Gwangmyeong jjukkumi restaurant near IKEA with garlic corn cheese: Jeongipum

My husband and I were lazing around on the weekend looking for somewhere to eat lunch, and ended up at Jeongipum Jjukkumi Gwangmyeong 1st Branch (정이품쭈꾸미 광명1호점), a popular spot near IKEA Gwangmyeong. The weather had cooled down a lot and there was a nice breeze, so it was a lovely day! Off to a Gwangmyeong Station favorite!

Parking, reservations and things to know before visiting

You can visit Jeongipum Jjukkumi near IKEA Gwangmyeong without worrying about parking at all. There's a very roomy underground garage in the building. On weekends you usually end up driving down level after level looking for a spot, but this time we got lucky and found one right away!

The outside of Jeongipum Jjukkumi Gwangmyeong 1st Branch near Gwangmyeong Station! We had booked ahead and arrived at 12 noon, right after opening. As far as I know, they expanded the place last year or so. Doesn't that show how well business is going and how many customers keep coming back? And for the record, it's not a regular chain outlet: they said it's a new restaurant built on techniques and experience passed down directly from the 20-year-old original restaurant (run by the owner's maternal uncle).

Jeongipum Jjukkumi near IKEA Gwangmyeong is on the first floor. I've been several times and there can be a wait at peak hours. If you're coming as a group or right at lunch or dinner time, I recommend making a reservation in advance.

Since we had booked, the table was already set and my name was up on the reserved-seat sign! haha

Side dishes and how the restaurant works

Let me introduce the basic side dishes! Bean sprouts, perilla leaves, dried seaweed, tangy shredded radish, salad, chilled cucumber soup, flying fish roe and mayonnaise! Everything except the flying fish roe can be refilled. They said the bean sprouts here come directly from a farm that grows them with natural spring water, and they did seem to have an extra-crisp crunch.

I've been to Jeongipum Jjukkumi near Gwangmyeong Station several times and absolutely love it because it's so, so good, but I have one wish.... I wish they had kimchi. Hahahaha I love kimchi so much that I even reach for it with chicken and pizza... but there's no kimchi side dish here. Sob.

One menu item per person is required. Side-dish refills can be ordered on the tablet too! The restroom is outside the restaurant.

Ordering the cheolpan jjukkumi and how to eat it right

The lunch special and regular menu differ slightly in price. What about 95% of people are eating is the cheolpan jjukkumi (baby octopus stir-fried on a tabletop griddle). You just pick your type of meat, and you can add various sari (add-ins like noodles). There are fried side dishes too, which go well alongside.

Study the recommended way to eat it beforehand! Per the guide: a perilla leaf, then a sheet of green laver seaweed, then the stir-fried jjukkumi and bean sprouts, finished with flying fish roe and mayonnaise! Honestly, I've tried it lots of ways and this one is the tastiest, so I keep coming back to it. Maybe that's why they give you a generous pile of perilla leaves and seaweed from the start, which I love.

Our order at this IKEA Gwangmyeong favorite!!! We went with cheolpan jjukkumi + extra add-ons, and chose Black Angus beef brisket for the meat! Spice level: the spiciest!!!! Then we added the cast-iron garlic corn cheese to pour over partway through, and fried rice at the end! So the total: two cheolpan jjukkumi with extra add-ons at ₩19,500 each = ₩39,000, cast-iron garlic corn cheese ₩7,000, flying fish roe fried rice ₩3,500. Total = ₩49,500.

A staff member comes over and gently knocks down the mountain of minari (water dropwort) piled on top. They handle it from start to finish, so all you have to do is eat when told!

And here's the full spread at this Gwangmyeong Station favorite! They come by, stir it around and keep an eye on it, and once they tell you it's ready and walk off, you can dig in! They stir until the minari wilts, and while the staff member stepped away for a moment we just tossed the bean sprouts in too. I was a bit worried it would get watery, but from what I remember, the sauce here is insane, so once the bean sprouts soak up the sauce it seemed like it'd go even better.

Here's a reference video from this IKEA Gwangmyeong favorite too!!

The full spread, all done!!

Cast-iron garlic corn cheese and bouncy jjukkumi

They came and dropped in the cast-iron garlic corn cheese we'd added. But we.... sob. We thought it was cheese they'd just sprinkle on, so we ordered it way too late, the wait got long, and it arrived when we'd already eaten half the jjukkumi. Still, in all my visits here this was the first time I ordered this cheese, and it's really delicious!!! So I recommend adding it once.

And the steamed egg! Jeongipum Jjukkumi's steamed egg isn't a fancy, show-offy version; it tastes like the steamed egg mom makes at home. They said they only use fresh eggs delivered every morning from a HACCP-certified farm. It's not heavily seasoned, so I think kids would love it too.

What makes the jjukkumi here special! I've eaten a lot of jjukkumi in my life, and the ones here are really big and bouncy. They said they insist on only the highest-quality grade of raw octopus that comes into the country, and it really was different from jjukkumi I've had at other restaurants. So at the start, if you just pick up the jjukkumi on its own with nothing else, you end up eating it like you're under a spell. The springy texture is great and there was truly zero fishy smell.

The cast-iron garlic corn cheese added partway through! It's regular corn cheese with a hint of garlic, and it was the best corn cheese I've ever had. Corn cheese meets garlic!!! It went together far better than I expected. Honestly, we didn't know it had garlic and ordered it thinking it was plain corn cheese, but after one bite I thought, there's a different savory note here! Looked at the menu again and it was garlic corn cheese.

I kept eating it the same way. If the photos look identical and you get bored, sorry, nothing I can do. These are all different photos!!! Dried seaweed on a perilla leaf, then bean sprouts and minari, then meat and jjukkumi!! Then flying fish roe!! That part's the same every time. Then you choose: mayonnaise or corn cheese on top, and taste!! The bouncy jjukkumi, minari, bean sprouts and meat textures came together really nicely. The minari aroma was wonderful too, and that fragrance and crunch paired so well with the jjukkumi and meat.

Finishing with flying fish roe fried rice

Fried rice time! Honestly the portions aren't small, so you might hesitate about the fried rice, but you have to have it! The staff kindly fry it all up for you too.

They told us it's even better if you lay dried seaweed on top, toast it a little, then wrap the fried rice in it. I'm someone who follows instructions well!!!! The fried rice is so good.. I wondered whether we could fry up two, eat one and take the other home. I've eaten here several times, but this was my first time having it with the corn cheese, and the popping texture of the corn cheese plus the flying fish roe went even better together and tasted great.

I could finish it all! But I always leave that last spoonful.. not because I'm afraid of gaining weight. Hahahahahaha We ate so, so well! Next time I come, I'm definitely ordering the corn cheese again.