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Street snacks · Dongdaemun

Mabokrim Halmeoni Jip

마복림할머니집

Since 1953On TVLocal classicFine on your own ⓘ

Korea time, from recent reviews. Hours may differ on holidays.

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.

서울특별시 중구 다산로35길 5

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How it works here

🥢 How Korean restaurants usually work

Waiting

Short wait
Just join the line

Weekend evenings usually mean a line of about 20 minutes, but tables turn over quickly. Before 11:00 or mid-afternoon on weekdays you can often walk straight in.· 4 reviews

What to order

📖 What is Tteokbokki?
  • Jeukseok tteokbokki set (for 2, 3 or 4)즉석떡볶이 세트

    Rice cakes, fish cakes, ramyeon, jjolmyeon and dumplings with cabbage and green onion, cooked at the table. Larger sets add more rice cakes.

  • Bokkeumbap (fried rice)볶음밥

    Rice fried in the leftover sauce at the end.

  • Smoked egg훈제계란

    A popular add-on.

How much to order

  • 👤 2The two-person set, plus fried rice at the end.
  • 👤 3The three-person set and one or two fried rice.
  • 👤 4The four-person set, a smoked egg each and fried rice.

How to eat it

  1. 1The pan arrives raw. Let it bubble, stirring now and then, until the sauce thickens and clings to the rice cakes, then eat. Ask for fried rice when only a little sauce is left.· 3 reviews

Insider tips

  • It is not very spicy. The sauce mixes chili paste with chunjang (black bean paste), so it tastes mild and a little sweet compared with today's fiery tteokbokki.· 4 reviews
  • Leave room for the fried rice: many regulars say it is the best part.· 3 reviews

Why it's famous

Ma Bok-rim began selling tteokbokki from a street stall in Sindang-dong in 1953, just after the Korean War. Her style of rice cakes cooked at the table grew into the tteokbokki alley that now fills the street, and the family still runs the shop.· 4 reviews

  • On TVKnown across Korea for a TV commercial in which the grandmother says that not even her daughter-in-law knows the secret of the sauce. The shop has also been on many TV food shows.· 4 reviews
  • Local classicListed by the Seoul city government as one of its Oraegage, long-standing shops that have served the city for decades.· 3 reviews

Did you know?

  • The tteokbokki alley around the shop, with about ten tteokbokki restaurants side by side, is listed as a Seoul Future Heritage site.· 3 reviews

Good to know

  • Open daily 09:00 to 22:50, but closed on the second and fourth Monday of each month.· 4 reviews
  • At the entrance of the tteokbokki alley, about 3 to 5 minutes' walk from Sindang Station (Lines 2 and 6). Staff park cars for free at the door.· 4 reviews
Where this comes from (31 reviews)

Summarized in our own words from Korean diners' blog reviews; each fact is backed by at least two reviews. Last checked 2026-10-28.