Sangbong jjukkumi restaurant date night with maehwasu: Joajukne

Had jjukkumi (spicy baby octopus) near Sangbong Station with my boyfriend this weekend! I'd tried this place once before and loved it, so we went back! Spicy jjukkumi eaten together with snowflake cheese really tames the heat perfectly, and the combo is honestly so good!

Side dishes and self-serve bar at Joajukne Jjukkumi

Joajukne's side dishes came with flying fish roe sauce, radish, and cucumber salad haha. They went great with the jjukkumi, and the cucumber salad especially cut through with its tangy flavor in between bites :)

What we ordered at Joajukne Jjukkumi

• Snowflake cheese jjukkumi for 2
• Flying fish roe fried rice
• Maehwasu (plum liqueur)

The self-serve bar was neatly maintained too, so it was easy to grab whatever side dishes we needed haha.

They also had aprons set aside so you don't have to worry about sauce splattering on your clothes haha. Such a thoughtful touch for a saucy dish like jjukkumi :)

We had a glass of maehwasu alongside the spicy jjukkumi haha. It's sweet and clean, and it went surprisingly well with the octopus lol.

Snowflake cheese jjukkumi for two: texture and spice level

Look at Joajukne's jjukkumi — completely chewy in the best way!! If it's too tough you have to chew forever and it gets tiring, but this one was chewy without being unpleasantly hard to eat. It went so well with the sauce that we kept picking at it even without rice.

Staff cook the jjukkumi for you, so all you have to do is wait comfortably and then dig in haha. No need to grill or stir it yourself, which made it even more relaxing :)

The sauce was properly soaked into the octopus, so the spicy flavor hit right from the first bite. But it's not just plain spicy — it's spicy with a slightly addictive edge, so I kept reaching for more lol.

What happens when you wrap the jjukkumi in snowflake cheese

My favorite part is definitely the snowflake cheese! Eating spicy jjukkumi together with cheese totally changes the flavor. Eaten alone the jjukkumi is pretty spicy, but the moment you add cheese, it gets nutty and soft, and the heat gets neutralized haha.

The spicy sauce keeps making you want more, but the cheese tones down the heat in between bites, so we could eat all the way through without getting sick of it :) For anyone like me who likes spicy food but can't handle it super hot, I'd totally recommend this combo. With the cheese, it feels less spicy than expected, so it just keeps going in lol.

Finishing with flying fish roe fried rice

Flying fish roe fried rice. And if you go for jjukkumi and leave without eating the fried rice, that's just a foul lol. We ordered the roe fried rice right when we were almost done with the jjukkumi.

The leftover sauce from the jjukkumi is already delicious on its own, so frying rice in it is basically game over. But adding flying fish roe brings a popping texture that makes it even better!

We said we were full, but the moment we took a bite we kept reaching for the spoon... Personally, the fried rice was a must-eat item :)

Mouthwash, dessert and Onnuri gift certificates

After the meal, they had mouthwash ready too, which was a nice clean finish haha. Also, they accept Onnuri Gift Certificates, so that's good to know if you use them :) After we finished eating, they gave us dessert too, so we could wrap things up on a happy note haha. Eating spicy food and then having something sweet at the end was just perfect :)

Would we go back to Joajukne Jjukkumi?

We'd already been back once, but we're definitely up for another return visit!! Next time too, I think we'd get the snowflake cheese jjukkumi and finish with the roe fried rice lol. If you're looking for a good jjukkumi spot in Sangbong and you like spicy food, definitely check this place out :) Especially if you're worried about the spice, I'd recommend eating it with the cheese haha.