Paju Simhaksan Chinese restaurant: stone jjajang set with whole squid

Today I visited Dolpanseok Jjamppong Paju Simhaksan Branch, a well-known Chinese restaurant near Simhaksan in Paju. I tried the sizzling stone-pot jjajang (black bean noodles) and their unique sweet-and-sour pork, and it was so good I had to write this recommendation :)

Dolpanseok Jjamppong Paju Simhaksan Branch: location and hours

• 📍Location: 8-38 Dolgoji-gil, 1F, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
• ⏰Hours: Daily 11:00–21:00 (last order 20:00)
• 🅿️Parking: Available in front of the restaurant

Dolpanseok Jjamppong sits in the cluster of Simhaksan restaurants near Lotte Outlet. Even in the sweltering heat, tons of people were coming in for jjamppong (spicy seafood noodle soup) 😲

Inside the restaurant and the partitioned seats

The interior is split between regular table seating and booths with partitions installed. The partitioned tables looked great for a private meal with family.

The menu and set combos — how much do they cost?

The main dishes are, of course, jjamppong and jjajang, and the set menus are well put together.

• Doljjamppong (medium) + donchitang — ₩42,000
• Doljjamppong (large) + donchitang — ₩52,000
• Doljjajang (medium) + donchitang — ₩41,000
• Doljjamppong (large) + donchitang — ₩51,000

There's also a set where the donchitang is split into donttang and chitang separately, so I ordered the doljjajang (medium) + handmade donchitang set for ₩40,000!

Don't skip the self-serve corner: pa-kimchi and unlimited rice

Danmuji (pickled radish) and onions come out with your order, and you can grab more banchan (side dishes) from the self-serve corner.

The must-grabs from the self-serve corner are pa-kimchi and rice ⭐️⭐️⭐️. You've got to wrap the pa-kimchi (green onion kimchi) with the jjajang noodles. And since rice refills are unlimited, mixing it into the jjajang sauce or jjamppong broth sounds delicious.

How was the doljjajang (medium) + handmade donchitang set?

The stone-pot jjajang came out first. It was bigger than it looks in photos, and the stone pot kept sizzling away 🔥

The jjajang noodles were piled high with quail eggs, squid, shrimp, and other seafood. The portion was big enough that 2–3 people could split one main plus a side and still be full 👍🏻

I worried the constantly-simmering stone pot would make the noodles soggy, but instead they stayed chewy and never went soft. They stayed warm even as time passed, and the sauce soaked into the noodles even better — so good.

How to eat doljjajang the right way

• Let it sit a moment on the sizzling stone pot so the sauce soaks into the noodles
• Sprinkle on spicy chili flakes to taste (but don't scrape the bottom yet — there's nurungji down there!)
• Finish by scraping up the nurungji at the bottom of the stone pot with a spatula

There was plenty of seafood mixed in, and I added squid halfway through! Moist squid with jjajang noodles — how could that not be good? And wrapping it all with pa-kimchi, you already know… it was perfectly fermented with a sharp bite that went so well with the noodles ㅠ.ㅠ

Does the handmade donchitang stay crispy even after time passes?

Crispy handmade donchitang! It came out fried in long, rounded pieces, with the dipping sauce served separately.

Fresh out of the fryer, it was crispy outside and moist, tender inside. It tasted different from typical tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) — normally the batter gets soggy as you eat, but this handmade donchitang stayed crispy even as time went on.

Finishing with the nurungji at the bottom of the stone pot

Once you finish the noodles in the jjajang, there's nurungji waiting underneath. Scrape it all up from the bottom and the meal is complete! The crunchy nurungji texture was so good 👍🏻

There's dessert too — a cold yogurt drink and rice crackers! Cleansing my palate with the yogurt felt so good 😆

Final verdict

If you're looking for a great Chinese restaurant near Simhaksan in Paju, I recommend Dolpanseok Jjamppong for its unique stone-pot jjajang and sweet-and-sour pork! I'd revisit 1000% for sure, and next time I'm planning to try the jjamppong.