Weekday lunch yakisoba without the sour tang in Mullae, Seoul: Jojo

A Mullae-dong date spot recommendation — Jojo, the teppan Japanese restaurant in Mullae known for monjayaki!

My friend and I decided to have a Mullae-dong date after a long while! We met for a weekday lunch and were trying to figure out what to eat — since we both love Japanese food, we settled on that. I love Japanese food but had never tried monjayaki before, so I went looking for a good monjayaki spot in Mullae. That's how I found Jojo, the teppan Japanese restaurant!

I'd heard monjayaki is a love-it-or-hate-it dish, so I was curious what it would taste like haha. As someone who loves takoyaki, loves Japanese food, and loves okonomiyaki, here's my honest review of monjayaki! Let me introduce it right now 😆

Jojo Mullae Branch: hours, address, parking

• Hours: Daily 11:30–22:00
• Break time: 15:30–17:00
• Last order: 14:30, 21:00
• Address: 1st floor, 4-2 Dorim-ro 139-gil, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Parking not available 🚘

Getting to Jojo Mullae Branch from Mullae Station

Jojo is located near the end of the Mullae Creative Village. Walk straight from Mullae Station toward Mullae Park, cross the intersection, and it's in the alley there.

I visited on a weekday lunch, and I wondered whether people eat teppan Japanese food much at lunchtime — but there were actually quite a few customers!

Apparently it's a teppan franchise started by a chef who appeared on Culinary Class Wars (Heukbaek Yorisa)!

On weekends there seems to be a wait, but I visited on a weekday lunch so thankfully there was no line. While waiting for my friend, I browsed the menu.

Seating and restroom at Jojo Mullae Branch

Inside, most tables are for four people, and true to a teppan restaurant, every table has its own hot plate.

There are 2-person tables as well as 4-person tables — good for a date, and good for a food-tour outing with friends too!

Unlike (?) what you'd expect from Mullae-dong, there's a clean restroom inside! The moment Mullae's biggest drawback gets overcome,,!!

The Jojo Mullae Branch menu

Here's Jojo's menu! There's a wide variety of teppan-based dishes. I came specifically curious about monjayaki, but they also have okonomiyaki and yakisoba on the menu.

We ordered the monjayaki 2-person set! To taste it in its purest form first, we ordered it with no extra toppings.

Once you order, they turn on the hot plate for you!

And then the monjayaki arrives!! They set out the monjayaki batter along with cheese as a topping.

A quick swirl of oil — but this isn't just poured on right away, they oil it and preheat it first, building up my anticipation.

The waterfall potato that came first

Until then, you get to eat this! It's essentially a potato salad, but its official name is 'waterfall potato.' Probably because the egg yolk looks like flowing lava? So cute,,

The soft-boiled egg is smooth and the potato salad is soft too — a smooth-and-smooth combo.

But underneath there are also onion flakes, you know? That was the real kicker!! The nutty, savory egg plus potato salad, with crunchy onion flakes on top, adds a fun texture!!!

The monjayaki, made tableside by staff

While I was munching away on the waterfall potato, a timer suddenly went off and a staff member came over and swiftly made the monjayaki right in front of us!!

First, they set aside the kirimochi (sliced rice cake) and mentaiko (pollock roe), then chopped up the cabbage batter first.

What is it about teppan cooking? It's such a lively performance haha haha. Teppan cooking really is fun~~

And then in the middle they pour in the liquid batter, and once it's spread out like this?? Oh,, that visual really is something,,, but you know monjayaki is originally supposed to look like this, right? haha

And then, as the finishing touch, cheese gets thrown on top! We didn't add extra cheese but there was still a generous amount!!

Once the cheese fully melts, you're supposed to gently scrape from the sizzling center and eat. And that tiny teppan spoon,, is that not the cutest thing?

Why Jojo's yakisoba isn't sour

While the hot plate was working its magic, the yakisoba came out!! And honestly, this was insanely delicious!! Because I don't normally like yakisoba, you know? That distinctive sour taste — kind of vinegary — that seems to seep into the noodles, I don't like that, so I've always been more of an okonomiyaki person than a yakisoba person, you know what I mean?

But this yakisoba at Jojo — it's like it got a Korean-palate patch, because it wasn't sour at all!!!! It really felt like the noodle version of okonomiyaki. If you dislike yakisoba because of that sour taste, I'd really recommend giving this one a try!!

How monjayaki's flavor differs from okonomiyaki

Monjayaki is like a thinner version of okonomiyaki? The ingredients are also a bit smaller and thinner, but the surface area touching the hot plate is larger, so it feels like eating just the crispy edges of an okonomiyaki! If you're someone who dislikes that slightly undercooked batter feel that okonomiyaki sometimes has, this seems like it would be exactly your thing!!

Because the batter is thin, the sizzling, nutty flavor is doubled, and the fun of gently scraping it up is another plus. It's kind of like a fried-rice-for-dessert vibe? This was my first time trying it, and it was a delicious and fun experience!!

Overall thoughts on Jojo Mullae Branch

Monjayaki used to be this unusual teppan dish only sold in Tokyo, so it's great that you can now get it in Korea too! But after trying it, I realized you really need to go somewhere that does it well for it to taste good. Visually and otherwise, if it's not done well, it can end up looking a little less than appetizing haha haha.

So for anyone getting into monjayaki for the first time like me, I'd recommend trying the version rolled out by the teppan master from Culinary Class Wars 2!! It's a great Mullae-dong date course, and if you work in Mullae-dong, it's not a bad lunch option either.