Yeonnam-dong restaurant, fresh squid jambalaya risotto: Hey Joji

Hey guys, today I'm bringing you a review of an American comfort food spot in Yeonnam-dong! I love Southern American dishes like jambalaya, and it turns out there's a real hidden gem for that in Yeonnam-dong????? Wait what!!!!

The inside is cute and cozy, there's no break time so that's such a plus ㅠㅠㅠ, and the prices are decent too, so it's basically raining value here — a genuine hidden gem.

It was so good my friends and I kept saying 'delicious, delicious' while we cleaned every plate lol. Let me show you everything in detail, from the space to the food — let's go.

Where is Hey Joji? An alley inside Yeontral Park, Yeonnam-dong

Hey Joji is in the alley packed with good restaurants just off Yeontrail Park, so it's easy to find.

What the exterior and interior of Hey Joji look like

Oh, there's something unusually cute about it just from the outside lol.

A grubby little Olaf squeezed in between empty cola bottles lol.

Once you step inside, it's a warm and adorable little space!

Aww, this side is so pretty!!

Open kitchen, woohoo woohoo.

Seriously every corner was so cute I stood around looking for ages lol. Hehe.

Hey Joji menu and prices

Even just the menu names sound delicious, everything looked so good it was hard to choose ;ㅅ; lol. Good thing there were three of us — if it had been just two of us we'd have agonized forever lolololol.

Now let me show you our feeding frenzy.

Three plates for three friends at Hey Joji

;ㅅ; !!!!!!!! So gorgeous, hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi. How can these be so colorful and pretty ㅠㅠㅠ. Even the plates are cute.

First let me show you close-ups of these gorgeous pastas one by one, and then I'll dig in and give you the taste report.

This is the white ragù truffle cream pasta, so good, and only ₩16,000, is that real ㅜㅜ. So delicious and such great value it's basically raining. Look at that plump egg yolk. Now I'm going to mash it all up and eat it.

The colorful and dear little jambon butter cheddar pasta ㅠㅠㅠㅠ, the taste was dear too. Those cherry tomatoes brought a surprisingly amazing flavor, kind of fresh and cute somehow... how are they so different from the cherry tomatoes I ate at home this morning, I wonder where they get theirs,,,,,curious,,,

I'm basically obsessed with jambalaya, so if a menu has jambalaya I always order it. Seafood flavor with spicy salty rice — Koreans can't not love this. Everyone please try it.

So that's the introduction done one by one, now let's dig in one by one.

How the white ragù truffle cream pasta tastes

Hello, ragù pasta?

Your yolk looks so tempting, I'm going to mix you up mercilessly.

Mix mix.

Three forks charge in, radiating anticipation.

The truffle scent rises first, followed by the white ragù sauce with its just-right thickness and deep, rich flavor. White ragù sauce + truffle scent + egg yolk mixed together makes for an incredibly layered, rich flavor. It really just slides right down, hi hi hi hi. We finished it in no time ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠso good. Even scraping up the last bits of meat after the noodles were gone was delicious, hehehehehe hehehe.

Jambalaya rosé risotto with big shrimp and fresh squid

And then the one I was most looking forward to — jambalaya!!!!!!!!!!! My friends were trying it for the first time today and they totally loved it, hehe, so proud!!!!!!!! Okay since it's your first jambalaya, try the rice first.

Oh my gosh so good ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ. Jambalaya can come out with all kinds of different flavor profiles, but this one had such layered flavor it was totally my type.

Korean food is such a high-level cuisine somehow... our food culture is so developed and dishes here are so varied, so Koreans tend to prefer deep, multi-layered flavors over something simple. So a flat, simple flavor just isn't really a Korean taste.

Jambalaya is basically a spicy seafood rice dish, so of course Koreans would love it, but somehow Hey Joji's jambalaya cleverly added in the points Koreans especially like? Spicy, spicy-spicy, creamy, salty, seafood and chorizo flavors all coming together for an explosion of umami — anyway it was so good. I wanted another whole bowl, seriously..... Definitely getting this again next time.

Anyway, a well-grilled sausage is showing off boldly on the plate. Let's cut the sausage into bite-size pieces first.

Ooh, sausage...!! Delicious!! Delicious!!!!! Hi hi hi hi hi hi hi. I love it when it's scored like this and grilled ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ. Sausage really should be grilled this way.

And what surprised me was how insanely fresh and hearty the seafood was!! The shrimp are seriously huge, and totally fresh, so plump and springy (I think 'plump and springy' is the only way to describe that fresh, bouncy texture,,,,). At this price you'd expect tiny cocktail shrimp barely a finger-joint long, but instead you get these big, gorgeous shrimp ㅠㅠ. Love it so much hi hi hi hi hi hi.

And there's quite a lot of squid in there too — the friends who tried it first said the squid was so tender and delicious. Oh...!! Actually one friend and I had eaten squid stir-fry my mom made for lunch that day (did our moms coordinate lolololololololol), and since it was fresh squid it was also tender and delicious, so we came here already primed for that.

But usually a pasta place at this price would use frozen squid, so how is this squid so tender...?! Wait, this is fresh squid — the same texture as the squid I ate at home at lunch ;ㅅ; !!!!! Amazing, anyway it was so good, so fresh, and honestly kind of chaotic ㅠㅠ love it so much ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ. This is my regular spot now.

How the jambon butter cheddar pasta tastes

And then the utterly gorgeous jambon butter cheddar pasta.

Yellow pasta noodles, green-green arugula, plump jambon, and green-green arugula again all coming together — so colorful, pretty, and appetizing ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ. Love it so much. Arugula was fresh too!! As mentioned above, the cherry tomatoes had such a fresh, dear flavor ;ㅅ; !!!!!!!!

Everything here is fresh, no wonder — we walked in around 5pm and the place filled up right after we sat down.

The jambon's ham flavor plus the savory, dense richness of cheddar and butter all came together in a sauce with just the right thickness — so good!! Since it's a cheese sauce it's creamy, salty, full of umami and delicious, but somehow also felt like eating something healthy lol.

Every single dish was delicious and pretty ;ㅅ; !!!!!! All three of us really loved it and had such a fun meal! Table spacing was just right too so even when the place filled up it stayed comfortable +ㅅ+

Everything we finished was delicious so please go try it too ㅠㅠㅠㅠ. Prices are affordable too, honestly the best.

And there were oatmeal cookies right by the register!!!! Such a nice touch!!!! (These are the famous cookies known as 'human feed,' try try~) And just like that, another regular spot is born for this picky eater....... To be continued..

Hey Joji hours and parking

• Address: 42-24 Donggyo-ro 46-gil, 1st floor, Hey Joji, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Hours: Daily 12:00–21:00 (last order 20:00, no break time)
• Amenities: No parking, group seating available, Wi-Fi, easy payment