Jonggak jokbal spot with codillo-style fried skin: Yeonnam Jokbal 1987

Yeonnam Jokbal 1987 Jonggak Branch: break time ends at 4 PM

Yeonnam Jokbal 1987 Jonggak Branch (연남족발1987 종각점) is a jokbal restaurant in the Jonggak Station food alley, and its weekday break time ends at 4 PM, not 5 PM. I went to the Yeonnam-dong branch many times because it was so good, so I was thrilled to find one in Jonggak! The taste is a given, and the location is great!

Restaurants usually have a long break time, which makes picking a place tricky, but since this one ends at 4 PM, I'd absolutely come back!

Yeonnam Jokbal 1987 Jonggak Branch location and opening hours

• Address: 26 Samil-daero 15-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea (1st floor, in the Jonggak Station food alley)
• Reservations available via Naver
• Restroom inside
• Weekdays (Mon-Fri) 11:00-22:00, break time 14:00-16:00
• Weekends (Sat-Sun) 14:00-22:00, no break time on weekends

It's very close to Jonggak Station, but Line 2 is easier for me, so I walked from Euljiro 1-ga Station. Strolling along Cheonggyecheon stream, getting ready for a relaxed jokbal meal~

What's the atmosphere like at Yeonnam Jokbal 1987 Jonggak Branch?

The restaurant is spacious and clean, more like a Western-style restaurant than a jokbal place. I visited at 4 PM on a weekday and we were the first customers, so I could photograph the whole interior, haha. It's big enough that it'd also work well for company dinners or group gatherings.

These days there are waits everywhere, and my time is gold, so I prefer restaurants that take reservations. (The taste has to be guaranteed, of course!)

On my earlier Yeonnam-dong visits I only tried the basic jokbal and the spicy jokbal, so this time I decided to take on the fried jokbal set, the signature menu of Yeonnam Jokbal 1987. "Delicious jokbal is delicious fried, too." Fried jokbal was new to me, and when I saw that line, hahahahaha, I had no choice but to order it.

Yeonnam Jokbal 1987 Jonggak Branch menu and prices

The fried jokbal set at Yeonnam Jokbal 1987 Jonggak Branch is ₩49,000, and the basic Yeonnam jokbal set is ₩42,000. There's also a half-and-half set, sides like makguksu, and lunch-only bibimbap.

• Fried jokbal set ₩49,000: chewy jokbal fried crispy, a unique treat, crispy outside and tender inside
• Yeonnam jokbal set ₩42,000: domestic fresh trotters boiled in-house with herbal medicine ingredients and secret ingredients, with side dishes
• Yeonnam spicy jokbal set ₩45,000: jokbal flavored with a spicy special sauce
• Garlic jokbal set ₩47,000: jokbal coated generously in a special garlic sauce
• Cold platter jokbal set ₩47,000: cold jokbal with a sweet-and-sour special mustard sauce
• Yeonnam bossam (boiled pork wraps) set ₩42,000: bossam boiled tender with a secret sauce, with side dishes
• Half-and-half jokbal set A ₩58,000: jokbal + spicy jokbal
• Half-and-half jokbal set B ₩58,000: jokbal + bossam
• Sprout bibim/mul makguksu (buckwheat noodles, spicy-mixed or in cold broth) ₩9,000
• Yeosu cockles & bibim somyeon (thin wheat noodles) ₩18,000
• Raw oysters & salted fresh kimchi ₩15,000 (winter only)
• Eorigul-jeot (salted oysters) & pickled white kimchi ₩15,000
• Flying fish roe rice ball ₩5,000
• Lunch only (11:00-14:00) Yeosu cockle bibimbap ₩14,000
• Lunch only (11:00-14:00) Korean beef yukhoe (raw beef) bibimbap ₩14,000

You can order easily at the kiosk, and probably because of the makguksu, they have wooden chopsticks. Plenty of wet wipes too, which was nice. It's a jokbal place, but with lunch specials like yukhoe bibimbap and cockle bibimbap, I'd guess it's packed with office workers at lunchtime. The side dishes were all so good that I'm now curious about the lunch menu!

Is the fried jokbal set too much for two people?

The fried jokbal set at Yeonnam Jokbal 1987 Jonggak Branch is a very large amount for two women. We ordered the fried jokbal set + makguksu, and it's 3-4 servings! Keep that in mind! So in the end we took the leftover jokbal to go.

Side dishes: garlic sauce, dried radish and seasoned chives

The fried jokbal set comes with a variety of side dishes. This garlic sauce in particular is sweet, sour and delicious, and I think I ate the dried radish strips and chive salad the most! There are so many sides to eat alongside that picking and choosing is fun, and fried jokbal could easily be greasy, but it wasn't greasy at all and tasted nutty and rich.

I was impressed that the disposable aprons were set out so neatly. Super tidy. There's a restroom inside too~ When you go in, there are men's and women's stalls. It feels kind of shared, kind of not.

The bean sprout soup my friend inhaled, a flavor you keep reaching for.

How does Yeonnam Jokbal 1987's fried jokbal taste? Like sauced fried chicken, but crispier

The fried jokbal at Yeonnam Jokbal 1987 Jonggak Branch comes with a little yangnyeom (sweet-spicy glazed) chicken sauce drizzled on top, so it's close to yangnyeom chicken, but it isn't soaked in sauce, so you still taste the nutty, crispy jokbal itself. The fried jokbal finally arrives!!! What a wild look, hahahahaha. Not greasy at all, and actually better than regular jokbal? A taste I'll be thinking about again.

It all comes out as one set, so you can eat neatly,

In the reviews everyone posted videos of the table spinning around like at a Chinese restaurant, hahahahaha, so I filmed it too. It was so nice to pick out sides easily. It spins so diligently, hahahahaha. Thank you, my friend's rice buddy.

This is how much sauce is on it, and my reaction to the very first bite with nothing alongside. The jokbal itself is good, and frying makes it even better? Not greasy at all? Insanely good???

I kept reaching for the dried radish. The meaty part is really good and the skin part is really... delicious. I also ate it wrapped in lettuce, yum.

We clinked glasses with jokbal wraps, and the chives and garlic sauce all go well with it.

Fried jokbal with sprout makguksu (buckwheat noodles)

The makguksu (₩9,000) at Yeonnam Jokbal 1987 Jonggak Branch came out almost at the same time as the fried jokbal. I guess they timed it with the frying.

Stir up the sauce piled at the bottom until it's well mixed, and you get a sweet-and-sour makguksu flavor anyone would like.

Makguksu + fried jokbal is a great combo. Please, please eat it.... Kind of like a Korean-style Schweinshaxe (German fried pork knuckle)?

Not a fan of jokbal skin? The codillo-style fried skin is different

I honestly never eat jokbal skin, but look at me picking it out.............. Why is fried skin so good?

Taking leftover fried jokbal home, and would I go back?

Yeonnam Jokbal 1987 Jonggak Branch packed up our leftovers really neatly too. The fried jokbal was so good that we ate a lot and still had about half left to take home. It's neat and friendly, and since it has fried jokbal that other jokbal places don't, I'd definitely come back whenever I have plans in Jonggak! Totally satisfied.

It's a perfect location for a Jonggak date or a Cheonggyecheon date. Randomly sneaking in my Cheonggyecheon photos from before and after the meal.