No-wait Korean lunch beside COEX mall, Seoul: Obongjip Samseong

Obongjip Samseong Branch, the Samseong-dong COEX restaurant everyone raves about — I finally went! It was beyond delicious... I mean, this good?!!!! I always wondered about the branch near Sadang because it always has a line, but wow, it really is that good ‼️ Jeonsu and I kept gushing about how good it was as we ate — here's the review 💖💖💖

The Obong Special portion is huge, so I'd recommend going with three people instead of two, and skip driving so you can have makgeolli (Korean rice wine) with it! It's seriously that good!!!

What comes with the 62,000 won Nakji Obong Special?

Obongjip Samseong Branch's Nakji Obong Special is 62,000 won and comes with octopus stir-fry, bossam (boiled pork belly wraps), makguksu (cold buckwheat noodles), plus unlimited seaweed soup, rice, gim (seaweed), sesame oil, and banchan (side dishes). If you're a Korean food lover, or you want to show a foreign friend a real Korean restaurant near COEX, Obongjip is an absolute must!?

Seriously, look how generous the spread is. Octopus stir-fry, plus kimchi that came out alongside the bossam. It arrived so full we couldn't finish it ㅠ.ㅠ I should really start carrying a Tupperware around (I mean it)

And oh, the makguksu was seriously a standout too, so good

Along with the seaweed soup came Vienna sausages and all kinds of hearty side dishes! For 62,000 won this is genuinely enough for three people!?

Obongjip Samseong Branch hours and break time

📍 Obongjip, the Samseong-dong COEX restaurant, does have a break time!!! Open 11:30–22:00, break time 15:00–16:00, last order 21:30. Weekends are the exception with last order at 21:00.

COEX mall restaurants have a wait — how far is Obongjip on foot?

You guys should've seen the weather in Samseong-dong. COEX, oh yes good. Seriously, September 5th, such a perfect fall day, the streets were packed with people, and COEX mall inside was just as crowded!? Plus tons of tourists, and even Hoho Sikdang or whatever it's called had a wait — basically every restaurant had a line! So we stepped out of COEX mall, walked a little, and headed straight for Obongjip — the Samseong-dong COEX restaurant.

The weather was so clear, and it was so nice to walk without the crowds — my recommended Samseong-dong COEX restaurant, Obongjip. Especially if you're at COEX for a wedding expo or baby fair and searching for good food nearby, I highly highly recommend Obongjip 😇

Ah, the Obong Special was so good I feel like I'll crave it again the moment the cooldown's up — seriously so unbelievably delicious!!!! We left home early that morning, walked around COEX, donated blood, and chose Obongjip's Nakji Obong Special as our hearty meal.

Menu and prices at Obongjip Samseong Branch

Here's the menu layout: the lunch special is direct-fire octopus stir-fry for 13,000 won, and the main menu item, the Nakji Obong Special at 62,000 won, comes with octopus stir-fry + bossam + jaengban makguksu. The side dishes come pouring out too — a full spread!

Obongjip has branches everywhere, so I figured it'd just be... average? But no, it's genuinely so good. Bouncy, chewy octopus — wait, do I actually like octopus?! I had a good one at Jjanggune in Eulwangni too, but Obongjip has a slightly different feel — if I had to pick between Obongjip and Jjanggune in Eulwangni, I'd pick Obongjip's Nakji Obong Special every time!!!

It was close to break time so the restaurant was quiet, but customers kept coming in anyway, and delivery orders never stopped either?!

Self-serve banchan bar with unlimited rice and seaweed soup

At Obongjip Samseong Branch's self-serve banchan bar you can also help yourself to rice and seaweed soup. And look at this generous spread of side dishes — there's even a Vienna sausage side dish!! ㅋ_ㅋ But the octopus, noodles, and bossam in the Obong Special were so filling we couldn't go back for seconds, though the rice itself was seriously delicious?

We really scrunched our faces praising how good the Nakji Obong Special was. The seaweed soup genuinely tasted like something my mom would make.

The deep, rich flavor of the seaweed soup was genuinely surprising, and the Vienna sausages were, well, Vienna sausages!! ㅋ_ㅋ

38 years of a mother's home cooking, Obongjip is the real deal. Samseong-dong's COEX restaurant, seriously an all-out great restaurant!

👆🏻 Here's how to enjoy Obongjip properly. It's seriously so good ㅠ.ㅠ!! They also have kalguksu kalnakji (knife-cut noodles with octopus), but we had the octopus stir-fry with rice mixed into the sauce — wow, genuinely so unbelievably good?

Ugh, this sauce is seriously insane

Spicy stir-fried octopus after donating blood

First off, the chewy, bouncy bite of the octopus was a work of art, and octopus is great for restoring energy!!! 🐙 Octopus is high-protein, low-fat, and rich in taurine and various minerals — a great food for recovering from fatigue and replenishing energy! And since we'd just donated blood, the iron and minerals — plus potassium and other electrolytes — really helped with balanced nutrition.

Every dish was genuinely delicious, but personally — and Jeonsu agreed — the octopus stir-fry was the one we kept raving about. And also..

Dipping the bossam in the octopus stir-fry sauce is genuinely incredible, I think? Incredible, ridiculously good, absolutely delicious

My boyfriend cut up all the octopus into easy-to-eat pieces for me! ㅋ_ㅋ

👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻 The 62,000-won Nakji Obong Special. Genuinely ridiculously delicious, a great pairing with makgeolli. The octopus stir-fry, bossam, and noodles all work insanely well together.

It was so good. The two of us ate until we were completely stuffed and skipped dinner entirely ㅋ_ㅋ You really need three people for this one. Anyone want to join us for a Samseong-dong COEX restaurant date?! ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

That chewy, bouncy octopus in the spicy-sweet sauce — Obongjip's octopus stir-fry that we couldn't get enough of. A flavor I think just about everyone would love. We were so full but it was so good we kept eating and finished every bite ㅋ_ㅋ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

And then we scooped rice from the self-serve rice cooker and mixed it all together with gim flakes, rice, octopus stir-fry, and bean sprouts! With a drizzle of sesame oil on top.

>> An unbelievably, incredibly good restaurant. The octopus stir-fry was genuinely on another level ㅠ.ㅠ!! The kind of flavor that makes makgeolli go down easy, but we had to drive so we skipped drinking (honestly we're non-drinkers anyway ㅋ_ㅋ)

We were so full but kept eating without stopping through all of Obongjip's Obong Special dishes.

Mid-meal, it was so good we kept taking more photos and even shot some video.

Beyond the side dishes, having free rice and seaweed soup felt like incredible service. That's probably why so many European tourists come here near COEX — someone please tell the Europeans that COEX restaurant = Obongjip Samseong Branch ㅠㅠㅠ Honestly there's no place like Obongjip inside COEX mall itself!!!

Free plum juice for dessert at checkout

And when we paid, they served us a refreshing plum juice on the house to help with digestion 💚🍐 It even had a bit of shaved ice floating in it, so it was genuinely delicious. We were too full so we shared just one glass! It was so good we said we'd definitely come back again ㅋ_ㅋ

On the way out, I noticed it — Yasikee!!! My favorite super sweet YouTuber Yasikee has eaten at Obongjip too, and so has Tzuyang,,, Anyway, I hope word spreads far and wide to Europeans about Obongjip, so Korea's warmth and flavor can travel further,,, seriously in Europe ㅋ_ㅋ even a glass of tap water costs money, so cold^^^ This was such a genuinely delicious 🩷Samseong-dong COEX restaurant, Obongjip🩷