Spice level 2 stone-plate jajangmyeon with mala mandu in Paju

I heard a Paju Simhaksan restaurant near Lotte Outlet where you can try stone-plate jajangmyeon and jjamppong had opened, so I went to check it out~

Basic info on Dolpanseok Jjamppong Paju Simhaksan Branch

• Address: 8-38 Dolgotji-gil, 1st floor, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea (near Paju Lotte Outlet, Simhaksan)
• Hours: closed Tuesdays, 11:00 ~ 21:00
• Break time: 16:00 ~ 17:00 (weekends only)
• Parking: available

Dolpanseok Jjamppong, a Paju Simhaksan restaurant

You can park right in front of the store.

The center of the interior has open tables, with partitioned booth tables on either side.

Menu and order — spice level 2 stone-plate jajangmyeon

The main menu at this Paju Simhaksan restaurant is nurungji stone-plate jjamppong/jajangmyeon. There's also a stone jajang topped with chili pesto, samgye (chicken and ginseng) seafood nurungji tang served on the stone plate, a summer-only cold jjamppong, handmade tungbosha, stone-plate mapa tofu, white jjamppong, and donttang & chitang — a version of sweet-and-sour pork and chicken. Donttang & chitang can also be ordered as a set with jajang or jjamppong!

There was also single-serving mapa tofu, kids' shrimp fried rice, and dumplings. For drinks, there were two kinds of ade.

You could also add squid, octopus, and more to the jjamppong or jajang at a reasonable price. We ordered the stone-plate jajang, the donttang & chitang set, and mala mandu 🤗

Oh! You could choose the spice level, so we went with level 2~ For jjamppong I'd say level 2 is spicier than Shin Ramyun, but since this was jajang, I figured level 2 would hit that spicy-savory sweet spot! In the end, that was the right call.

Basic side dishes and self-service corner

The classic Chinese restaurant side dishes — onion and pickled radish!

There was also unlimited rice at the self-service corner, but we couldn't eat any of it. 😂 Why not? You'll see below. 🤭🤭🤭

Stone-plate jajangmyeon — wait, then mix it up on the hot plate

Since cooking starts the moment you order, the stone-plate jajangmyeon arrived after a bit of a wait. Total eye-catcher!! Visually stunning~

As instructed for the best way to eat it, we let it sit on the stone plate so the jajang sauce could soak into the noodles.

You could almost see the noodles deepening in color in real time? After letting it sit a bit, we tossed it around to coat everything evenly.

Quail eggs, shrimp

Squid too was mixed in...

Above all, the jajang sauce was so tasty~ Slightly sweet, with a spicy kick rising up right after the savory hit — just perfectly delicious. The noodles were on the thinner side, so the sauce coated them well, and they were nicely chewy~

At first glance the portion looked a bit small, but the dish was deep enough to hide the entire spoon, so the amount was actually quite generous.

The hidden nurungji at the bottom

And here's the secret weapon hidden underneath!! Nurungji (scorched rice) at the bottom!! Did you know that mixing rice into jajang always tastes better? Since it was nurungji, it was extra nutty and delicious. This is exactly why we couldn't manage any more rice...😅

Mala mandu and the pork & chicken tang set

It was lunch peak hours that day, so the dumplings and donttang & chitang came out a bit late — let me introduce those too~ When the staff served them, they said, 'If there's leftover, we'll pack it up for you~' which felt genuinely warm.

The dumplings had a reddish tint, being mala flavored!

The filling was red too~

The taste was... kind of like the mala-flavored konjac snacks kids eat these days? Oh, it's unique — it seems off but you keep wanting more! Opinions on mala can go either way, but I'm firmly in the 'love it' camp — addictive and charming.

The donttang & chitang came half-and-half! Donttang first — served crispy, meant to be dipped in the sauce~

The batter tasted like croquette, and overall it felt like mini pork cutlets~ Kids would really love this, and it'd be great as a side dish with rice too.

Chitang turned out to be dakgangjeong (sweet crispy fried chicken). But it tasted exactly like nostalgic yangnyeom chicken~! So delicious.

We ended up not finishing it all and took the rest home, reheated it in the air fryer the next day, and it was still just as good. Chitang especially — my kid claimed it as theirs and told us parents not to touch it. 🤭🤭

There's also coffee, yogurt drinks, and rice crackers for dessert, so don't miss it~

Final thoughts

I've had stone-plate jajang before and thought, isn't it just jajang put on a stone plate for show? Disappointing. But here, they actually found a reason to use the stone plate — the hidden nurungji!! On top of that, the addictive, spicy sauce and the noodles soaked in delicious seasoning were genuinely tasty. The sides were all excellent too, so next time I'm coming back for the jjamppong!!