Yeonnam-dong restaurant with jambon cheddar pasta: Hey Joji

Here’s the story of Hey Joji, one of the places I ate really, really well at recently in Yeonnam-dong! There are so many pasta places around Yeonnam that even if somewhere is pretty good, I often leave thinking, “It was nice~.” But here, from the first bite, I was like, oh...? Especially after one bite of the risotto, I immediately said it was seriously delicious haha.

The pasta was great because it wasn’t the usual kind of menu, and I could enjoy the atmosphere too, so I wanted to introduce it to anyone looking for a Yeonnam-dong date spot.

Hey Joji location and parking

It’s an easy place to visit from Hongik University Station toward Yeonnam-dong. When you make plans in Yeonnam-dong, it’s so easy to carry on from a meal to a café, which is why you end up coming here often for dates, right? Hey Joji was a great stop on a Yeonnam-dong date course too!

• Parking: There is no dedicated parking, so please use a nearby public parking lot.
• Hours: Daily 12:00–21:00

We came in and got settled :) This time, rather than predictable pasta, I chose dishes that seemed like ones you could only try at Hey Joji.

The distinctive pasta and risotto we ordered

I ordered two dishes: the jambon butter cheddar pasta for ₩16,000 and duck truffle cream risotto for ₩17,000! Neither name is ordinary, right? Haha. I was curious about pasta combining jambon, butter, and cheddar, and about risotto with duck and truffle cream, so I ordered one of each. To give away the conclusion: we chose very well...

And then the dishes arrived! We ordered one pasta and one risotto to share, and they didn’t feel overlapping at all, so they made a great pairing. When you look for pasta in Yeonnam, there are lots of familiar tomato, oil, and cream options, but Hey Joji’s combinations themselves are unique, so I was excited even while ordering.

Jambon butter cheddar pasta

First up, the jambon butter cheddar pasta! Just as its name says, it’s pasta combining jambon (French-style cooked ham), butter, and cheddar cheese. I ordered it because I thought it was fascinating that ingredients I was used to seeing in jambon-beurre were going into pasta.

Having the jambon together with the pasta :) Since butter and cheddar are in it, the name alone made it seem as if it might be very heavy, but eating it with the jambon gave it a charm that was definitely different from ordinary pasta. More than anything, I liked that it wasn’t a common dish you can find everywhere. I’d recommend it if you want to try something a little different from what you usually eat!

Duck truffle cream risotto with great rice texture

And... personally, the real star of the day: the duck truffle cream risotto! This was seriously delicious. After one bite, I thought, “Ah, they really know risotto here.” Haha.

What I consider important when I eat risotto is the texture of the rice. Sometimes you order risotto, but the grains are so overcooked that it feels like creamy porridge, you know? Personally, I much prefer a style where each grain still has texture over risotto with that Korean juk-like porridge feeling. Hey Joji’s risotto was exactly that. And with duck and truffle cream coming together too... seriously deliciousㅠㅠ If I came back to Hey Joji, I’d definitely want to order this again.

Ordering both dishes together was such a good choice too! The jambon butter cheddar pasta and duck truffle cream risotto each had such a distinct character that they were perfect to alternate between. One bite of pasta, one bite of risotto... Both were so good that we were busy going back and forth between the plates haha.

Honestly, I’ve been to so many places for pasta in Yeonnam-dong, but this was one of the more memorable places I’ve visited recently. There are lots of Western restaurants with a nice atmosphere these days, but it’s surprisingly hard to find one where the food itself really stays with you.

I kept saying how delicious it was while eating at Hey Joji, so it’s somewhere I’d want to recommend to a friend looking for a Yeonnam-dong date spot too. It was Hey Joji, a place that made me want to say, “This was really delicious,” for the first time in a while :)