Pizza seolgi, a steamed rice cake topped like a pizza, started drawing lines at rice cake shops across Korea this spring.
By September 8-9, 2026, three major outlets covered the trend, and one Seoul market shop sells each piece at 2,000 won.
This post sums up what it is, which flavors exist, and where to look for it.
Contents
- What is pizza seolgi?
- Pizza seolgi flavors: original, goguma, bulgogi, corn cheese
- How big is the pizza seolgi boom?
- Price and how to buy it
- Where to try pizza seolgi
- Why goguma and bulgogi toppings work
What is pizza seolgi?
Pizza seolgi is baekseolgi, a plain steamed white rice cake, topped with tomato sauce, cheese and ham.
It works like a pizza with a rice cake base instead of flour dough, and one piece cost about 2,000 won when the trend started.
Fresh ones come out of the steamer warm, so the savory sauce hits first and the mild rice flavor follows.
The texture is the main difference: softer and fluffier than chewy flour dough.
People who find regular pizza crust heavy tend to handle this version more easily.
Toppings sit on top the same way, so it eats like an open-faced pizza in snack size.
| Original | Tomato sauce, cheese, ham |
|---|---|
| Goguma-bulgogi | Sweet potato + marinated beef |
| Corn cheese | Corn + cheese |
| Strawberry seolgi | Dessert-style, sweet |
| Nutella seolgi | Chocolate spread |
Pizza seolgi flavors: original, goguma, bulgogi, corn cheese
The original is the cheese-and-ham version that went viral first.
Shops then started adding their own toppings to stand out, and the ones reported so far are sweet potato, bulgogi and corn cheese.
Tteok Maeul, a rice cake shop in Seoul’s Myeonmok Market, puts both sweet potato and bulgogi on one piece.
Sweet potato and corn cheese are already familiar pizza toppings in Korea, so the crossover needs no explaining for local buyers.
The topping lineup changes by shop, and the table above lists the combinations confirmed in September 2026 reporting.
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How big is the pizza seolgi boom?
Search interest moved fast.
NoCut News, citing Google Trends, reports that interest for pizza seolgi rose from 22 on August 26 to 100 on September 8, which the outlet describes as a spike of more than 5,000 percent in about two weeks.
Sales moved the same way: one rice cake shop in Bupyeong, Incheon grew from 200 to as many as 6,000 rice cakes a day, thirty times more.
A short-form video with 460,000 views featured a shop selling 1,500 pieces on a weekend.
Online mentions of rice cake eaten as dessert were also up more than 40 percent year over year, so pizza seolgi sits inside a wider shift.
Price and how to buy it
The confirmed price is 2,000 won per piece at Jeil Tteokjip, at the entrance of Myeonmok Market in Seoul.
That is a snack-level price next to regular pizza; a large bulgogi pizza at a specialist chain runs about 23,000 won, roughly eleven times more.
Shops steam fresh batches from the morning, and Jeil Tteokjip opens sales at 8:30 AM with pieces cut and packed right away.
Lines form before opening, but turnover is fast because each piece is small.
At the Busan origin shop, the rush led to a limit of 10 pieces per person.
Groups buying 10 or more for offices and family gatherings are common, so going early or sharing a bulk order both work.
Where to try pizza seolgi
The starting point is Yeongdodari Tteokbang in Yeongdo, Busan, a shop opened in 1999 and run by a couple.
Their son joined the business about five years ago and began fusing trending foods with rice cake, which is how pizza seolgi was born.
From Busan, photos and short videos spread the trend nationwide starting in spring 2026, and it reached Seoul market shops by summer.
In Myeonmok Market, Jeil Tteokjip starts selling at 8:30 AM and Nakwon Migak, deeper inside the same market, opened sales at 10:30 AM with a line already waiting.
Which shops carry the goguma-bulgogi version outside these examples is not confirmed, so checking a shop’s recent posts before going is the practical step.
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Why goguma and bulgogi toppings work
The topping choices track the customer.
Early buyers came from SNS and are mostly in their 20s and 30s, and strawberry seolgi or Nutella chocolate seolgi aim at that crowd, turning plain white rice cake into a dessert lineup.
Older customers reacted differently: the Tteok Maeul owner, who has run the shop for 11 years, said pepperoni-style combinations feel unfamiliar to them, while familiar ingredients like sweet potato or bulgogi get better reactions.
Bulgogi pizza itself is a Korean staple that dates back decades, so the flavor needs no introduction for anyone raised in Korea.
That makes the goguma-bulgogi version an easy pick when buying for mixed-age groups.
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Sources
- Confirming shop names for strawberry/Nutella variants in 6-m (segye.com)
- Google Trends 22 → 100 (Aug 26 → Sep 8); Incheon Bupyeong sh (nocutnews.co.kr)
- Bulgogi pizza = Korean fusion pizza; sauce tomato+mayo+sugar (cookpick.kr)
Dates to check back on
- This post’s numbers come from reporting dated September 8-9, 2026. Prices and shop lineups at individual rice cake shops can change within weeks.
- Shops announce new toppings and limits through their own SNS posts, so check a shop’s latest posts before visiting.
- The strawberry and Nutella versions were reported as launching; no fixed prices for them have been published.
FAQ
Q. What is pizza seolgi and how is it different from regular pizza?
It is a steamed white rice cake topped with tomato sauce, cheese and ham. The base is rice cake instead of flour dough, so the texture is softer and fluffier.
Q. How much does pizza seolgi cost?
2,000 won per piece was confirmed at Jeil Tteokjip in Seoul’s Myeonmok Market. Prices for the goguma, bulgogi and dessert variations have not been reported.
Q. Is there a purchase limit?
The Busan origin shop imposed a 10-piece per-person limit during the rush. Whether that limit still applies now is not confirmed.
Q. Where did pizza seolgi start?
At Yeongdodari Tteokbang in Yeongdo, Busan, which opened in 1999. The trend spread nationwide through SNS starting in spring 2026.
The safest way to try pizza seolgi is to go early: shops like those in Myeonmok Market start selling around 8:30 or 10:30 AM and often sell out fast, so treat the tteokjip as walk-in traditional-market stalls and arrive before the mid-morning rush.
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