Cheongna lunch: kimchi stew in a pot lid with ramen noodles, Sammi-jip

It's honestly hard to find a good lunch spot in Cheongna, but this time I found somewhere genuinely delicious and great value. Here's my write-up of Sammi-jip, a Cheongna restaurant known for its lunch specials and budae-jjigae (Korean army stew).

Sammi-jip's location and hours

Sammi-jip — 18 Cheongna-canal-ro 233beon-gil, 1st floor, Seohae-gu, Incheon, South Korea. Open daily 10:30–22:30, with last order at 21:30.

Sammi-jip sits right in the middle of the restaurant alley in Cheongna 4-danji, so it was easy to find. Parking was also right in front of the restaurant, so I could park comfortably and walk straight in.

A barbecue restaurant that looks like a café inside

The moment I walked in, I was surprised by how pretty the interior looked — more like a café than a barbecue joint. The white and wood tones gave it a really clean atmosphere, and the tables were spaced generously apart so I could eat comfortably.

The self-serve kimchi is genuinely delicious

There's a self-serve bar off to one side where you can help yourself to kimchi, bean sprout wraps, and other side dishes. The kimchi here was so good — it had such a deep flavor that I lost count of how many times I went back for more.

Cheongna lunch special: pot-lid budae-jjigae, ₩11,000

Sammi-jip is originally a barbecue restaurant, but for lunch they serve pot-lid budae-jjigae and pot-lid duruchigi as lunch specials, so I ordered the pot-lid budae-jjigae. It's 11,000 won, and ordering it comes with a fried egg, rice, and ramen noodles.

If you love budae-jjigae, this is the kind of dish you'd want to try at least once just for the look of it. The name alone sounded special, and when the food actually arrived, the ingredients were piled generously on a big pot lid — it made my mouth water just looking at it.

I don't even like ham, but I kept going back for more

To be honest, I'm usually not a big fan of ham. If there's too much of it, or the salty, greasy taste is too strong, I get tired of it after just a few bites. But this was genuinely surprising — even I, who isn't really into ham, kept reaching for more with my chopsticks.

Since it simmered away in the pot lid, it stayed hot for a long time, so I could eat it warm right to the end. As I picked out the ingredients while it kept simmering, the broth got richer and richer the longer it went.

Adding the ramen noodles last is the right move

By the time I added the ramen noodles, the broth was already infused with plenty of flavor from the ham, sausage, and bean sprouts, so the noodles soaked it right up. As they simmered and separated, the noodles coated in that deep red broth looked incredibly appetizing.

I grabbed a big bundle of noodles with my chopsticks and slurped them up — the broth flavor had really soaked in, and it was so good. Eating the leftover bits of ham and bean sprouts along with it was, quite literally, the textbook way to finish a budae-jjigae!

I feel like ramen noodles are a dish you just can't skip, no matter how full you are. Rather than adding the noodles from the start, adding them at the end after eating some of the other ingredients made the broth much richer and deeper, which made the noodles taste even better too.

Dessert: injeolmi ice cream

The injeolmi (sweet rice cake) ice cream they give as dessert with a receipt review was genuinely delicious! The subtle, nutty aroma of roasted bean powder paired so well with the sweet, soft ice cream. One bite gave that chewy injeolmi texture and nuttiness, making it taste so much richer than regular ice cream. Don't miss their Naver review event either ❤️😊

Would I recommend it for Cheongna lunch?

Next time I'm craving budae-jjigae, I think this generously loaded pot-lid version will come to mind before the plain pot-boiled kind. With warm broth, a bowl of rice, and finishing it off properly with ramen noodles, it was a filling, delicious meal. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for lunch in Cheongna!