Jeju tteokbokki restaurant in Daejeong-eup with abalone tempura

A Daejeong-eup favorite for tempura and instant tteokbokki: Choneseo

Where to eat instant tteokbokki in Daejeong-eup, Jeju

I was looking for something to eat in Daejeong-eup and found a place serving instant tteokbokki, which isn't easy to find on Jeju. Let me introduce Choneseo (촌에서), an instant tteokbokki and tempura specialty restaurant in Daejeong-eup, Jeju.

There aren't many places on Jeju selling instant tteokbokki, so I was already glad to find one, and even though it was just a single serving, it came with so many toppings that the portion was pretty generous. Add the abalone premium tempura set on top and the two of us left completely full.

Choneseo location, hours and parking

• Address: 209 Boseonggueok-ro, Daejeong-eup, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do, South Korea
• Hours: 11:00 – 20:00
• Closed: Every Sunday
• Parking: In front of the restaurant

What is the dining room at Choneseo like?

Walking into Choneseo, the space was clean and decorated with cute little details, making it comfortable to sit and eat.

There was even a separate spoon rest set out at the table. That's the first time I've seen a spoon rest at a casual noodle-and-snack place, and I liked that they thought of such a small detail.

What we ordered that day was one serving of tteokbokki and the abalone premium tempura set.

What comes in one serving of Choneseo's instant tteokbokki, and how does it taste?

The basic side dishes were pickled radish and house-made cucumber pickles. Eating the tteokbokki and tempura in turns and then having a tangy cucumber pickle refreshed my mouth, so the tempura never felt greasy even by the end.

Choneseo's instant tteokbokki comes with ramyeon noodles, jjolmyeon noodles, boiled egg, fried gimmari (seaweed rolls), fried tofu, and even japchae fish cake.

The rice cakes were chewy the more you chewed, and there was plenty of cabbage too, adding a crisp bite and a touch of sweetness. Even though it was just one serving, there was so much to pick through that it turned out much more filling than I expected.

Simmering it bubbling away right at the table is part of the fun of instant tteokbokki, isn't it.

Once it starts boiling, the spicy-sweet tteokbokki sauce gradually soaks into the ramyeon and jjolmyeon noodles, and as the cabbage cooks down it adds even more sweetness to the broth.

I'd eat a rice cake, then fish out some ramyeon noodles and fish cake, then dip the boiled egg in the sauce too — before I knew it I was constantly stirring through the same pot. It was that familiar spicy-sweet instant tteokbokki flavor, so I enjoyed it without any complaints.

What makes Choneseo's abalone premium tempura set different?

What really stuck with me that day was Choneseo's abalone premium tempura set. The batter wasn't thick — it was thin and crisp, while every ingredient inside was substantial. They gave us sauce too, but I barely dipped anything into it. The tempura itself was tasty enough that I just ate it plain.

At Choneseo, apparently the squid, shrimp and vegetable tempura aren't all fried together in one batch — each ingredient is prepped and fried for a different amount of time suited to it.

Squid tempura

The squid tempura had substantial squid that wasn't chewy or tough, but soft. The batter was crisp and the squid inside was thick, so every bite really felt like the ingredient was properly there.

Abalone tempura

This is the one I really want you to try — the abalone tempura. Eating Jeju abalone as tempura rather than raw or grilled was already unusual, and after tasting it I thought, 'has abalone always been this tender?' There was no toughness or firmness at all, just a soft bite with a crisp exterior. This was genuinely one of the best things I ate all day.

Shrimp tempura

The shrimp were substantial in size from the start. The outside was crisp, but the shrimp meat inside was moist and tender, so you really felt the texture of the shrimp itself more than the batter.

Verdict: what to order at Choneseo

We ate the tteokbokki heartily and it was generous, but the abalone tempura was still the most memorable thing that day. The texture was so good it made me wonder if abalone had always been this tender, and it paired beautifully with the thin, crisp batter.

If you want to eat instant tteokbokki and properly fried tempura together in Jeju, give Choneseo, a Daejeong-eup favorite, a try. And definitely order the abalone premium tempura set alongside it.