Gangnam Chinese restaurant, jjajangmyeon-jjamppong: Jjamppong Jijon

A spacious Chinese restaurant near Yeoksam Station

It’s about a five-minute walk from Exit 3 of Yeoksam Station!

Exterior on the second floor

Just a heads-up, it’s located on the second floor of the building!

An interior that works well for groups

When I stepped inside, I was happy to find that it was much more spacious than I expected, with tables set comfortably far apart. With all that room, it looked like a nice place for a family meal, as well as group dinners or company get-togethers!

At Chinese restaurants, groups often order a variety of dishes to share, and this spacious setting seemed like it would make for a really comfortable meal!

The self-service corner had all the essentials: pickled radish, zhacai (pickled mustard stem), rice, and kimchi, so you could take as much as you needed! I especially liked that rice was available for anyone who wanted it with jjajang sauce or jjamppong broth.

The menu and table setting

The basic table setting

Glutinous-rice sweet-and-sour pork and level-1 spicy jjamjjamyeon

I personally love old-school tangsuyuk (Korean sweet-and-sour pork) with a crisp coating too, but this one was the glutinous-rice style, which had its own appeal!! The coating was crisp when I took a bite, while the inside was wonderfully chewy, haha.

With the sauce, its sweet-and-tangy flavor went so nicely with that chewy texture, making it great alongside jjajangmyeon or jjamppong. A piece of tangsuyuk between bites of spicy jjamppong took the heat down a little, so I kept alternating between them, haha.

I also really liked having it with onion now and then—the crunch was a great addition, haha.

I wanted both jjamppong and jjajangmyeon, so I ordered jjamjjamyeon, haha. I chose jjamppong one spice level above the standard. The menu described it as about the heat of Shin Ramyun, but to me it tasted a little spicier than Shin Ramyun, haha. (Even better~~)

If you like spicy food, it was actually just the right level to enjoy! The broth was warming and spicy without being only about the heat, so I kept scooping up more, haha.

The jjamppong had all sorts of seafood and vegetables in it, so it was fun picking through all the toppings too, haha.

Can you add jjamppong broth to jjajangmyeon?

And the combination I enjoyed most that day was adding just a little jjamppong broth to the jjajangmyeon! I started by eating the jjajangmyeon as it was, then tried adding some broth. The sweet, rich flavor unique to jjajang sauce paired far better than I expected with jjamppong’s warming spice!

It made the jjajangmyeon a little spicy and less rich, so I kept reaching for it, haha. It was delicious on its own, but mixing in a little broth at a time made it a fun change, so I personally recommend this combination, haha. Especially if you like spicy jjajangmyeon, it’s worth trying at least once!

Self-service desserts after the meal

I also liked that the self-service corner had blue lemon ade and yuja tea for dessert. After the spicy jjamppong, the cold blue lemon ade made my mouth feel so refreshed, haha. If you like yuja tea, it would also be a nice way to finish your meal.

Being able to take care of everything from the meal to a simple dessert in one place made it an even more satisfying meal!