Joomak

Behind a heavy door on Swanston Street, a flight of stairs drops into a low-lit basement that has been pouring makgeolli and soju since 2010. The room leans into old Korea — vintage signage, historical prints, a lived-in warmth that feels a long way from the street above — and it keeps the sort of hours that suit its purpose, running to half past two in the morning most nights. This is drinking food done properly. The kimchi pancake has a local reputation worth the billing, crisp-edged and generous; around it come seafood tteokbokki, fish-cake soup to steady a long session, a fish-roe cheese egg roll, and takoyaki for the table. Cloudy, faintly sweet makgeolli is treated less as a novelty than a way of life here, poured alongside soju in the unhurried, convivial rhythm of a Seoul pojangmacha. It is late-night territory rather than a destination dinner — a place to settle in with a group, order in rounds, and let the evening stretch. Reservations help, given the size, and the mood rewards those who arrive with time to spare. Closed Sundays; otherwise open from five until the small hours.