Mokdong seafood restaurant, less-spicy haemuljjim: Jumak Haemulchon

I've been craving haemuljjim (spicy seafood stew) lately, so I visited Jumak Haemulchon!! It's apparently already well known in the neighborhood as a Mokdong haemuljjim spot — families were coming in for lunch already.

Where is Jumak Haemulchon and when is it open?

• 📍 Location: 16 Mokdong-jungang-seo-ro 1-gil, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul
• 🕓 Hours: Daily 11:30–23:00
• 📢 Indoor restroom available / parking available
• 🅿️ Parking: available in front of the restaurant if a spot is open

Outside Jumak Haemulchon

Jumak Haemulchon, where you can enjoy fresh seafood dishes in Mokdong, is about a 10-minute walk from Mokdong Station. Step a little in from the main road and you'll see a tank with seafood swimming around haha.

Seating and restrooms inside Jumak Haemulchon

Inside, it's mostly 4-person tables, which looked good for family meals or groups. Overall it had that comfortable neighborhood-restaurant feel of a true Mokdong local spot!

The restroom is on the 2nd floor and unisex, so it was easy to use.

Also, Jumak Haemulchon apparently uses seafood shipped directly from Samcheok, and Korean-grown chili powder grown by an acquaintance of the owner. Since freshness matters so much for seafood, details like this made me look forward to the food haha.

Jumak Haemulchon's menu and the live seafood tank

While waiting after ordering, the staff pulled seafood straight out of the tank to show us haha. From whelk to blood octopus, there were so many kinds it was genuinely fun to watch. Hello, seafood friends~

Eek, octopus, don't run away... come into my mouth please...

The default home-style side dishes and super-fresh-looking miyeok (seaweed)/miyeok stems! Isn't nibbling seaweed while waiting for the food basically the law?! The anchovy stir-fry in particular was so good that a guest at another table even asked for the recipe haha.

The menu includes agujjim (spicy monkfish stew) and haemuljjim, plus soy-marinated crab, marinated shrimp, and various other seafood dishes. So if you love seafood, having this many options is much better than a place with just one dish.

There's a wider range of drink brands than what's listed on the menu board~ As a review event, they said they offer 1 bottle of soft drink/soju/beer, or 2 pieces of marinated shrimp. If you're curious about the marinated shrimp, writing a review is a chance to try a taste 😋

[Order] 🍴 Haemuljjim (small) / 🍺 Kelly

Small haemuljjim, ordered less spicy

Finally, the haemuljjim we ordered arrives! You can adjust the spice level when ordering, so we asked for it a bit milder. Thanks to that, it wasn't too harsh and we could enjoy a moderately spicy flavor.

Jumak Haemulchon's haemuljjim comes packed with a variety of seafood — squid, octopus, whelk, shrimp, and more. Even in the small size, the portion was more generous than expected. There were also plenty of bean sprouts, well coated in sauce, so just eating those alone after the seafood was delicious too.

There's also the fun of finding hidden shrimp hahaha.

I put my friend in charge of peeling the shrimp diligently while I took on the important role of photographer *^^*

The sauce is what really matters in haemuljjim! It's spicy with a hint of sweetness, so it's good as a rice side dish, but also perfect as a drinking snack. In the end I ended up ordering a beer even in the middle of the day...🍺

This tail-ish part of the whelk had a savory taste kind of like crab innards, so I kept going back for more haha. The octopus wasn't tough either — soft yet chewy enough to bite through easily, very satisfying! Overall each seafood kept its own texture, so it really felt like eating fresh ingredients.

Why the fried rice finish is a must at Jumak Haemulchon

And after finishing the haemuljjim, you can't skip the fried rice. But the fried rice here looked a bit different from what I usually imagine. Kind of like a fried-rice pancake(?) haha. The outside was crisped like scorched rice, giving it a nutty flavor, with bean sprouts giving a crunchy bite here and there — so good.

It's basically a signature dish, so if you order haemuljjim or agujjim at Jumak Haemulchon, you absolutely must order the fried rice too!!! The haemuljjim sauce soaks well into the rice, so we scraped the pan clean to the very end...

Final thoughts on Jumak Haemulchon

A seaside-vibe photo that seems to exist just to set the ocean mood haha.

After eating everything, I could see why so many people keep coming back to this Mokdong favorite. The spicy-sweet haemuljjim and the finishing fried rice made for a pretty filling meal on their own. With so many seafood options, it's also great for groups to order a variety and share, and it works well for a meal in the daytime or drinks in the evening! If you want to drink with seafood snacks, it's worth checking out as a Mokdong bar too haha. If you're looking for a good Mokdong restaurant or craving seafood in Mokdong, give Jumak Haemulchon a try~