Korean restaurant near COEX, 2-person octopus and bossam set: Obongjip

Dinner near COEX, and a menu lineup I liked

Recently I had a reason to have dinner near COEX, so I went looking for good restaurants around Samseong Station and ended up visiting a place. This time it was Obongjip Samseong Branch (오봉집 삼성점). When you search for COEX restaurants there are so many that just picking where to go is quietly a headache. In the end I went with Obongjip Samseong Branch because I liked how the menu was put together :)

What's in the Obongjip Special 2-person set

What we ordered this visit was the Obongjip Special 2-person set, which lets you have jikhwa nakji-bokkeum (flame-grilled spicy stir-fried octopus), bossam (boiled pork slices to wrap in leaves) and makguksu (buckwheat noodles) together. Stir-fried octopus on its own felt like a bit of a shame, and for a time when you also want bossam or a noodle dish, the lineup looked about right, so that's what I picked. If the menu lineup mattered to you while looking for a Samseong Station restaurant, this is a combo worth keeping in mind.

Before my first visit I looked up a little how the Obongjip menu is put together. The signature thing is that you can enjoy stir-fried octopus and bossam together, so it suited a day when you want a little of several things. Especially since there were two of us that day, sharing the flame-grilled octopus, bossam and makguksu seemed more fun than eating a lot of one dish.

Eating the flame-grilled octopus and bossam together

When the food came out, the first thing that caught my eye was of course the flame-grilled stir-fried octopus. The octopus is good with rice, and alternating it with bossam gives you a change in flavor, so it felt less like eating the same dish over and over. Something I quietly care about when choosing a COEX restaurant is whether the dishes go well together when eaten side by side, and this time the Obongjip Special lineup felt good on that front.

The flame-grilled stir-fried octopus, as the name says, is a dish built around octopus in a spicy sauce. It was good with rice, and eating it with bossam toned the heat down a bit, so I kept alternating between the two. If you like spicy dishes while hunting for a Samseong Station restaurant, this kind of combination is worth considering. Personally, eating it alongside several other dishes suited me better than eating the octopus on its own.

Bossam is a completely different dish from the octopus, so there's a certain fun to having a full spread laid out. If you visit as a pair and want to share several dishes, this kind of lineup on the Obongjip menu is pretty convenient. Especially since eating only spicy food can get tiring quickly, having bossam in between changed up the flavor, so the meal never felt monotonous.

Makguksu on the side was a good palate reset

And the thing I personally felt glad we ordered alongside was the makguksu. Having a noodle dish in between the octopus and bossam was a nice way to switch up your palate every so often.

So if you're looking for a COEX restaurant and prefer sharing several dishes over sticking to one, this lineup is worth a look too.

Things to know before visiting as a pair

Having eaten through it all, I came away thinking Obongjip Samseong Branch is a good place to visit on a day when two of you want to share several things rather than focus on one dish.

One thing worth doing before you visit is looking over the Obongjip menu in advance and ordering according to how many of you are coming. If you're visiting as two, like us, sharing several dishes worked well.

The location is also worth checking if you're looking for somewhere to eat around COEX, and if you need parking, I'd recommend confirming separately whether parking is available and on what terms before you go.

For a day you want several dishes at once

After this visit, I think when you're looking for a Samseong Station restaurant on a day when you want spicy stir-fried octopus plus bossam plus makguksu all at once, Obongjip Samseong Branch is fine to put on the shortlist. Especially if you're searching for COEX restaurants and wondering where to share dishes with a friend, family, or as a pair, take a look at the menu lineup first. Next time I'm eating nearby, I think I'll be curious about other combinations on the Obongjip menu too.

Overall this visit was satisfying and I'd be inclined to come back. That said, the spiciness and the menu lineup can feel different depending on personal taste, so keep that in mind when choosing. If, like me, you were searching for Samseong Station or COEX restaurants and couldn't decide where to go, just use the menu lineup from this post as a reference :)