Haeundae Station bar: big octopus samhap, leftovers to go, Namcheonjip

Today I'm introducing Namcheonjip (남천집), a bar near Haeundae District Office in Busan with great anju (food to go with drinks) and even group seating, so it's good for gatherings and company dinners too.

• Hours: Mon–Fri 16:00–24:00 (last order 22:45)
• Sat–Sun 13:00–23:00 (last order 21:45), open every day
• Location: 21 Jungdong 2-ro, Haeundae-gu, Busan
• Parking: available in front of the restaurant

How to get to Namcheonjip in Haeundae, and parking

Namcheonjip is a 6-minute walk from Haeundae Station on Line 2, and you can park right in front, so it works if you come by car too. The clean exterior, which suits the signature dish, already looked great 👀

The walls near the entrance were covered in autographs, so the place seems to have been famous for quite a long time. That makes me trust the food already.

Namcheonjip seating: 1st-floor divided tables, 2nd-floor group seats and room

The 1st floor is mostly tables for parties of 4 or fewer, and I liked that there are dividers between neighboring tables.

The 2nd floor has long tables for groups, plus a room, which we couldn't go into because it was occupied. Even though it was a weeknight after 9 PM, the place was full of customers.

Namcheonjip menu and side dishes

The menu has samhap (a combo platter) of suyuk (boiled pork) with either hongeo (fermented skate) or octopus, plus grilled fish, jeon (Korean pancakes) and tang (soups). We ordered the samhap, which looks like the signature, and specifically the octopus samhap!

The side dishes were japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), mustard leaf kimchi, braised half-dried pollack, sauces and more. The japchae and braised pollack are good for cleansing the palate before the main dish arrives, and the mustard leaf kimchi goes well with the samhap that comes later 🙂

Namcheonjip octopus samhap: how did it taste?

After a short wait, the octopus samhap arrived looking like a picture! Around the neatly plated octopus and suyuk, lettuce, perilla leaves and napa cabbage were arranged like flower petals, and it looked really pretty.

Both the octopus and the suyuk were glossy, so how could I not look forward to the taste? And as the name samhap suggests, there were plenty of things to eat them with, which earns a pass too. The octopus legs in particular were so plump that I wondered if I should cut them up before eating..🥹

Suyuk with an even fat ratio

Namcheonjip's suyuk looked glossy and was tender too, not dry at all. On top of that, the ratio of lean meat to fat was as even as if measured with a ruler in every single slice, a truly golden ratio, so there was no need to pick through and everything was delicious 😃

The meat itself was so good that I mostly ate it with just salt and sesame oil, but

with so many accompaniments, I couldn't resist making wraps (ssam) too.

It was fun to try different ways with the three kinds of kimchi. These are combinations you can't get tired of until you start getting full!

Chewy boiled octopus

The octopus, cut into bite-size pieces, was glossy too, and dipped in sesame oil or chojang (sweet-spicy vinegar chili sauce), the chewiness was a work of art 👍 I'm a well-known small eater, but when the boiled octopus is really good I keep popping it into my mouth automatically, and that day I even got told "you're eating a lot today" 👍

I like the plain flavor of meat and octopus so much that I didn't really eat them as samhap much, but since both were tender, any combination with the sides was reliably tasty. I mostly enjoyed it with napa cabbage and dried radish strips 😌

How many people does the octopus samhap feed?

When it first came out, the octopus samhap looked like enough for up to three people. So the two of us ended up leaving some, and they packed the rest to go, which I quickly finished at home 😀

With group seating and a room, and neatly presented dishes, it suits a nice group outing, and with quality that goes with any kind of drink, Namcheonjip is a bar I'd recommend for a drink in Haeundae 😃