Ilsan-dong, Ulsan Chinese restaurant for a chilly day: stone jjamppong

Hot jjamppong plus crispy donchitang! This is the story of my trip to try an unusual stone jjamppong 🍜

When the weather turns chilly, there's one dish you suddenly crave: spicy, steaming jjamppong (spicy seafood noodle soup)! My husband loves jjamppong so much that as soon as it got cold, he kept saying we should go get some. That's how we found Ulsan Daewangam Dol Jjamppong (울산대왕암돌짬뽕) in Ilsan-dong, Dong-gu, Ulsan.

I'd heard of dol jjajang (jjajang on a stone plate), but stone jjamppong was a first for me. They say there are only 3 places in the whole country, so I got curious and went myself. How is it different from regular jjamppong? Here's my story, side dishes included!

Where is Ulsan Daewangam Dol Jjamppong, and where can you park?

Ulsan Daewangam Dol Jjamppong is in the main commercial area near Ilsanji Beach in Ilsan-dong, Ulsan (6 Ilsanjin 5-gil, Dong-gu, Ulsan, 1st floor). It's open 11:00–21:00 (last order 20:00), with break time 15:30–17:00, and it's closed every Tuesday.

Parking can be a worry around here if you come by car, but there's a large parking lot in front of the restaurant, so it was easy! The place was spacious and bright, and they had a high chair too.

Children's tableware was also kept in a sterilizer, so it looked fine for eating with kids~ If you're looking for a family meal out, you notice this kind of thing, haha.

What we ordered at Ulsan Daewangam Dol Jjamppong

We ordered a medium stone jjamppong and the handmade donchitang set!

• Medium stone jjamppong
• Dontang & chitang set
• Fried dumplings
• Coke Zero

The handmade donchitang lets you enjoy pork cutlet and chicken tangsuyuk (Korean sweet and sour fried chicken) together. Cooking starts only after you order, so you have to wait a bit, but everything came out at once, and we got a generously laden table!

What's on the self-serve bar?

There's also a self-bar along one side of the restaurant. It had pickled radish and onions, plus green onion kimchi, which looked like it would go well with stone jjajang. We ordered jjamppong, so we didn't try it this time.

What does stone jjamppong look like on its sizzling plate?

The stone jjamppong arrives with the broth still bubbling on a big stone plate, piled with bean sprouts on top. The jjamppong I'd been waiting for has finally arrived!

It looked different from jjamppong in an ordinary bowl, right from the first glance~ Even though I ordered medium, the portion was bigger than I expected!

I stirred the ingredients under the noodles together with the bean sprouts.

Seeing the steam rising off the stone jjamppong, I thought, good thing we came on a chilly day :)

How does stone jjamppong change as you eat?

The stone jjamppong here has three charms: it starts as a brothy jjamppong, gains the crunch of the bean sprouts, and at the end the broth reduces until it becomes like stir-fried jjamppong. I loved how the flavor shifted bit by bit as I ate~

On the first sip of broth, I tasted the rich depth of a chicken stock. It had a faint smoky wok flavor, and was spicy yet full of savory depth, so it whetted my appetite from the first bite.

When I mixed the bean sprouts in with the noodles, they added a crunchy texture! It felt like the refreshing taste of brothy jjamppong gained the charm of stir-fried jjamppong.

And since it keeps boiling on the hot stone plate, the broth gradually reduced. At first it was a jjamppong with plenty of soup, but the more I ate, the more the broth thinned out and the rich seasoning soaked into the noodles. By the end it even felt like eating yakiudon (stir-fried udon).

Getting everything from brothy jjamppong to stir-fried jjamppong flavors in a single dish was a different kind of charm. It also had plump shrimp and squid. Slightly spicy, with smoky wok flavor and savory depth, it was easy to eat without feeling heavy. Best of all, the stone plate stays hot, so the food stayed warm throughout the meal.

Rice crust on the stone plate, soaked in jjamppong broth

Another point I really enjoyed about the stone jjamppong was at the bottom of the stone plate.

As I ate, I found a bit of nurungji (scorched rice crust) stuck to the bottom! Scooping up the crust, well soaked with jjamppong broth, the nutty and salty flavors went together really well.

It doesn't end with just the noodles; there's fun all the way to the last bite. Rice is also unlimited from the self-bar. Rice mixed into the jjamppong broth would surely be great too~ The portions are generous, so it seemed good when you want a hearty meal.

What is the handmade donchitang (pork cutlet and chicken set)?

The handmade donchitang at Ulsan Daewangam Dol Jjamppong is a side dish that lets you enjoy pork cutlet and chicken tangsuyuk at once. This time we had it together with the stone jjamppong.

It's a dish where you get pork cutlet and chicken tangsuyuk together.

Pork cutlet with a texture like a katsu specialty shop

When it first came out, its round shape reminded me of katsu from a cutlet specialty shop. When I cut it with scissors, there was white, juicy meat inside! The tonkatsu sauce came separately for dipping, and the outside was crispy and the inside moist, with a texture like eating at a katsu shop. It's a good side for when jjamppong alone feels a little lacking.

Chicken tangsuyuk, crispy like kkanpunggi (spicy garlic chicken)

The chicken tangsuyuk looked like kkanpunggi (Chinese-style fried chicken in sweet spicy sauce).

Dipping the crispy-battered chicken into the yangnyeom chicken sauce was really good. It has a different charm from ordinary tangsuyuk drenched in starch sauce! The crunch stays, so it went well with the spicy jjamppong too. The donchitang also had sauce drizzled over it.

Eaten with the onions, I personally found it tasted different from dipping it in the chicken sauce. The sauce-soaked chicken with crunchy onion was a good combination too. My daughter loves this kind of dish too, so I bet she'd have eaten it up if she'd come along😊 If you visit with a child, stone jjamppong plus donchitang seems like a good idea.

How were the fried dumplings and the after-meal treats?

The fried dumplings we ordered as a side came out nicely crisp on the outside. Dipped in soy sauce, it was a familiar and tasty combination.

With jjamppong, donchitang and dumplings together, the table was really full. On the way out after the meal, they had barley snacks and yogurt ready too!

Finishing with a cup of yogurt made for a happy end to the meal, haha.

Looking for a different kind of jjamppong near Ilsanji Beach, Ulsan?

If you want something different from your usual jjamppong near Ilsanji and Daewangam in Ulsan, I recommend the stone jjamppong at Ulsan Daewangam Dol Jjamppong. When you visit the seaside, you often crave a refreshing seafood jjamppong. Unlike ordinary jjamppong, what impressed me about this one was how the broth reduces on the hot stone plate and the flavor changes~

It starts as rich brothy jjamppong, and as you eat you get the crunch of bean sprouts and a stir-fried jjamppong flavor! There was also the fun of eating the rice crust stuck to the bottom. The donchitang, with pork cutlet and chicken tangsuyuk together, was satisfying too.

They have a high chair and children's tableware, plus a separate kids' uni jjajang on the menu, so it seemed fine for those looking for a family meal out👍 Unlimited rice also made it a hearty meal.

If you're looking for a slightly different meal around Ilsanji in Dong-gu, Ulsan, keep it in mind! With hot jjamppong and crispy donchitang together, it's a meal I think I'll crave even more as the weather gets chillier🥄