Daejeon restaurant for a stir-fried octopus family dinner: Boksakkot

Back to Sutonggol for stir-fried octopus with my mom

I took my mom back to Boksakkot Pineun Jip Daejeon Branch (복사꽃피는집 대전점), a favorite restaurant in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon that I've been going to since I was little! It's still a restaurant my mom loves ^^

Our family went back and forth between jjukkumi (webfoot octopus) and nakji (octopus), and went with the octopus! Heh

We ordered the nakji-bokkeum (spicy stir-fried octopus) for 2, and honestly, first the portion surprised me, then the lineup surprised me all over again… It's not just stir-fried octopus on its own — pizza, muksabal (chilled acorn jelly in cold broth), salad, and even coffee after the meal all come out one after another, so it almost feels like a course meal.

Bouncy stir-fried octopus at spice level 1

The main dish, the stir-fried octopus, really has solid fundamentals. The octopus isn't tough at all — it's bouncy and springy, so the chew is wonderful, and the sauce isn't overly harsh either; it's spicy-sweet with a big burst of savory depth.

It's delicious on its own, but mix it into rice and it's a total "rice thief"… 🥹 The sauce soaks right into the rice and you just keep reaching for more. The heat is moderate too, so I think people who can't handle spicy food well could still eat it without much trouble.

If you like it spicy, the heat is adjustable, so it might be worth going all the way up to level 3. Our family ordered level 1, and even level 1 was nicely tasty.

Mixing rice in with the octopus was truly delicious. Sutonggol itself has lovely nature and clean air, so it's a great place to visit as a drive, and with the restaurant being this satisfying too, it's perfect to do as a little course outing.

The overall atmosphere is neat and orderly, so I felt comfortable the whole meal, and even though it was busy it never felt hectic, which I liked even more.

The moment my parents walked in they said, "This place is nice," and I felt weirdly proud haha

The lineup that keeps coming: pizza, muksabal and salad

Now that I've introduced the main dish, the stir-fried octopus, let me introduce the other dishes too! I kept reaching for them throughout the meal. This is truly something you have to eat alongside. The salad quality was exceptionally good too!

And the point I personally loved most was the muksabal. When a bit of heat builds up while eating the stir-fried octopus, one spoonful of cool muksabal feels like it resets your whole mouth, so the combination is truly perfect. The broth is clean and refreshing — that kind of flavor.

There were also vegetables to mix in with the octopus, so we got to eat an even fuller, more generous jjukkumi-and-octopus meal.

The atmosphere was nice too, and the tables are spaced widely apart, so it's the kind of place where you can eat without worrying about the people next to you ^^

I thought it would just feel like a side, but the dough was chewy and the cheese generous, so the quality was quite a bit better than expected. Alternating between it and the stir-fried octopus kept resetting the flavors, so I could keep eating to the end without getting tired of it.

The salad was fresh too, good for cleansing the palate in between, and overall it felt like the menu lineup was really well put together.

The atmosphere was nice too, and the tables are spaced widely apart, so it's the kind of place where you can eat without worrying about the people next to you ^^

Generous for a 2-person order, plus coffee after

The self-serve bar has lots of banchan (side dishes) too, so you can stuff yourself even more, lol. The portions are truly generous — even though it's sized for 2, there was no sense of it being short at all.

If anything, it was so hearty I thought, "Couldn't 4 people eat this?" So being able to eat until full without any extra orders was a big plus.

Coffee comes right at the end to finish things off, so instead of just eating and leaving, it felt like properly enjoying a full meal, which made it even more satisfying.

My family was all happy and said let's come again next time, which put me in a weirdly good mood. When you get a reaction like that, you know you really found a good one haha

Take your to-go coffee over to the space next door and you can enjoy it in a café-like atmosphere like this. It's something only Boksakkot Pineun Jip has!

A family dinner after a Sutonggol outing

To sum up, Boksakkot Pineun Jip Sutonggol is a place where taste, portions, lineup and atmosphere are all well balanced. It isn't a place that only does stir-fried octopus well — the dishes that come with it are good quality too, so the overall satisfaction feels much higher.

It's great for a family dinner or a get-together, and I'd totally recommend it as part of a Sutonggol outing. It's truly been a long time since I thought "this was worth every won," so I'm absolutely planning to come back 💛 Next time I'm going to try some of the other dishes too!