Yeongdeungpo Korean restaurant: octopus set, perilla soup, Bonghyejane

When you want rice while shopping at Times Square: Bonghyejane Jubang

Bonghyejane Jubang (봉혜자네주방) Time Square branch is a Korean restaurant serving fire-grilled whole octopus stir-fry and pot rice sets. Even when I go to Times Square to shop, my feet head for the restaurant area once it's mealtime, and this day I wanted hot rice with something spicy rather than bread or noodles.

So in the middle of shopping, I stopped by Bonghyejane Jubang for a proper meal.

Location and hours of Bonghyejane Jubang Time Square branch

The restaurant is at the back of the Food Square on the B1 floor of Times Square, near Baekmidang, and it's open every day from 11:00 to 22:00. Last order is at 21:00.

• Address: 138-0 B1, Times Square, 15 Yeongjung-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• How to find it: at the back of the Food Square on Times Square B1, near Baekmidang
• Hours: daily 11:00-22:00
• Last order: 21:00

The restaurant sits in the B1 food court area. The entrance is open, so you can see inside from outside, and the menu beside the entrance shows the food and prices. It has the easygoing feel of a Korean restaurant in a shopping mall, easy to walk into for a meal.

What's on the menu at Bonghyejane Jubang, and how much?

The signature dish is fire-grilled whole octopus stir-fry with a smoky char, and the sets and pot rice meals run from ₩14,000 to ₩18,000 depending on the dish. There's also stir-fried webfoot octopus (jjukkumi) and Jeju-style spicy pork stir-fry, which would catch my eye on a day I want a bowl of rice with something spicy. If spicy food feels like too much, there's a sweet-salty soy octopus with galbi-style seasoning.

Besides the octopus rice set, they also have mushroom perilla soup, boiled pork wraps (suyuk bossam) and seafood soft tofu stew. There are pot rice meal sets that come with hot pot rice too, so it looks like a filling meal.

What I ordered was the octopus rice set.

Water came as barley tea. It had a nutty, toasty flavor that was nice to sip before the meal, and getting barley tea instead of plain water felt a bit like eating a home-cooked meal.

Octopus rice set: how much octopus is in it?

The octopus rice set at Bonghyejane Jubang is a spicy octopus stir-fry served with a small perilla soup. One look at the red sauce and I wanted to mix it into the rice right away.

There was really a lot more octopus than I expected. At first I thought it was only piled generously on top, but as I mixed it into the rice, more octopus kept turning up inside. Every spoonful came with octopus, so there was no need to save some for the end.

It wasn't just the quantity, either. The octopus itself was plump and had a great chew. Spicy sauce soaked into the rice plus chewy octopus made every bite filling. It was an amount that made me glad I ordered the octopus rice.

Side dishes: nuts, sweet pumpkin salad, white kimchi

The side dishes with the octopus rice set were nuts, sweet pumpkin salad and white kimchi (baek-kimchi, the non-spicy kind). They were good for taking a bite of in between the spicy octopus rice.

The pumpkin salad was sweet and soft, nice to eat a bite at a time when the heat built up. The nuts had a crunchy bite, and the white kimchi was crisp and refreshed my mouth. Alternating the sides with spoonfuls of octopus rice, I enjoyed it all the way to the end.

The nutty perilla soup that comes with the set

The perilla soup (deulkkae-tang) that came with the set was good too. One spoonful and the nutty flavor of perilla seeds spread through my mouth. Having it between bites of the spicy octopus rice felt like a little breather.

I'd planned to have it as a side to the octopus rice, but the soup itself was so tasty that I kept spooning it up. A bite of octopus rice, a spoonful of perilla soup, back and forth — the two went really well together.

How to enjoy the octopus rice: a little sesame oil at a time

There's sesame oil on the table at Bonghyejane Jubang, so I added a little to the octopus rice and mixed it in. The nutty aroma on top of the spicy octopus sauce made it even better. Mixing rice and octopus evenly and taking a big spoonful, I could feel that chewy texture too.

Just add the sesame oil a little at a time as you mix. With sesame oil on top of the octopus sauce, a bowl of rice disappeared in no time.

If you join the review event, you can also get roe (myeongran) dumplings.

How spicy and how tasty was the octopus rice?

The octopus rice at Bonghyejane Jubang had a spicy, savory depth that I especially liked. The heat rises with each bite, but the savory umami of the sauce follows through, so I kept going back for the next spoonful. Mixed evenly into the rice, the sauce soaked into every grain and I enjoyed it to the end.

A little more sesame oil brings the nutty aroma in too. With the chewy texture of plump octopus meeting the spicy sauce, I found it hard to put my spoon down even while my mouth was burning.

When the heat suddenly hit me, I took a bite of the sweet pumpkin salad. The sweet, soft taste made my mouth feel much better. After a short break like that, my spoon headed back to the spicy octopus rice.

Bonghyejane Jubang octopus rice set: how was it as a meal?

With the spicy octopus rice and nutty perilla soup, it was a filling meal. The octopus was plump and the portion generous, so I'd like to recommend it to anyone looking for a good place to eat at Times Square.

Mixing in a little sesame oil with the deliciously spicy sauce was great too. With the pumpkin salad and white kimchi in between, I enjoyed it right to the last bite. It's a good Times Square pick for when you're shopping and suddenly crave a hot bowl of rice.

I'd like to come back next time I crave spicy Korean food. If you like octopus rice, give Bonghyejane Jubang at Times Square a try.