Ulsan Chinese restaurant, 15-min weekend wait: jjamppong vs jjajang

Are you having a good summer vacation? I had to go to the Ilsanji area in Dong-gu, Ulsan, and while looking for a place the whole family could enjoy,

I found a spot famous for hot stone-plate jjajang and jjamppong packed with seafood!!

Ulsan Daewangam Dol Jjamppong

Parking and weekend waits at Ulsan Daewangam Dol Jjamppong

Ulsan Daewangam Dol Jjamppong (울산대왕암돌짬뽕) is in the food alley on Ilsanjin 5-gil, Dong-gu, Ulsan. When its parking lot is crowded, you can apparently park in the shopping-center lot of the building opposite!

I think this was my first time with a scorched-rice (nurungji) stone plate.

You can join the waitlist through the Tabling app. I came right around opening time, but it was the weekend, so it was really packed. I waited about 15 minutes too.

Self-serve scallion kimchi, rice and how to order

At this restaurant you scoop your own rice and scallion kimchi (pa-kimchi) from the self-serve bar. The staff explained it while setting out the basic side dishes. Lots of people praise the scallion kimchi, so we took a plate to try it too!

There's a Naver receipt review event, so have a fruit ade~! Ordering and payment are done at a kiosk,

• Nurungji stone-plate jjamppong (medium / level 1 spice) + handmade tangsuyuk set: ₩37,000
• Nurungji stone-plate jjajang (medium / level 2 spice): ₩24,000

I ordered the jjamppong and jjajang at what they describe as regular spice, about Shin Ramyun level.

Level-1 stone-plate jjamppong: how much seafood?

Here comes the signature dish, the nurungji stone-plate jjamppong, ordered at level 1, Shin Ramyun level~ It has less broth than ordinary soupy jjamppong and is closer to yakiudon, stir-fried with just a little sauce.

Flip it until the white blanket of bean sprouts wilts~ It's a bit less spicy than Shin Ramyun, so unless you have a total baby palate, you'll enjoy it!

And the seafood I spotted while turning it with the tongs!!! I heard whole squid costs ₩5,000 extra, but even without it there's quite a lot of squid!? The shrimp are big and plump too, just what I like! Each dish had about 3 to 4 of them.

The stir-fried jjamppong clings to your mouth and tongue, and it even has chewy wood ear mushrooms~ The seafood isn't tough but stir-fried plump, so it's great together with the crunchy bean sprouts and onion!

What does level-2 stone-plate jjajang taste like?

Ah! I'm normally a die-hard jjamppong person, but I changed my mind when I saw the jjajang simmering on the stone plate. That look with the quail eggs on top, what am I supposed to do..

Softly boiled noodles with a mild, sweet seafood-based jjajang. Maybe because it's level 2, Vietnamese chili adds a kick so it doesn't feel heavy. If you're bringing children, level 1 would be just right.

At this restaurant both the stone-plate jjajang and jjamppong are seafood-based rather than pork-based, so the finish is clean and not greasy. By the way, the quail eggs keep bubbling on the plate, so popping one in your mouth whole is seriously hot.

You all know the golden jjajang ramyun combo, right? Put scallion kimchi on a bite of jjajang ramyun. The scallion kimchi here is also ripened spicy and tangy, so it goes perfectly with the stone-plate jjajang!

The handmade dontang that came with the set

And the handmade dontang (pork cutlet in the tangsuyuk style) from the set! Instead of the usual smooth tangsuyuk batter, they sell handmade dontang and handmade chitang (chicken version) that remind you of pork cutlet and fried chicken?

I figured dontang would be more familiar than chitang, so I ordered it in the set. The pork had a real, tender texture. Like a Japanese katsu, the outside is super crunchy-! Dipped in sauce, it's properly crispy outside and juicy inside. The sauce is a tonkatsu sauce, not a sour one.

Fried rice on the stone plate: jjajang or jjamppong?

I brought rice from the self-serve corner and mixed it in. I deliberately left plenty of sauce behind before mixing,

Nicely moist, right? The plate still holds a little heat, and with the rice's warmth added it gets really hot. It feels less like mixed rice and more like fluffy fried rice?

So I stir-fried the jjamppong plate too, to leave no regrets~ My personal taste: as noodles the jjajang was better, and as fried rice the jjamppong was better. = Better to just say it was all good.

Facilities and dessert for guests with kids

For guests with babies, there's a machine that sterilizes children's tableware, and even a microwave just for baby food.

And for grown-up kids (?) like me, there's yogurt and barley gangjeong. What a thoughtful touch, dessert too, how lovely~

From stone-plate jjamppong to stone-plate jjajang and handmade dontang, Ulsan Daewangam Dol Jjamppong is full of tasty dishes! It's the kind of place in the Ilsanji food alley where lunch is worth a wait!