Gangseo Korean restaurant for webfoot octopus and beef brisket: Jju Baksa

I was looking for jjukkumi (webfoot octopus) in Magok and ended up at Jju Baksa Magok Branch, and honestly, it was so delicious that I completely fell for it. I thought jjukkumi places were all pretty similar, but after trying this one, I totally understood why people love it.

What were the banchan and set-menu options like?

First of all, I liked the basic spread. It came with bok choy, ssammu (pickled radish wraps), and perilla leaves, and everything felt neat and fresh, making it perfect with the jjukkumi. These were not just random sides thrown on the table; it felt like the pairings had actually been considered.

I also liked how varied the set-menu options were. You can try a little of everything without ordering each dish separately, and there are plenty of choices to suit different preferences, so I think ordering would be easy even with a group.

Make sure to add corn cheese and steamed egg

And you absolutely have to get the corn cheese. If you like corn cheese, it is pretty much impossible to dislike this one: nutty and sweet, and it went even better than expected with the spicy jjukkumi.

The side dishes exceeded my expectations too. The gyeran-jjim (steamed egg) was the real deal—soft and fluffy, just right for having a few bites between the spicy jjukkumi. A steamed egg like this quietly takes the whole meal up a notch.

The jjukkumi, beef brisket, and bean-sprout combination

More than anything, the jjukkumi itself was seriously good. The sauce was not just aggressively spicy; it had real savory depth, and the octopus was tender and soft rather than chewy. It had a lovely moist texture that kept me reaching back for more.

Especially when I ate the jjukkumi with beef brisket slices, bean sprouts, and tteok (chewy rice cakes), this combination was absolutely crazy good. The rich brisket, crisp bean sprouts, and chewy rice cakes meant every bite tasted a little different.

Personally, with jjukkumi dishes like this, the combination matters more than whether just one ingredient tastes good, and this place really nailed that part. The jjukkumi was delicious on its own and also with the brisket or bean sprouts, so I kept mixing and matching everything.

You can add extra ingredients and have all sorts of things alongside it, so the order naturally keeps growing as you eat. At first I thought I would eat a reasonable amount, but once I started, I got greedy—I wanted this and that too, haha.

Jjukkumi cooked right on the grill

As the jjukkumi started cooking on the grill, the sauce bubbled away and the smell was no joke. At first, I was just wishing it would cook faster, but seeing those plump pieces of octopus soak up the sauce right in front of me made me even more excited. The rich fat from the beef brisket mixed into the sauce too, and the delicious aroma kept rising.

Once it was cooked, the jjukkumi turned springy and glossy, looking so appetizing. The staff grilled it for us, which was great because we could eat it at exactly the right moment, and picking up a piece with bean sprouts or rice cake was just ridiculously good. Food straight from the grill really is the best.

The final highlight: flying-fish-roe cheese fried rice

Still, the true final highlight here was definitely the fried rice. It would have been such a waste to leave the jjukkumi sauce behind, but finishing it off as fried rice with flying fish roe and cheese was absolutely perfect.

With the little pops of flying fish roe and the rich cheese, I kept eating even though I was full. The spicy jjukkumi sauce had soaked right into the fried rice, so I enjoyed every last spoonful.

The thought I kept having while eating was that I could come here once a week and never get tired of it. The jjukkumi itself is delicious, but there are so many combinations of ingredients, sides, extras, and fried rice that it would be fun to eat it a little differently each time.

If you are looking for great jjukkumi in Magok, I would definitely recommend Jju Baksa Magok Branch. The food was neat and satisfying, the staff were kind, and everything from the jjukkumi, beef brisket, bean sprouts, and rice cakes to the steamed egg, corn cheese, and final flying-fish-roe cheese fried rice was a hit. It has been a while since I found a place I liked this much, so next time I will come straight back here without even thinking twice.