A jajang fan's octopus jjamppong verdict at a Paju Chinese restaurant

📍Dolpanseok Jjamppong Paju Simhaksan Branch 8-38 Dolgotgil, 1st floor, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea Daily 11:00-21:00 (closed every Tuesday)

Why a lifelong jajangmyeon fan chose jjamppong at Dolpanseok Jjamppong

Usually when I'm choosing between jajang and jjamppong, I always go jajang, but I happened to see photos of Dolpanseok, a Paju restaurant everyone raves about, and for the first time ever I actually wanted jjamppong.

I've had stone-plate jajang before, the kind they sell at tourist spots, but stone-plate jjamppong..? Total first-timer here. With expectations up, I headed to Dolpanseok Jjamppong Paju Simhaksan Branch.

Where Dolpanseok Jjamppong Paju Simhaksan Branch is, and parking

There are so many restaurants near Simhaksan mountain in Paju. Unlike the ones tucked way up the winding roads, this one's right at the entrance, so it was easy to find. It's close to Munbal IC, and close to Paju Book City too.

There's a dedicated parking lot in front of the restaurant, which makes driving there really convenient. The lot is fairly spacious, so I didn't feel like parking would be a huge headache even on weekends or at meal times.

• Paju Pay, Zero Pay, high oil price relief funds accepted
• Baby chairs available
• Wheelchair accessible restaurant
• No pets allowed
• Corkage allowed (up to 1 bottle)
• Private room/group reservations available (min 6 - max 48 people)

Inside the restaurant: partitioned booth seats

There are a lot of tables and generous spacing between seats, so nothing felt cramped overall. There were also seats with partitions, which looked great for families with kids or anyone wanting a quieter meal.

Even the regular tables had wide spacing, so I barely noticed conversations from the next table. Overall it had a relaxed, calm atmosphere to eat in.

Self-serve bar with unlimited rice, and the standout green onion kimchi

There's a self-serve bar in one corner of the restaurant. Rice refills are unlimited.

Along with danmuji (pickled radish), there's also green onion kimchi, and this kimchi was more delicious than expected. Honestly, green onion kimchi with jjapaghetti is an unbeatable combo, right? And don't even get me started on jajangmyeon with green onion kimchi... the owner clearly knows their stuff.

Menu and what comes in the set

Centered around stone-plate jjamppong and jajang, there are set menus with various side dish combos. Make sure you remember: ordering a set gets you ₩2,000 off! And the jjamppong spice level is adjustable (3 levels) 🔥🔥

It's a Chinese restaurant but there's no sweet and sour pork on the menu — instead there's a handmade pork soup & chicken soup (dakgangjeong-style) combo. It comes half fried pork like donkatsu, half fried chicken, and apparently the pork comes with a sweet and tangy sauce just like sweet and sour pork.

Nurungji stone-plate jjamppong + tungbosha (4pc) set ₩42,000 / whole octopus add-on ₩5,000

There's even a sign telling you not to hold back and just eat as much as you want. The basic size is medium (2-3 people), and the portion was definitely generous.

The country-of-origin labeling was pretty funny lol. Rice, pork, vegetables — whatever it takes, all domestic lol lol.

Danmuji, onion, and chunjang (black bean sauce) come out as standard, and if you need more you can grab extra from the self-serve bar.

Nurungji stone-plate jjamppong with a whole octopus added for ₩5,000

Nurungji stone-plate jjamppong + whole octopus (5.0) add-on. The first thing that caught my eye was the chunky whole octopus dropped in whole. Overwhelming just visually.

~~@!!!bubbling and boiling~~@@!! Because the jjamppong comes out on a piping hot stone plate, you can eat it warm the entire meal without it ever cooling down.

The size of that whole octopus is insane (positive). For an extra ₩5,000 you get an extra-large whole octopus like this, an extra dose of quality protein.

Even without adding the optional whole octopus, the base already comes loaded with seafood. Shrimp, pinecone squid, squid, scallops, and the most important part for jjamppong — the vegetables!! There's a lot of bean sprouts along with cabbage, and the crunchy texture was great.

The broth has a subtle smoky char flavor plus the refreshing seafood taste, making it rich and deep — top-tier. Best of all, since the stone plate keeps holding heat, you can eat it piping hot all the way to the last bite.

Fist-sized handmade tungbosha, 4 pieces

Handmade tungbosha (4pc). Menbosha's name alone had already made me suspicious it'd be huge ('tungbosha' basically means 'chunky bosha'), and sure enough, out came a tungbosha literally the size of my fist.

Fresh out of the fryer, still piping hot... but it's so big that even one bite looks tiny in comparison lol. The outside was fried crisp (no greasy bread feeling at all), and one bite in you can feel the springy bounce of shrimp inside.

Can you see how bouncy the tungbosha is? Fried dishes like this can usually feel greasy, but this had zero grease feeling. It's packed full of springy shrimp meat inside, so every bite delivers that proper shrimp texture.

You taste the shrimp's own flavor and texture way more than the flour batter, which was very satisfying...❤️ The combo of the jjamppong's spicy kick and the tungbosha's crunch works really well together, so ordering them as a pair is perfect. Highly recommend!!!

Scraping up the crispy nurungji at the end

Best of all, since the stone plate keeps holding heat, you can eat it piping hot all the way to the end. And even so, the noodles didn't go soggy. Since the noodles didn't fall apart, I enjoyed it deliciously all the way through! Even a card-carrying jajang loyalist has to admit this stone-plate jjamppong is legit ㅠ.ㅠ

True to its name, nurungji (scorched rice) stone-plate jjamppong comes with a base layer of nurungji under the stone plate. First you enjoy the spicy, rich jjamppong broth, then in the middle you eat the seafood and noodles, and at the very end you scrape up the nurungji that's soaked up all that broth.

It's a totally different kind of charm from plain rice. Personally, I liked the nurungji even more❤️ The restaurant offers unlimited rice refills too, but honestly the nurungji alone already had me at maximum satisfaction ㅠ

For dessert they also serve milk coffee, yogurt drink, and rice crackers. I was genuinely so full that,, I didn't even have room left for dessert ㅠ.

I'll definitely come back to try the stone-plate jajang next time.

If you're looking for a good restaurant in Paju, near Simhaksan, near Paju Book City, or near the Paju Lotte Outlet, I highly recommend visiting Dolpanseok Jjamppong Paju Simhaksan Branch.