Lots of places will serve up a plate of decent ddokpokki, but very few use fresh peppers to liven up their sauce. While not blisteringly hot, high-quality peppers lift this sauce from the ordinary to magnificent, enough to bring a little burn but not enough to make you sweat. The ddeok themselves are served on the unadorned and on the al dente side, so let them know if you’d like something a little softer and less chewy.

The specialty here are the twigim (튀김: fried foods). Their crispy, crunchy, eggy batter is enlivened with just a bit of rosemary for an wonderful hint of herb. Another sign that this is a cut above the usual standing snacking is the fresh seafood and vegetables that go into their fry. Tender, wonderfully soft squid fried up here will make you forget the boring blandishments of ordinary calamari. The shrimp were another standout, perfectly cooked just to the point of doneness so you can taste the sweetness of them while you appreciate the soft flesh.

Sesame leaves and peppers are stuffed with an mixture of meat, tofu, and kimchi for a crispy, meaty mouthful both savory and herbaceous. There’s no doubt that the people behind the counter at Sak have been working hard to make sure their seasoning and stuffings were just so. But one of the most spectacular items of the evening was the fried seaweed rolls. Most places just soak some tangmyeon (탕면: glass noodles/cellophane noodles/sweet potato noodles – the same kind you see in japchae) in water or broth, roll them up in a bit of kim, and fry them up without a second thought. Not at Sak; this place uses sweet, tender noodles that have been infused with some of the rich meat flavor of the best japchae. They have both sweetness and umami in a rich little roll, exquisitely tender inside, wrapped in the crispy-chewy kim, and finally fried up in the same shatteringly crisp batter as the other twigim. This is what snack food should be! What could possibly make it any more perfect?

Beer! Yes, unlike most bunshik places, Sak serves up a limited menu of sodas (including Dr. Pepper, Welches, and other relatively hard-to-find fizzes) and beers at reasonable prices. Wash down your ‘pokki and fry with a bit of beer or a swig of soda as you sit back and relax at the small counter inside the main doors or in the seating area one door down. Entertain yourself by reading the post-it notes left by countless counter-sitters before you as you sit back and chow down, or grab some to go.

Get to Sak by taking line 6 to Sangsu Station (상수역) and walking straight out of exit one. It’ll be just a few meters down on the right-hand side. Prices are modest, running about 700 won for a piece of twigim, about 2000 for a serving of ddeokpokki, and 1-5000 for drinks. Two can easily stuff themselves here for less than 10,000.

HT to Zen Kimchi and the extraordinary Eun-jeong for pointing this place out.