Free cream pasta at a Magok octopus restaurant in Seoul: Jju Baksa

A day to fall for the charm of spicy-sweet, addictive, chewy 🐙 webfoot octopus!

On a tired, appetite-less day, nothing beats spicy-sweet, springy webfoot octopus that you just can't stop thinking about!

Isn't the weather lately just wild? Right when the wind starts to feel cool, I headed to a Magok hotspot — Jju Baksa Magok Branch!

Jju Baksa Magok Branch: address, parking and hours

Jju Baksa Magok Branch is at 1F, Unit 130, Daebang DMC 2 Officetel, 23 Magokdong-ro 10-gil, Gangseo-gu, Seoul. Hours are 11:00-01:00, and you get 2.5 hours of free parking at Daebang DMC 2's basement levels 1 to 6.

• 📍 Location: 1F, Unit 130, Daebang DMC 2 Officetel, 23 Magokdong-ro 10-gil, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, Jju Baksa Magok Branch
• ⏰ Hours: 11:00-01:00
• 🅿️ Parking: 2.5 hours free (available at Daebang DMC 2, B1-B6) *Daebang DMC 1 parking not supported!*
• ✨ Event: Various review events

Patio seats that fill up in 15 minutes: when to arrive

🍻 The best patio-dining restaurant in Magok, with a nice breeze blowing through.

We went just before the dinner peak time, and luckily we were the first customers.

But no lie, within 15 minutes of sitting down, every single table was full — I was genuinely shocked.

If we'd been even a little later, we definitely would've had to wait. (Note) — Places with a waiting line always have a reason. You can just tell.

Jju Baksa Magok Branch has a structure where the whole front of the restaurant opens up, plus an outdoor terrace, so you really get that patio-dining feeling. Eating hot-plate food while a cool breeze blows in — man, having a cold 🍺 beer in this kind of weather might just be one of the perks of being an adult!

Jju-sam for three in mild spice: how hot is it?

Today's main was Jju Baksa Magok Branch's jju-sam for three (mild spice). I picked mild so even people who can't handle spicy food could enjoy it comfortably — and it wasn't a stomach-burning spicy, but a mouthwatering, well-seasoned kind of heat.

Today's main dish, just looking at it stimulates the salivary glands like crazy — jju-sam for three (mild spice)! (Honestly, even 'mild' might be spicy for total spice wimps, just a heads up ㅠㅠ)

Pork belly lining the edge of the hot plate like flower petals, plump octopus in the center, chewy rice cake sticks — it already scores full marks just on looks. 💯💯💯 Once the plate heats up sizzling, the staff member expertly cooks it for you, which is so relaxing and somehow makes it taste even better.

The moment you bite into the octopus, there's a 'pop!' of springy texture and the sauce bursts right in your mouth.

Then they drop crunchy bean sprouts into the center of the plate and stir-fry them in — the sauce-soaked sprouts, the savory pork belly fat, and the chewy octopus come together like they formed a perfect team.

🥬 The savory ssam combo to build at Jju Baksa

Try this: place tangy, crunchy pickled radish on a fragrant perilla leaf, dip the octopus and pork belly deep into the special mayo sauce, and stack it into one wrap. The savoriness of the mayo sauce and the spiciness of the octopus swirl together in your mouth. And don't forget to cleanse your palate now and then with the sweet, savory corn cheese on the hot plate — smart move! (Like a true connoisseur, ha)

Which free side dish to pick? Why the cream pasta wins

🍝 The killer feature unique to Jju Baksa Magok Branch! When you order octopus, you get to choose one free side dish from options like egg custard, cream pasta, or fried rice. Our top pick was the cream pasta!

Since it's technically a freebie, I didn't expect much — but seeing the actual dish, I was genuinely shocked.

When you lift the noodles with chopsticks, the thick, rich cream sauce clings to the strands, coming up heavy and dense. They make it using the leftover spicy sauce from the octopus, so it transforms into a perfect rose-pasta style.

I genuinely wanted to praise myself for choosing the pasta!

Finishing with flying fish roe fried rice and crispy scorched rice

🍚 Eating hot-plate food without finishing with fried rice just isn't the Korean way! So we added flying fish roe fried rice to wrap things up.

It comes with sour kimchi, sliced perilla leaves, savory seaweed flakes, and a generous mound of flying fish roe on top, and the friendly, professional staff member stir-fries it right on the hot plate with impressive skill.

The rice, stir-fried in the leftover octopus sauce base, gets pressed firmly onto the plate to form scorched rice — and with every bite the flying fish roe pops! pop! releasing a savory, clean, salty flavor... 😋 Oh no, my stomach capacity is about to become legendary 🤣

Enjoying that cool patio-dining feeling with the breeze blowing through, chewy jju-sam that gets springier the more you chew, a cold beer, and topping it off with a high-quality free cream pasta and flying fish roe fried rice! A perfectly composed meal that gave me total culinary healing — Jju Baksa Magok Branch, near Yangcheon Hyanggyo Station, for anyone looking for the best octopus restaurant in Magok, right this way ✨