Magok hot pot with tonkotsu broth and vegetable tangsuyuk: J's Pot

I don't eat hot pot that often, but I suddenly got a craving and ended up at this Magok hot pot spot, J's Pot Magok Branch (제이스팟 마곡점)! I'd walked past it a few times while wandering around COEX Magok out of boredom, and it always looked so clean and delicious. This time the excuse was "I want something hot and steamy," so in I went.

You can even check the menu board from outside.

Inside J's Pot Magok Branch: interior and seating

J's Pot Magok Branch is a personal hot pot restaurant on basement level 2 of COEX Magok. It looks clean at a glance, and it seems to be going for an American-style Chinese concept.

The interior is quite spacious with plenty of seats good for solo dining. Since it's set up so each person orders their own individual hot pot, everyone can eat exactly what they want.

The sauce bar at J's Pot: peanut sauce, lao gan ma and cilantro

The sauce bar at J's Pot Magok Branch was really clean and well stocked — they have basically everything. Ask for cilantro and they'll bring you a fresh batch right away. There are instructions posted for how to mix the sauces, so you can just roughly follow your own taste.

There's also a variety of spices.

8 broths at J's Pot Magok and how to pick your options

The menu turned out to be really extensive. There are set menus so you don't have to think too hard, but you can also customize everything piece by piece. For broth, you can choose from beef, mala, Mongolian, tomato, kimchi, tom yum, katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes), and pork bone.

Vegetables come standard, and you can also choose meat, meatballs, or an assortment on top. Of course you can add more too. But... the portions are already pretty substantial, so I'd recommend ordering extras once you've started eating.

What two people ordered at J's Pot Magok for 60,000 won

Besides hot pot, there are side dishes too. Just having hot pot felt like it wouldn't be enough so we ordered a side! We had no idea how big the hot pot portions would be — I thought my stomach was going to burst partway through.

There's also a huge variety of alcohol on the menu.

• Tom yum hot pot (beef / mushroom assortment / flat glass noodles / shrimp balls x2) ₩24,000
• Pork bone hot pot (vegetarian / potato assortment? / rice / meatballs x2) ₩18,000
• Small vegetable sweet and sour pork ₩15,000
• Zero-sugar cola ₩3,000
• Total ₩60,000

I didn't realize it when I ordered, but once it arrived — the portions were really huge.

And then the sweet and sour pork came out on top of that, and the table was practically overflowing!

How is the 15,000-won vegetable tangsuyuk?

I was curious about the other menu items too, but I went with a safe choice: sweet and sour pork! There's barely any tanginess, and it's sweeter than typical sweet and sour pork. It's quite sweet, but the batter wasn't too thick and the meat was soft and delicious.

Personally I think it could've been a bit less sweet, but since the hot pot broth is salty, the sweet-and-salty combo worked well. Honestly, fried meat is good no matter what... and the portion was pretty generous too.

This is the sauce I made along with pickles from the sauce bar~ The pickles were cool, crisp, and sweet-and-sour, really delicious. Honestly, I think whatever sauce combo you make will taste good. I personally really love that lao gan ma and peanut sauce combination...

The cilantro was also nice and fragrant and fresh.

Tonkotsu hot pot, 18,000 won, piled high with vegetables

For the pork bone hot pot, I ordered it for ₩18,000 with vegetarian, potato assortment?, rice, and meatballs x2. The meatballs come out already grilled, but I think you're meant to boil them further in the broth.

They had a rich meaty flavor, soft texture, and felt like quality meatballs — really tasty.

On the left is the root vegetable assortment — sweet potato, potato, and lotus root. All the things I love, showing up together!

And when I chose vegetarian, the vegetables came out in an actual mountain. But two fish cake balls came along with it too!

Anyway, I threw in a ton of everything and boiled it all together, and the longer it boiled, the more vegetable broth came out and it felt like the flavor kept deepening... The pork bone broth is a bit salty but has that deep pork broth flavor — it's a taste that shouldn't be too polarizing. It's a good pick when you don't know which broth to choose. It's a basic flavor that goes well with any sauce you pair it with.

Those two fish cake balls that were included! Soft and delicious.

Tom yum hot pot, 24,000 won: more spicy than sour

The tom yum hot pot is ₩24,000 and comes with beef, mushroom assortment, flat glass noodles, and shrimp balls x2. This is the tom yum hot pot my friend ordered, and it's definitely got that sour-and-spicy appeal. The spicy side is stronger than the sour side. But it's not overwhelmingly spicy — it's more of a delicious, kick-in-the-back-of-the-throat heat. Those shrimp balls... turned out to be actual ground shrimp!!

You cook them in the broth, and the texture was great — really delicious.

We chose the mushroom assortment, so the mushrooms came out in abundance too.

The tom yum hot pot tastes like it'd be perfect for curing a hangover, sour and spicy...! I bet it'd be great mixed with rice too, haha. Too full to try it though...

The thick peanut and lao gan ma sauce I made was seriously my type... I piled it on so much I ended up making two whole bowls of just sauce.

We cleaned every last bit off the table, stuffed.

Who should eat at J's Pot Magok Branch?

J's Pot Magok Branch, a Magok hot pot restaurant! Both the sour-and-spicy tom yum hot pot and the hot, deep-flavored pork bone hot pot were really good. The vegetable sweet and sour pork was tasty and sweet too.

Since it's a personal hot pot restaurant, being able to freely choose your own options — meat, noodles, meatballs, and more — is really great. On top of that, the staff were super friendly, and the sauce bar was really well stocked. It's also easily accessible since it's inside COEX Magok... If you're looking for a good hot pot spot in Magok, I'd highly recommend it!