants to work up to Korea's fiery street food.
Try: Cheese tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes with cheese)
Locals' pickShort wait - 🍶
Yangcheol Jibung 양철지붕
Pubs · Gangnam, Seoul
A tin-roofed pojangmacha-style pub near Sinsa Station, the original branch. Young locals share bubbling cheese seafood tteokbokki and garlic-grilled chicken gizzards over soju late into the night; it feels like an old campus pub in the middle of Garosu-gil.
Try: Cheese seafood tteokbokki
Locals' pickShort wait
Sources
We check every fact against at least two sources and write it in our own words. Last checked: 2026-10-31.