Near Sangsu Station: couple's night out at Dambaek Jujeom

My husband and I went to Sangsu on a Friday night. There are so many places to eat that we spent a while deciding where to grab a drink, and ended up finding a bossam (steamed pork wrap) spot ❤️ Let me introduce it!

Dambaek Jujeom's hours and location

• Mon–Fri 11:00–23:00 (break time 15:00–17:00, last order 22:00)
• Sat 15:00–23:00 (last order 22:00)
• Closed every Sunday
• 99-11 Yanghwa-ro 6-gil, 1st floor, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea

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True to its name (Dambaek means "light and clean"), the place serves healthy, Korean-food-based dishes that aren't too heavy, so it's great for days when you want a proper meal alongside your drinks. And the company motto is "sincerity, honesty, humility" hahaha!

A quiet interior good for conversation

I had no idea the inside would feel like this from the ground-floor entrance — once you step in, it's completely cozy and quiet, a great atmosphere for a drink. Thanks to the warm lighting and cozy interior, it really felt like a comfortable place to sip a drink and talk haha. It's less a rowdy bar and more a dining-and-drinking spot where you chat quietly, so it'd suit a date or a couple's night out really well!

The menu, lunch discount, and bossam set

Here's Dambaek Jujeom's menu. At lunch you can get pork belly and pork jowl bossam at discounted prices, so it'd be great for office workers nearby haha. Order the bossam and you get vegetables and kalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup) thrown in — such a great deal, right? Hahaha. For sides there's also chive pancake, stir-fried octopus, and pork belly tofu kimchi to go with your drinks. On the day we went, they'd run out of pork belly bossam so, a little disappointed, we ordered two servings of pork jowl bossam instead haha.

Salted shrimp, dried radish strips, ssamjang (dipping sauce), garlic, and chili all came out neatly arranged

I liked that there were several kinds of wrapping greens too — perilla leaves, young cabbage, and lettuce — so you can wrap it however you like

Pork jowl bossam kept warm on a personal burner

The softly boiled pork jowl bossam arrived! Each table gets its own personal burner to keep the pork on, so it was nice being able to eat it warm down to the last piece.

You can probably tell from the photo how tender and moist the pork jowl is

The fat-to-lean ratio was just right, so it was moist and so delicious ㅠㅠㅠ Lately I've been trying to eat more healthy, light Korean food instead of fried stuff, and this was proper healthy protein haha. Nom nom.

Even eaten plain with just a piece of dried radish on top, it's genuinely delicious

The side dish: perilla oil tofu

This is the perilla oil tofu we ordered as a side. The outside was grilled to a golden brown while the inside stayed soft, with a subtle savory perilla oil aroma, and it paired with the pork jowl bossam so well that our chopsticks kept going back for more without feeling greasy.

It's rare to find a place that puts this much care into even a simple tofu dish. Eating it, I genuinely felt healthier — it was such a good feeling.

An extra serving of pork, then finishing with kalguksu

We ordered one more serving of pork jowl bossam hahaha. The tender, moist meat was so good ㅠㅠ The extra pork jowl was just as soft and moist as what came first, so the quality didn't drop even with the added portion.

Once you finish the bossam, if you tell the owner, they'll make kalguksu using the leftover vegetables that came with the meal.

The kalguksu broth was a work of art. We were already so full from the extra serving of meat, but somehow the kalguksu still went in hahaha.

Loaded with vegetables, this dish was completely healthy too haha. If you want to have a drink with healthy Korean food in a quiet, warm atmosphere, I really recommend this place!! Definitely try the pork jowl bossam and perilla oil tofu combo. If you're looking for a Friday-night date spot or a low-key place for drinks, I'd say give it a try at least once.