Bongeunsa Temple Korean restaurant, octopus set for three: Obongjip

Obongjip Samseong Branch: a Korean restaurant to eat at before Bongeunsa Temple

Obongjip Samseong Branch is a Korean restaurant on the COEX south-gate dining street, close to both Samseong Station and Samseong Jungang Station. Everyone seems to be visiting Bongeunsa temple these days! I went there myself over the weekend. While looking for a good restaurant near Bongeunsa, I came across reviews of Obongjip Samseong Branch and it looked like a solid, filling meal. The location was also handy as a Samseong Station and COEX restaurant.

• Hours 11:00–22:00 (weekends open at 11:30)
• Break time 15:00–16:00
• No parking support

How big is Obongjip Samseong, and is there a private room?

There's a restroom inside too. The restaurant was spacious and clean, with room for up to 75 people, apparently. It looked well suited to gatherings or work dinners.

There's also a room that fits up to 15 people, good for smaller get-togethers or company dinners.

What comes in the 62,000 won nakji obong special

What we ordered at Obongjip Samseong Branch was the nakji obong special for ₩62,000, which comes with octopus stir-fry for two, small bossam, and jaengban makguksu together. Looking at the menu, there's also a reasonably priced lunch special option. In pricey Samseong-dong, deals like that are a welcome sight for office workers, right? Worth trying as a weekday lunch special.

The basic table setting came out quickly on a silver tray. Apparently 'obong' refers to this silver tray. It'd been a while since I had ssoya (sausage stir-fry), and the sweet braised burdock root was tasty too.

Obongjip's self-serve seaweed soup and free rice refills at lunch

There's a self-serve bar — you take as much seaweed soup and banchan (side dishes) as you like. The soup was so good I went back for seconds, haha. At lunch, rice refills were unlimited. That's not offered at dinner.

The table filled up completely. The portions looked bigger than expected — I wondered if we could finish it all. With the sausage vegetable stir-fry, white kimchi, radish namul, braised burdock, and radish salad, it almost felt like a proper Korean set meal. There were three of us eating, and I'll say upfront: we ate until we were completely full.

How the fire-grilled octopus stir-fry tastes at the base spice level

The octopus stir-fry, one of Obongjip's popular dishes, was something I was trying for the first time, and I could tell why it's popular. You can choose your spice level, and I went with regular (mild / regular / spicy / extra hot were the options).

The octopus was plumper than I expected, which got the meal off to a good start.

Even cut into fairly large pieces, the octopus stayed plump, and mixing it into rice you could really feel its bouncy texture. The sauce wasn't spicy, and being fire-grilled gave it that smoky char flavor — mixed with rice, bean sprouts, and sesame oil, it was a total rice thief.

Since the octopus stir-fry has a red sauce, I thought the bossam kimchi might get left behind, but it wasn't too salty, so we finished that off completely too.

Bossam and jaengban makguksu in the Obongjip set

If you're eating the obong special for dinner, the bossam practically calls for a drink. Makguksu (buckwheat noodles), bossam's classic sidekick, came out too.

The jaengban makguksu was mixed up neatly by staff wearing gloves, and it looked great with vegetables and egg strips on top. Tangy and sweet, it went down fast. We ate so well that we were still full by the time we finished touring Bongeunsa and got home, haha.

Piling kimchi, garlic, and chili on the bossam and eating it with rice was a great combination too.

What to grab on your way out of Obongjip

On the way out, I noticed floss and hair ties were laid out there too! There was even chilled plum juice available as a cool dessert drink. Join the receipt review event and try the crispy chili tempura too!

Is Obongjip Samseong worth it for three people?

Close to COEX, Samseong Station, and Samseong Jungang Station, this is workable as a lunch spot for nearby office workers, and with its spacious layout, it also handles group dinners. Especially now that so many people are visiting Bongeunsa, I'd recommend Obongjip as a good restaurant near Bongeunsa. Eat well, then go sightseeing — that's the move!