Whole grilled hairtail at a Hyeopjae Beach restaurant: Onjeong Jorim

When you travel to Jeju, hairtail stew (galchi jorim) is one of those dishes you just have to eat at least once 😋 On this Jeju trip, I went to Onjeong Jorim Jeju Hyeopjae Branch near Hyeopjae Beach! A lot of hairtail stew places in Jeju run pretty pricey, but here it's ₩15,000 per serving, so it felt much less of a burden haha. I actually tried it and it was delicious, plus you can see Hyeopjae's sea from there, so it won me over from the first impression 💙

⏰ Hours: daily 10:00-22:00 / 🚘 Parking: Hyeopjae Beach Parking Lot 2

Where is Onjeong Jorim Jeju Hyeopjae Branch, and where do you park?

Onjeong Jorim Jeju Hyeopjae is right across from Hyeopjae Beach's second parking lot! I parked for free there and just crossed the street to get to the restaurant, so there was zero parking stress, which was really convenient.

Looking across the street from the restaurant, you can see palm trees and Hyeopjae's sea — I went on a nice day, so with the blue sky added in it really felt like Jeju haha. It's great for pairing into a travel course since you can go straight to the beach right after eating!

What four of us ordered at Onjeong Jorim, and what it cost

Hairtail stew is ₩15,000 per serving, and mackerel stew is also ₩15,000 per serving, which felt fair given Jeju prices. We had four people total, so we ordered two servings of Jeju garlic hairtail stew plus a whole grilled hairtail. Rice is ordered separately.

The 100-won geotjeori suyuk (boiled pork with fresh kimchi) offer

There was an event where if you order a stew menu item plus the whole grilled hairtail, you can get a small serving of seasoned pork (geotjeori suyuk) for just ₩100. We ordered it too, and it was a good amount for the four of us to sample lightly before the main meal. The boiled pork had no funky smell, was plain and tender, and piled high with the spicy fresh kimchi, the two went really well together!

Side dishes and the self-serve bar

After ordering, kimchi, seasoned bean sprouts, fish cake, and seaweed came out as the basic side dishes. Since the hairtail stew itself has such a rich sauce, a clean, not-too-crowded side dish lineup seemed to suit it well. If you need more, you can help yourself at the self-serve bar!

There were also disposable aprons set up on one side of the restaurant! Eating hairtail stew can splash sauce onto your clothes, so putting one on ahead of time made the meal much more comfortable 👍🏻

How does the Jeju garlic (manong) hairtail stew taste?

The hairtail stew finally arrived! The red sauce was soaked deep into the hairtail, with plenty of garlic piled on top — it looked so good just from the visuals alone 🤤

The sauce was spicy and slightly sweet, with a deep savory flavor that went so well with plain white rice. The hairtail flesh was soft and moist, and once I piled it onto rice with plenty of sauce, an entire bowl of rice disappeared in no time 🥹

It was also great to put rice and hairtail flesh on a piece of seaweed, paired with bean sprouts or kimchi! Since it's on the affordable side, the staff don't debone the hairtail for you separately, but the flesh separated from the bones fairly easily, so it wasn't inconvenient to eat.

Adding a whole grilled hairtail to the table

The whole grilled hairtail we ordered alongside the stew also arrived! True to its name, one long whole hairtail came out in one piece, and it really caught the eye visually 😆

It nearly filled the entire large plate, and the outside was grilled to a nice golden brown. The flesh inside was moist and plain-tasting, so alternating between it and the rich braised stew let us enjoy two different flavors — I really liked that!

If four of you are visiting, ordering both the hairtail stew and the whole grilled hairtail to share, like we did, seems like a good idea 👍🏻

There was also a Naver receipt review event notice on the table — if you write a photo review with a picture of the food, you get a natural squeezed hallabong juice, so check it out if you're interested 🍊

If you're traveling the west side of Jeju and looking for a place to eat near Hyeopjae Beach, or looking for good-value hairtail stew, Onjeong Jorim Jeju Hyeopjae was solid! You can also take a walk around Hyeopjae Beach before or after eating, so it worked well as part of a Jeju travel course 💙

Who should eat at Onjeong Jorim near Hyeopjae Beach?

• Anyone looking for a place to eat near Hyeopjae Beach
• Anyone looking for good-value Jeju hairtail stew
• Anyone who wants both hairtail stew and whole grilled hairtail in one meal