A Bottle of Soju, a Table of Anju: Jongno Nights
Green soju bottles, Korean anju and the long-running drinking tables of Jongno’s gay community. From ARQ to MINGLE, we visit five very different tables.
Instead of sparkling cocktails, there are green soju bottles on the table, and rather than the music, it’s the broth in the pot that brings people together around one table.
Korean soju usually means a spirit made from rice or other starches. It’s fairly strong with a bitter edge, so it can be a lot if you mostly drink beer. It’s poured into small glasses, but there’s no rule that you have to down each one in one go.
Here, anju isn’t just a snack sitting next to your drink. Sharing dishes like jeon (savory pancakes), jjigae (stew), grilled meat and spicy stir-fries in the middle of the table sets the pace of the conversation. The soju bars of Nagwon-dong and Jongno 3-ga have long been part of a local culture where gay men meet and keep their connections going.
These five spots were chosen for their food and sociability. From ARQ, Taeyangine, RM and GOMBAL to MINGLE, here are bars where you can enjoy good anju with your soju.
If It’s Your First Soju Bar
Soju is the name for the distilled and diluted spirits widely served with meals and drinking sessions in Korea. Strength and flavor vary by brand, and there are sweet fruit-flavored versions too. If you’re not a big drinker, ask first whether they have beer or non-alcoholic options.
Anju is food shared alongside drinks. Generous dishes like stews or jeon are great for ordering as a group, and even with people you’ve just met, ‘Try some of this’ comes naturally. Notice the difference between light snacks and anju that’s closer to a full meal.
Five Tables for Choosing Your Anju
Five spots chosen not as a ranking but by their food and the kind of drinking table they offer
아크
ARQ · A Plate of Jeon with Your Soju
ARQ is the first place we’d suggest to anyone looking for a small bar in Jongno. Public reviews mention its shrimp jeon. Having a specific dish in mind when ordering at the bar is a real plus. Pair a bottle of soju with salty, savory jeon, and even at an unfamiliar table you can start by talking about what to eat.
On a nice day, open the window and tip back a glass of soju. It’s refreshing. PS. They serve Japanese sake too.
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태양이네
Taeyangine · A Night That Starts with Spicy Anju
Taeyangine (SUN'S BAR) describes itself as a ‘Bear Soju Bar.’ A public post in early October 2026 featured spicy braised pork back ribs. A spicy dish you eat by holding the bone suits a more relaxed drinking session over a buttoned-up conversation from the start.
Leading with bear identity doesn’t mean only bears are allowed in. What matters isn’t customers’ body type but the easygoing atmosphere that soju and Korean food create. Check before ordering whether the ribs are still on the menu and how spicy they are.
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알엠
RM · Between a Bar and Dinner
RM calls itself a food bar. Public reviews mention a range of dishes like budae jjigae (army stew), hot pot, pizza and pasta, so you get hearty portions and don’t have to start drinking on an empty stomach. Even if your group’s tastes differ, it’s easy to pick dishes at one table.
It brings to mind a Jongno evening that starts with a meal, moves on to filling soju glasses, then shifts to another bar depending on your mood. Foreign-language menus are available.
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곰발
GOMBAL · A Soju Bar with a Friendly Name
GOMBAL (‘bear paw’) is a name that comes up whenever people look for soju bars in Jongno. Its charm is better found in being a neighborhood bar where people with similar tastes come to share a drink than in any exaggerated ‘guaranteed huge portions.’
If you’re not sure what to order, check the current menu for meal-style anju. Photos and prices may change over time, and everyone wants different portion sizes. We’d like to introduce it as a place even travelers unfamiliar with the bear community can walk into without preconceptions.
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밍글
MINGLE · Another Table, Another Crowd
MINGLE is run together with DINGUL, another space in the same building. According to the venue’s social media, MINGLE is the soju bar on the 3rd floor and DINGUL is the bar on the 2nd. If it’s your first visit, step one is not going to the wrong floor.
Compared with the four places above, it has relatively more customers with a standard build. In the end, Jongno’s soju bars are places where people meet through food, drink and conversation, and MINGLE shows a different face of that evening.
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Generosity Is Not a Menu Item but a Way of Eating Together
On the joy of sharing food.
In Jongno you’ll often hear the joke that bears pay close attention to anju quality and portions. The line that if there’s too little to eat, they’ll go somewhere else next time says something about how people enjoy a night of drinking. But not everyone eats a lot all the time, and above all there’s no need to link this taste one-to-one with body size. People who love generous plates, people who love long conversations and people who want a quiet drink alone make Jongno together.
An evening at a soju bar usually starts with food, but it doesn’t end there. Some head to karaoke, some look for a bar with loud music, and some come back to the same table next week. If time allows, we’d also like to introduce Korea’s distinctive drinking culture of carrying on to a third or fourth round.
What makes Jongno special for travelers may lie less in a famous bottle than in those repeated hours of meeting up.
Before You Go
The five soju bars of Jongno may sell the same kind of drink, but each has its own temperature of connection. A night of sharing one plate and deciding where to go next. To understand Seoul’s gay nightlife, this small, noisy table is a fine place to start.
Menus, hours and entry conditions may change. Especially if you have your heart set on a particular anju tonight, check the venue’s social media before you go.