Siheung cuttlefish restaurant for a rainy-day lunch date: Jogane

Lunch has to be hearty and delicious, and this was a success!

On a rainy Wednesday lunchtime, when the gray sky looked rather lovely, I went to Jogane Gabojingeo Mulwang Hosu Branch (조가네갑오징어 물왕호수점), a well-known spot by Mulwang Reservoir in Siheung. The spicy, tangy seasoning was so good that we even stir-fried the rice at the end, and here's my review.

There are lots of restaurants around Mulwang Reservoir that people call great, but finding a truly good one is not easy. I finally went with my husband to Jogane, which I'd had my eye on for a long time.

Jogane Mulwang Hosu Branch: location and hours

Jogane Gabojingeo Mulwang Hosu Branch is at 40 Dongseo-ro 811beon-gil, Siheung-si, Gyeonggi, South Korea (lot-number address: Mulwang-dong 123-1), and it is open 10:30-21:00. It's open all year, including holidays, and offers reservations, group visits, takeout, delivery, Wi-Fi and high chairs.

It's a cuttlefish specialist I keep wanting to go back to, and it's famous around Mulwang Reservoir too ^^ Everyone I know seems to have been at least once. The 1st floor has a space where you can have coffee, and the 2nd and 3rd floors are the restaurant.

The 1st-floor coffee space and parking after your meal

After eating, you can go down to the 1st floor and have a cold coffee while chatting with friends about everything you didn't get to say. You don't have to go find a separate café, which I loved. The terrace tables on the 1st floor are plentiful and pretty.

The parking lot is also huge, so parking was easy.

Cuttlefish is really expensive, right? But here's the thing! At Jogane, you can enjoy this pricey cuttlefish at a reasonable price and with fantastic flavor.

Size, group seating and waiting area

There's also a space where you can sit and wait when there's a line. Cuttlefish is high in taurine, which is said to help with recovery from fatigue and liver detox.

I liked that the restaurant is spacious and clean, and the walkways are wide, so it never felt cramped. There's group seating for up to 40 people, so company dinners and family gatherings can be seated all at once.

There are big windows, and the view outside is really pretty.

What two people ordered: small cuttlefish bulgogi and fried rice

After talking it over with my husband, we ordered the small cuttlefish bulgogi (for 2) and 2 fried rice.

A Naver receipt event was also running when we visited.

• Snap a photo of your Jogane Mulwang Hosu Branch receipt!
• Verify the receipt and write a review on the Naver Place page!
• Show it to the staff and get a drink!

It would be a shame to miss a perk like this. Be sure to write a review and enjoy your drink :)

Jogane's side dishes and perilla seaweed soup

The side dishes were simple and neat: bean sprouts, salad, water kimchi, seokbak-kimchi (radish kimchi), pickled onions, steamed egg, seaweed soup and perilla leaves. I'd only ever had beef seaweed soup, so this different seaweed soup (miyeok-guk) seemed to have ground perilla seeds in it ^^ It was so good that I kept eating more, and I think I finished it all by myself haha.

Is the cuttlefish bulgogi very spicy?

The cuttlefish bulgogi for 2 arrived. Eek~~ I love stir-fried dishes without broth like this, so it was exactly my taste.

Steam rising~ Even looking at it now, my mouth is watering ^^

Jogane uses fresh cuttlefish for authentic cuttlefish dishes, and I hear each menu item has its own charm. This time we had the "cuttlefish bulgogi," so next time I want to try other dishes. It's so so good, T_T T_T

My husband cuts it into bite-size pieces for us, hard at work again today with his tools.

The cuttlefish is really substantial, right? The flesh is plump, and the spicy seasoning soaks all the way in, which won me over. Judging from the sauce alone I expected it to be very hot, but it wasn't. The seasoning isn't overdone, with a spicy, tangy, clean taste that doesn't feel artificial, so I think you'll enjoy it a lot. The cuttlefish bulgogi is also Jogane's signature dish.

Even when I say "stop cutting, let's eat," my husband keeps cutting, saying it's easier to eat when it's cut up nicely haha

How to eat the cuttlefish bulgogi: perilla leaf wraps

My recommendation is to eat Jogane's cuttlefish bulgogi in perilla leaf wraps. Here's the order:

• Lay a perilla leaf down
• Add bean sprouts
• Top with cuttlefish and vegetables
• Wrap it up and eat

The combination of perilla leaf and cuttlefish was so good. I think I ate it with perilla from start to finish. The first batch of leaves ran out, so I got several refills, haha. Please do try the perilla wraps~

Plump, meaty cuttlefish: now that I've eaten it here by Mulwang Reservoir in Siheung, I understand why so many people love it.

How do you order the fried rice to finish?

When you've nearly finished the cuttlefish bulgogi, tell the staff. They leave a little of the sauce, take the pot away and bring it back with the rice stir-fried. We had fried rice for 2.

The chewy-crisp fried rice was so good that my husband and I kept saying how delicious it was while eating. With plenty of sesame oil and flying fish roe sprinkled in, it was even nuttier, and I loved the popping texture.

A rainy-day lunch date at Mulwang Lake

I'm always busy, but Mulwang Lake is also a healing spot in nature where you can take a little time and relax. The day I visited the sky was gray, but the breeze was cool, the green forest was fresh, and it was a restful break as I enjoyed a lunch date with my husband. If you're visiting Mulwang Reservoir, do stop by Jogane ^^