Paju ssambap restaurant with cheonggukjang and senbei: Simhaksan

What kind of place is Simhaksan Deulkkot Ssambap?

Simhaksan Deulkkot Ssambap is a well-known Korean set-course restaurant at 55-10 Dolgotji-gil, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do. It's known for generous, tasty ssambap (lettuce-wrap rice), and it's open daily from 11am to 9pm.

Like most good restaurants in Paju, parking is easy here, and at busy times staff even come out to help direct cars, which makes things pretty stress-free.

Visiting Simhaksan Deulkkot Ssambap with a 10-month-old baby

Simhaksan Deulkkot Ssambap has baby chairs set aside, so it's a great choice to visit with a baby too. We went with our 10-month-old, and honestly, I expected a ssambap place to feel a bit rough around the edges, but the interior was way bigger and cleaner than I imagined.

More than anything, so many customers were there — I have no idea how they all found out about it — that it was hard to get good photos. I wanted to capture the interior clearly, but there were way more diners than expected, so I'm a little sorry the shots didn't turn out great, haha.

This is where we sat at Simhaksan Deulkkot Ssambap, and our baby seemed comfortable in the chair, sitting quietly the whole time.

Self-serve ssam greens and senbei crackers for dessert

At Simhaksan Deulkkot Ssambap, the basic side dishes are served to you, but you grab your own wrap greens. Since everyone likes different kinds of ssam wraps, letting each person pick their own greens feels much more hygienic and tidy.

Right next to the self-serve corner, there was a stack of senbei crackers for dessert. Since this kind of ssambap restaurant tends to attract a lot of Korean-food lovers, having this kind of dessert is such a nice touch!!

Only two menus: Deul-jeongsik and Kkot-jeongsik

Simhaksan Deulkkot Ssambap keeps the menu simple. You can only order Deul-jeongsik or Kkot-jeongsik, and the rest of the extra items are basically partial add-ons of those set courses. Since we don't eat huge portions, we just ordered two Deul-jeongsik sets.

What comes in the banchan spread

Here's the basic side-dish setup. You can ask for refills at the self-serve corner, but even the first round looked like a lot already.

The owner has a generous hand! And maybe because it's a ssambap place, every single side dish was genuinely delicious.

The cheonggukjang (fermented soybean stew) in particular was a real gem. It felt like something between doenjang-jjigae and cheonggukjang, and honestly this stew might have been more delicious than the main dish itself. The sweet pumpkin porridge served as an appetizer was also great for waking up the appetite.

Deul-jeongsik for two: stir-fried pork, squid and cheonggukjang

Soon after, the Deul-jeongsik arrived. Compared to Kkot-jeongsik, Deul-jeongsik is missing only the grilled mackerel — the main dishes here are pork bulgogi and stir-fried squid.

As you'd expect, the pork bulgogi was genuinely amazing. The strong smoky char flavor made it even better. It wasn't salty or overly seasoned, so wrapped in a ssam it was absolutely the best.

The portion of pork bulgogi was much bigger than expected — big enough to fill you up eating it as a side dish alone, without rice.

The stir-fried squid was also delicious, with a bit of spice — highly recommended for people who like spicy food!! I'm pretty weak with spice, and even I thought, so this is what 'deliciously spicy' means.

Finishing with hot-pot rice and nurungji

Basically, ordering the set course gets you hot-pot rice, and maybe because it's made with good rice, the smell alone was fantastic — you could finish a whole bowl just eating it with the doenjang stew.

The nurungji (scorched rice) wasn't half-hearted either — it was crispy, and once you pour in water it bubbles right up.

It's a ssambap place so wrapping everything in greens is delicious, but even just piling meat on rice was so generous we struggled to finish it, haha. Simhaksan Deulkkot Ssambap is a well-loved restaurant near Paju Premium Outlets with a menu that works for every generation. When we visited, more than half the customers were young people too. If you're heading to the Paju outlets, definitely stop by!!