Dangjin Korean restaurant for squid hot pot with drinks: Ojjingeo

When your usual food gets boring, I recommend visiting Ojjingeo Dangjin (오찡어 당진점). It's all about squid! Here's a restaurant where squid dishes work as a full meal and are perfect as drinking food too.

Ojjingeo Dangjin hours and parking

Ojjingeo Dangjin is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and closed every Monday. There's a parking lot behind the restaurant. I had always tasted squid as a side player, so I was really curious what it would be like as the star.

Ojjingeo was my first squid specialty restaurant. It's already a well-known spot in Dangjin, and apparently the broth of its squid hot pot is special, which makes it popular with lots of people.

I didn't know this, but squid has amazing health benefits too. It's a high-protein, low-fat healthy food, rich in protein but low in fat, so it's said to be good for balanced nutrition and weight management. It's also said to be good for brain health and concentration, protecting the heart, boosting immunity and recovering from fatigue. I had no idea squid was this good for you.

What's on the menu at Ojjingeo Dangjin?

The main dishes at Ojjingeo Dangjin are squid stir-fry, squid jeyuk, squid hot pot and squid pancake, available as lunch specials or set menus. In daily life squid is usually the ingredient that supports other dishes, but now it's time to meet it as the main! So lots of people come for a meal at lunchtime, and in the evening many enjoy it as drinking food.

First I ordered the unfamiliar squid hot pot, and you can choose the spice level. I thought about going spicy, but I heard even medium is fairly spicy, so I picked medium!

Also, if you join the review event, you get squid tangsuyuk (sweet and sour fried squid). Be sure to join and try it. Sides include fried rice, steamed egg, and somyeon and udon noodles, and I added one extra steamed egg.

The squid stir-fry also comes in mild and spicy. Tasty squid and vegetables are stir-fried with a smoky fire flavor and a spicy kick! Once you taste it, it's a real rice thief (so good you keep eating rice), so I ordered just this and ate 2 bowls of rice.

Medium-spicy squid hot pot: portion and taste

Finally, the squid stew (squid hot pot) I ordered arrived! The portion is really generous.

You just wait until it boils, but I couldn't hold back and opened the lid... The staff take care of everything, so when you visit, don't open the lid, just wait.

The side dishes were white kimchi, seasoned pickled radish, corn, sweet soy-braised beans and dongchimi (radish water kimchi) soup. The dongchimi broth was so refreshing and sweet and tangy, just like a soft drink.

The squid hot pot started to boil. It looked really appetizing, and the aroma was so savory I could feel it in my nose.

When it's cooking well, stir it back and forth and flip things over so the broth and seasoning soak into every piece of squid. There's also a ton of minari (water dropwort), and it smells wonderful.

You've probably never heard of squid hot pot, but think of it as a whole different level from squid soup. The broth is a total rice thief. Put rice in the broth and you can easily finish two bowls, it was that amazing.

When you scoop one ladleful, a huge amount of squid comes up, and the broth and vegetables are all abundant too, nothing skimped. Personally I think it's enough for 3 people, and it's a menu where you can have a meal and drinks too.

Review event squid tangsuyuk and steamed egg

This is the squid tangsuyuk I got by joining the review event, and it's really different from the fried squid you get at street tents or elsewhere. Maybe because it's a squid specialty restaurant, the squid is super plump, and the batter is crispy and thin but packed with squid, so the chewy texture was art.

The steamed egg came out, well, actually it came out from the start, but I got distracted by the squid and only started eating it now. The bouncy egg is rich and soft, and it's wonderful as a bite after the spicy-sweet squid stew.

Rice in the broth, then eat it with the squid! I'd only had squid over rice as a rice bowl, but as a stew with rice it goes really well too.

The squid was very tender and well cooked, with a taste that made me think of soju the whole time.

How much is extra squid, and how much do you get?

At Ojjingeo Dangjin, extra squid was ₩10,000 and came as 2 servings. I was already really full and had eaten plenty, but there was still hot pot broth left, so I added squid.

The extra squid that came out was an enormous amount, 2 servings for ₩10,000.

Eat it this way and it's unlimited drinking food! Order one squid stew, sip drinks together, keep adding squid, and you can go from round 1 to round 3 right at Ojjingeo.

I came craving something special for once, and I'm so glad I did that I want to recommend it. If you're tired of eating only meat all the time, try the squid stew. It's a truly no-regrets meal.