Half-and-half grill pan jjukkumi buffet in Gwangju: Sin Jjukkumi

Today we went to Sin Jjukkumi Unlimited Refill Duam Branch, which has been getting hot lately as an all-you-can-eat buffet in Duam-dong, Buk-gu. My husband and I both love pork belly, but we're also into jjukkumi (spicy stir-fried octopus), so we used to go to the original Sin Jjukkumi branch often — finding out they now do unlimited refills means this is a place we should honestly visit every month.

Where is Sin Jjukkumi Duam Branch, and what are the hours?

Sin Jjukkumi Unlimited Refill Duam Branch is at 4 Bamsil-ro 181beon-gil, Buk-gu, Gwangju, South Korea, 1st floor. Hours are Tue–Sun 16:00–23:00, closed every Monday.

Storefront and parking at Sin Jjukkumi Duam Branch

Sin Jjukkumi Unlimited Refill Duam Branch sits in Duam-dong. There's no dedicated lot, but there's surprisingly plenty of alley parking nearby, so we had no trouble.

Inside the restaurant: does it work for family meals or work dinners?

The interior of Sin Jjukkumi Unlimited Refill Duam Branch is on the spacious side, with plenty of seating and tables set close together, which made it look well suited for family gatherings or work dinners — I'd recommend it for that. We visited on a weekday and actually saw a family gathering happening there too, and we were happy with how roomy the seating was.

Menu board and pricing tiers at Sin Jjukkumi

You can go for the jjukkumi-only unlimited refill, or the option with jjukkumi plus raw pork belly and thin-sliced pork belly. Pricing is broken down into adults/middle-high schoolers, elementary schoolers, ages 6–7, and ages 5 and under, which makes it convenient. We picked the tier that let us eat the raw pork belly too!

The table looked much roomier than a typical one, and it really was — we could eat comfortably the whole time without feeling cramped. After being seated, the owner explained how to use the self-serve bar, and they were very kind, which made the whole meal more relaxed. Everything except the tongs and water is self-serve, so you only take what you actually want!

The lineup was well balanced — thin-sliced pork belly that cooks fast and is easy to eat, raw pork belly, and spicy Sin Jjukkumi — so even my husband, who can't handle spicy food, was satisfied with the range.

Thinly sliced raw pork belly, spicy-seasoned Sin Jjukkumi, and thin-sliced pork belly are all kept well stocked, so you can help yourself to as much as you like.

What's on the self-serve bar?

The self-serve bar at Sin Jjukkumi Duam Branch has everything from wrap greens to bean sprouts, sliced green onion, garlic, ssamjang (dipping sauce), and pickled radish for wraps — take whatever suits your taste. Everything was pretty fresh overall.

The half-and-half grill pan, and its one drawback

Interestingly, the grill pan is split in half like a hot pot, so you can grill the meat and the jjukkumi separately at the same time — but there's no separate temperature control, which made things a bit awkward, unfortunately.

Also, Sin Jjukkumi, raw pork belly, and thin-sliced pork belly each get their own plate, so keep that in mind. The owner explained this in detail when going over how everything works. My husband brought back a plateful of my beloved jjukkumi haha — I wanted to keep going back for more, but the raw pork belly was so good I only got jjukkumi that once and was satisfied.

As you can see in the photo, the raw pork belly had great texture and was sliced thin, so it cooked fast and we didn't have to wait long — that made us happy.

Grilling jjukkumi and raw pork belly together: the order that works

Half pork belly, half jjukkumi, like a half-and-half hot pot — this combo is insane, I want to eat it every day haha.

The jjukkumi cooks a little slower, so you can snack on the pork belly, which cooks first, while you wait — I think that's the perfect route for someone who can't stand being hungry.

It takes a bit for the pan to heat up, but once it does, everything cooks nicely from then on — we ended up going all in on the unlimited pork belly, so we didn't manage to eat that much jjukkumi in the end.

Making a blanket of pork belly and taking a bite with rice, sliced green onion, and garlic gave me my favorite combination in the world — a happy day.

The unwritten rule at Sin Jjukkumi is to make flying fish roe fried rice with the leftover sauce after finishing all the jjukkumi, but we were so hungry that a rice-bowl mix-up meant we never got to have the fried rice. So disappointing.

That day I wanted regular raw pork belly more than the thin-sliced kind, so I kept bringing it over unlimited — it got better the more we ate, and we nearly cleaned out the restaurant's whole pork belly supply.

The best ssam (lettuce wrap) combination to try

Well-cooked jjukkumi tastes great in a wrap on its own, but it's even better with pickled radish — we ate a lot of it that way. It's also very good in a perilla leaf wrap, so I recommend that combo too.

Finally, wrapping the pork belly generously in a perilla leaf and adding cheongyang chili peppers makes a seriously delicious wrap.

My food-savvy husband loaded up a big scoop of corn salad with extra mayonnaise — it's a dish we both love, so we finished it completely.

Last but not least, the self-serve drinks and alcohol. It was a satisfying jjukkumi date night with my husband after a long while, and I'd recommend this place.