Vegetable-packed okonomiyaki set at Suwon's AK Plaza food hall: Jojo

What is Jojo AK Plaza Suwon?

There aren't that many Japanese restaurants around AK Plaza Suwon, but the basement floor food hall actually has a lot of great food options~ It's very close to the subway station exit too, so accessibility is good, and there are plenty of spots good for a quick solo meal :-) Among them, Jojo is a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant, haha.

Jojo AK Plaza Suwon can be reached directly from inside Suwon Station, and okonomiyaki, yakisoba, and mentaiko gyoza (mentaiko dumplings) are the signature menu items ★ It started with the Seongsu flagship in 2023 and has since expanded to more directly-run branches — outside the capital area there are only locations in Jeonju and Busan, so most are in the metro region! I noticed they had non-alcoholic Cass Lemon while writing this, and I think it would've paired really well with the food~ Personally recommend it :-)

AK Plaza Suwon parking rates and opening hours

The parking lot is right in front of the basement floor food hall entrance, next to Starbucks. The first 30 minutes are free, then it's ₩500 per 10 minutes after that, with free parking time varying depending on how much you spend!

• ₩10,000–30,000 spent — 1 hour
• ₩30,000–50,000 spent — 2 hours
• ₩50,000–100,000 spent — 3 hours
• Address: 924 Deogyeong-daero, B1F, Paldal-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
• Hours: Daily 10:30–20:00 / last order 19:30
• Closed on the day of major holidays, same as AK Plaza's closure schedule

How to find Jojo in the food hall and place an order

Jojo, a Japanese restaurant in the AK Plaza Suwon food hall, sits right in front of you if you walk straight in from the entrance, so it's easy to find! Keep your eyes to the right as you walk and it comes right into view, haha. At the counter I could peek at the menu and even the sample dishes on display, and ordering a set saves you around ₩1,000 compared to ordering separately ★ Also worth noting — if you participate in the Naver receipt review event, you get to choose either Coca-Cola Zero or Sprite as a gift~

Bar-table seating at Jojo, and why lunchtime fills up

Jojo, the Japanese restaurant in the food hall, has a bar-table layout that wraps around the kitchen, and right next to it there's a separate table with a water dispenser where you can also eat~ It gets busy at lunchtime so seats may fill up, worth keeping in mind — and for yakisoba, you can size up for ₩3,000 and add toppings like shrimp or green onion :-)

It's a fully open kitchen, but the lower part is covered with frosted glass, so if you stand up you can actually see the whole thing and watch how the food is made! Places like this do seem to be more careful about hygiene, but honestly it's not that easy to closely watch how well they're making things, haha. The okonomiyaki set came out faster than expected and it was generous.

Okonomiyaki set at 22,000 won, 1,000 won less than ordering separately

The okonomiyaki set at Jojo, the Japanese restaurant, comes with mentaiko gyoza, and the crispiness was on point — I really enjoyed it, haha. The okonomiyaki also came out piled high on the griddle, and it looked great too~ As a single order, okonomiyaki is ₩16,000 and 5 mentaiko gyoza are ₩7,000, totaling ₩23,000, but buying the okonomiyaki set brings it down to ₩22,000 ★

Thick batter packed with vegetables, and cutting it in half to control the sauce

Basically it's made thick, and it's packed with vegetables, so I was satisfied! At first I thought the sauce was a bit much, but cutting it neatly in half makes it easy to adjust, and you can bite into shrimp and squid partway through too :-) Maybe because it had been a while since I'd had it, I enjoyed it quite a lot — I thought it might be a bit light for lunch, but it turned out to be pretty filling, haha. I thought about ordering something else, but I was full, so I passed for now~

Mentaiko gyoza at Jojo: crisp outside, soft inside, and worth adding

The mentaiko gyoza at Jojo, the Japanese restaurant, reminded me of dumplings from a dumpling shop I used to love — crispy outside with a fully packed filling, so satisfying! That brand doesn't have a branch where I live, so I can't buy it there, but I think about it sometimes, and these were similar enough that I really enjoyed them! Properly crisp outside, juicy inside, with dabs of sauce ♥

At Jojo, both okonomiyaki and yakisoba can be ordered as sets, haha. There's also a 2-person set and a daily 2-person set, worth keeping in mind :-) It's a good spot for a simple meal, but the quality is quite high for a food court, so I'd definitely go back if I'm near Suwon Station again! Personally the okonomiyaki was great, but the mentaiko gyoza — I really, really recommend it~~