Myeongdong Korean restaurant open until 3am: Miss Jokbal

When I heard one jokbal platter was ₩58,000, I figured it was just Myeongdong tourist-area pricing. But once I saw what landed on the table, I started doing the math again, haha!

Getting to Miss Jokbal Seoul Myeongdong Branch from Euljiro 1-ga Station

Come out of Euljiro 1-ga Station exit 5, go around one block, then head straight and you’ll be there in no time :) It’s right in the middle of Myeongdong, and the lighting makes it stand out even more at night.

The first-floor banner has photos of all the menu items lined up. Original jokbal starts at ₩43,000, Emperor Jokbal is ₩58,000, and the version topped with octopus is ₩86,000.

There are separate set meals, too: the Miss Jokbal Set Meal is ₩12,000, the Light Bossam Set Meal is ₩11,000, and the Makguksu Bossam Set Meal is ₩13,000. It looked like a perfectly doable spot for lunch alone, too!

A spacious dining room in the middle of Myeongdong

It’s more spacious inside than I expected. By dinner time, nearly every seat was taken.

Maybe because it’s in Myeongdong, but there were quite a lot of international guests!!

You can see the dining room being busily prepared here :)

This is the feel of the dining room. Brick walls and yellow lighting—it looks made for drinks at night, doesn’t it?

There’s a sign on the wall saying they close at 3 AM. They’re open until 3 AM, with last orders at 2 AM. It also says jokbal can be vacuum-packed for takeout~~

Browsing the menu on a tablet

You order from the tablet at the table. The photos come up large, so it was easy to choose.

Complimentary kimchi kalguksu

This arrives before the jokbal. We didn’t order it separately—it comes as part of the meal 👍 They bring a pot full of kimchi broth and turn on the burner.

The noodles arrive separately on a plate. They’re kalguksu (knife-cut noodles), and they were thick, almost like they’d been hand-torn.

You know Omori Kimchi Jjigae ramen? The broth tastes exactly like that 💛 It’s punchy and fairly spicy, but it went really well with the jokbal, too!

An Emperor Jokbal platter surrounded by side dishes

And then the Emperor Jokbal appeared! A whole jokbal sits in the middle of a round platter, with side dishes filling the entire rim. At most jokbal places, the sides stop at ssamjang and bean sprouts, but every compartment here had something different in it!!

Kimchi, sweet radish kimchi, three bites of gimbap (seaweed rice roll), shrimp salad, cheongpomuk (mung bean jelly), japchae (stir-fried glass noodles), stir-fried kimchi with tofu, and pickled garlic—it was like a whole collection of Korean food on one platter 🤍

The jokbal comes thinly sliced, skin and all. See that cross-section? The skin is delightfully chewy, but the meat inside was so tender it practically slid down without chewing.

There are three sauces: salted shrimp, ssamjang, and a seasoned sauce. The seasoned sauce was the one that suited me best 🤤

Put a slice of jokbal on lettuce and top it with radish kimchi, and that’s it. The radish kimchi is sweet, so there’s no chance for it to feel too rich, haha.

Wrapping it in perilla leaf gives it a different flavor again. One thing, though: there’s no parking, so leave the car behind, and outside alcohol isn’t allowed either. If ₩58,000 for two feels like a lot, there’s also the ₩43,000 Original Jokbal. Still, seeing this whole platter again, I could understand why they call it Emperor... Next time, I’m ordering the one with octopus on top!!

Final thoughts

Recommended for anyone looking for a generous jokbal spread with lots of side dishes in Myeongdong late into the night.