Whenever anyone makes a restaurant recommendation to me, I add it to a list on my phone, and Fire Bell has been on that list for well over a year and a half. The south of the river burger joint is widely regarded as one of, if not the best burger in Seoul. Its not that I haven’t wanted to try it, its just that it is all the way down in Daechi-dong and until now I’ve just been to lazy to drag my fat arse over there.
Well as luck would have it, TFB was taking part in a charity soccer match in that very area. I don’t usually give him much support in his sporting endeavours, so I thought it was about time I stood by my man, and if I managed to get a burger at the same time, well that was killing two birds with one stone.
As the name suggests Fire bell has a kind of fire station theme going on. The place is completely decked out in red and white check, all the burgers are aptly named within the theme and there are tonnes of cute and quirky decorating touches like this adorable break in case of fire, toasted marshmallow kit.
As you may or may not know I don’t really enjoy the patties of american burgers. For me they just seem lacking. I am looking for a burger that makes me go Mmmm when I bite into it, a burger so tasty I have to buy another one straight after. Not a tall order you would imagine, but so far I’ve yet to find a 10/10 burger here in Seoul. After perusing the menu I opted for the Rookie (7,000). I decided to stick with the classic so I could really rate the burger for itself and not its toppings. First things first, the bun was delicious, by far the best bun tried, the cheese and grilled onions were as expected but just something was a bit lacking in the patty itself. Although for the price, and someone less picky than I, a solid choice.
We also gtr a second burger, the Call 911(9,000) which was topped with american cheese, spicy sauce, tomato, jalapeno, and lettuce and I cant say that I enjoyed it. Even TFB, who likes hot sauce on everything, found the heat to completely overwhelm any taste of the burger. It was a poor choice on his part, also mine, as I rarely let him choose for himself and I wish I had forced him into ordering one of the others instead. We made this one a set for an extra 4,000 which is incredibly reasonable. We got a half portion of twisty fries which I thought made a nice change and a sprite. I wasn’t really in the mood for a milkshake that day, but the menu had a nice selection and looked pretty good from what i could see.
Although I wasn’t that crazy for the burgers here, I still wanted to share it as hey, it’s very well priced and there really inst a lot of competition in the area. It’s similar to Brooklyn Burger and Gilbert Burger. Gilbert burger is easily my favourite of the three, though I found Fire Bell to be better than Brooklyn. And price wise its the best of the bunch. I can’t say it was worth the trip across town for me, but it seems as though I’m incredibly hard to please when it comes to burgers, and I’d more than likely go again if I was in the neighbourhood.
Fire Bell is located 13 Seolleung-ro 72-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. To get there take a train to Solleung Station (line 2) and come out of exit 2. Walk straight for maybe 5 blocks and then take a left, its a little way down this street.. For more information you can call them on 02-6489-0041, or check out their facebook. They are open everyday except Mondays from 11:30am – 9:30pm.