Busan Chinese restaurant, 2pm spicy octopus jjamppong: Songjeong Dol

Hi, it's Oyes here 🍩🍩🍩 Today I'm introducing a special dol jjamppong (stone-plate spicy seafood noodle soup) restaurant I found near Songjeong Beach in Busan! I found it while searching for good places to eat in Songjeong. I'd heard of dol jjajang (black bean noodles on a stone plate) plenty of times, but dol jjamppong was a first for me, so I was curious how it would taste. It seems to have a reputation already, since lots of people came just for the dol jjamppong, and we visited after enjoying a look at the sea at Songjeong Beach.

Songjeong Dol Jjamppong location, parking and wait times

Songjeong Dol Jjamppong (송정돌짬뽕) is a Chinese restaurant at 67 Songjeonggwangeogol-ro, Haeundae-gu, Busan, on the first floor and close to Songjeong Beach. It's open daily from 11:00 to 21:00, and groups are welcome too.

There's a parking lot right in front of the restaurant, so it was easy to visit by car.

Reviews said there are waits at weekends and during the weekday lunch rush, so we avoided lunchtime and arrived around 2pm. Luckily we got in right away with no wait. If you want to check the wait before you go, you can do it through the Catch Table app.

Looking at the wall inside, I saw the place has been featured on MBC TV too~

Songjeong Dol Jjamppong menu and how to order

I checked the menu on Naver before going, and there were a lot of set menus beyond what's listed on Naver. There's no dol jjajang with seafood on it, so I wondered whether you can't get seafood on it, but you can add a whole octopus or a whole squid. You order on the tablet at your table and pay upfront.

Pickled radish and onion come as standard, and for extra side dishes you use the self-serve corner. They had green onion kimchi there too.

Spicy dol jjamppong with added octopus: how was it?

We ordered the set menu of tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) plus dol jjamppong, and added a whole octopus. There was also mala mandu (numbing-spicy dumplings) on the sides, and I was curious and really wanted to try it, so we ordered that too. You can choose the dol jjamppong at original, mildly spicy or spicy, and we went with spicy.

It arrived bubbling on the iron plate, piled generously with bean sprouts! And here's the important part: there's a layer of scorched rice (nurungji) on the bottom of the plate, so you must never scrape the bottom. You have to mix the noodles and sprouts evenly without scraping the base.

The big whole octopus was cut into bite-size pieces for us. It wasn't tough at all, with a lovely chewy texture.

Before the noodles, I was curious about the broth and tried it first. It wasn't as spicy as I expected, with a subtle smoky wok aroma and a kick that was totally my style!

It was packed with seafood, especially several big shrimp with a springy bite that I loved. The pine-cone squid, regular squid and red scallops were all fresh too.

The noodles didn't go mushy and stayed chewy. I worried because it keeps boiling on a hot stone plate, but they stayed springy to the end and were great with the broth.

Scrape the scorched rice at the end with the iron spatula

When you've finished the noodles, scrape up the scorched rice with the iron spatula, and

the scorched rice, soaked in jjamppong broth for so long, was nutty and moist, so good. The set also came with a bowl of rice, but the scorched rice alone filled me up, so I couldn't eat the rice.

100% sirloin tangsuyuk tastes closer to a pork cutlet

The tangsuyuk is made with 100% sirloin, and it felt a little different from regular tangsuyuk.

Thanks to the crispy coating, the texture was actually similar to a pork cutlet,

and the sauce came separately, so dipping the pieces kept them crunchy to the very end.

The sirloin wasn't dry but tender with a good chew, and personally I thought it tasted closer to a pork cutlet than regular tangsuyuk!

Mala gyoza: the most memorable item of this order

It was my first time trying mala gyoza (numbing-spicy dumplings), and it was so good it was the most memorable thing we ordered!!! If you usually like mala, I really hope you'll try it once. The filling was more generous than I expected, and as the mala aroma spread it felt a bit like eating mala xiang guo (numbing-spicy stir-fry).

Inside the restaurant

The inside of Songjeong Dol Jjamppong was much bigger than I expected, with plenty of tables, so there's room for several groups at once. If you're looking for a good place to eat near Songjeong Beach in Busan, do visit.