Friday dinner for two: flying fish roe fried rice at Songjjujip Magok

On a Friday evening after work, I met up with a friend I hadn't seen in a while near Magoknaru Station, and we found ourselves craving jjukkumi (webfoot octopus). A quick search for "Magoknaru jjukkumi restaurant" turned up tons of glowing reviews, which is how we ended up at Songjjujip, a jjukkumi specialty restaurant in the area.

I could immediately see why it had so many recommendations — the flavor, the friendly service, and the flying fish roe fried rice at the end, which felt like the whole meal had been building toward it. Here's my review of a very satisfying visit to Songjjujip Magok.

Songjjujip Magok store info

• Address | 158 Magokseo-ro, Central Tower 2, 2nd floor, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Hours | Daily 11:00–23:00 (last order 22:00)
• Free parking available for 2 hours
• Reservations available via Naver
• Takeout available | double portion service!

Getting there from Magoknaru Station and the exterior

Songjjujip Magok is about a 260m walk from Exit 1 of Magoknaru Station on Line 9, located on the 2nd floor of the Central Tower 2 building.

Right as you walk in through the front entrance of Central Tower 2, there's an escalator up to the 2nd floor, and the restaurant is right there facing you — a very convenient layout.

Interior, seating, and group tables?

So why "Songjjujip"? Turns out it's short for "the jjukkumi place in Songdo-dong"!

The restaurant was very spacious, with 16 four-person tables. The seats with backrests can be pushed together for group use — in fact, when I visited, a large group was using the whole backrest-chair section.

By the time we finished eating and left, it had emptied out, but when we arrived right after work on a Friday evening, there were hardly any empty tables left, even though the restaurant is on the 2nd floor. (Maybe this is a hidden gem near Magoknaru that only I didn't know about...)

Menu and what we ordered

There were quite a lot of menu items, so here's a 2x-speed video of the menu board!

For jjukkumi, the first order has to match the number of people, and the menu said the spice level was about like Shin Ramyun. Since that felt manageable, we didn't add the snow cheese topping.

• Jjukkumi + noodle add-ins ₩18,800 x 2 servings
• Steamed egg ₩3,000
• Flying fish roe fried rice ₩3,500
• Beer ₩5,000 x 2 bottles
• Total ₩54,100

Here's everything we ordered, all together~~

Side dishes and refills

The side dishes (banchan) included blanched bean sprouts, perilla leaves, mayonnaise, flying fish roe, chives, seaweed, white kimchi, and a cabbage-chicory salad. If you run low, you can ask for refills on any of them except the flying fish roe (extra flying fish roe costs ₩2,500).

Jjukkumi with pork belly for two — the staff stir-fry it all for you

Jjukkumi + noodle add-ins, ₩18,800 x 2 servings. This is stir-fried octopus with pork belly, cabbage, water dropwort, rice cakes, and cheese rice cakes all thrown in.

The staff member adjusted the heat and told us she'd come back to stir it herself, so we just sat there watching the jjukkumi and pork belly cook, haha.

We were just chatting away and she came back and stir-fried it all for us — the finished dish! It was cooked just right, so we turned the heat off completely. Jjukkumi needs to be only lightly cooked to stay tender and moist, so overcooking is a no-go. The vegetables were also just barely wilted, still crunchy — exactly right.

How to eat it, and the spice level

At first, she showed us the 'right way to eat it,' placing perilla leaf, seaweed, bean sprouts, and chives one by one on the little side plate. We wrapped the well-cooked jjukkumi with flying fish roe and mayo in the perilla leaf she'd prepared — the moist jjukkumi and sauce together were incredibly good.

Wrapping it in just seaweed lets you taste the sauce more intensely. It was supposed to be about as spicy as Shin Ramyun, but honestly it wasn't spicy at all — more on the mild side!

Steamed egg (gyeranjjim), ₩3,000

The steamed egg came bubbling over the top of its stone pot. You could tell just from the surface how soft and fluffy it was.

As I gently scraped the sides of the stone pot with a spoon so the part touching the pot wouldn't burn, I could watch it puff up appetizingly. I'd ordered the steamed egg expecting the jjukkumi to be quite spicy, to help neutralize the heat — but since the jjukkumi wasn't spicy at all, the steamed egg was still a perfect side, savory and soft.

Flying fish roe fried rice, ₩3,500 — the real main event

We were already stuffed, but since so many reviews raved about the fried rice, we ordered one portion of flying fish roe fried rice anyway. The staff scooped out some of the leftover jjukkumi sauce, snipped the octopus, pork belly, and vegetables into small pieces with scissors, and stir-fried it all with rice. With seaweed flakes, chicory, and perilla leaf mixed in, it hit both on color and flavor!

After stir-frying the rice beautifully, she finished it by scattering flying fish roe evenly over the top. She really does everything for you — guests at Songjjujip basically just get to watch and eat, haha.

Living up to all those reviews calling this a fried-rice destination, it really was outstanding. The sauce was sweet and savory, and the flying fish roe popped as I chewed, adding both texture and umami — good enough that I regretted eating so much jjukkumi and pork belly beforehand.

Final verdict

If you're craving jjukkumi near Magoknaru Station, I'd recommend Songjjujip Magok. Given the office-worker-heavy area around Magok, they also offer a well-put-together, good-value lunch special at lunchtime, which makes it a great spot for a Magok lunch too.

The signature dish, jjukkumi with pork belly, isn't overly spicy, so you can enjoy it without worry, and since the staff stir-fry everything from start to finish, you get to just focus on conversation and relax through the meal. Wrapping the octopus and pork belly in perilla leaf or seaweed was great, but above all, the flying fish roe fried rice — with its popping texture and perilla aroma — wasn't optional. It was essential.

From the taste to the service to the value, everything was satisfying, so I think I'll be coming back whenever a jjukkumi craving hits.