Mild jjukkumi with pork belly for two in Cheonan: Bulnaneun Jjukkumi

Today I visited Bulnaneun Jjukkumi Main Branch, a Baekseok-dong, Cheonan spot specializing in jjukkumi (webfoot octopus) and nakji (octopus). You can eat jjukkumi together with pot rice here, so it's a filling meal, and I go back often — here's my latest visit.

Where is Bulnaneun Jjukkumi Main Branch, and what are its hours?

Bulnaneun Jjukkumi Main Branch is located at 46-5 Handeul 2-ro, Unit 102, Seobuk-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea. Hours are daily 11:00–21:30, last order 20:40. Parking is available right in front of the restaurant.

The biggest perk of Bulnaneun Jjukkumi Main Branch was the huge parking lot. Usually parking lots are cramped, which makes group visits stressful, but here the restaurants line up and seem to share a common lot, so the parking space was really spacious.

Seating for groups and kids, and the self-serve bar

The restaurant turned out to be huge. Lots of seating, and many tables can be pushed together, so 2-, 4-, 6-, and 8-person setups all seemed possible. It looked totally fine to book for a group.

They also had aprons and baby chairs ready, so visiting with kids seemed worry-free.

The self-serve bar had tableware and side dishes — you could refill the basic banchan. There was bean sprouts, mu-saengchae (radish salad), sundubu (soft tofu), oi-naengguk (cold cucumber soup), pickles, and more. Sundubu isn't part of the basic table spread, so grab it from the self-serve bar, haha.

Bulnaneun Jjukkumi menu and its four spice levels

There were lots of set menus — jjukkumi + shrimp tempura + pot rice, jjukkumi + perilla-seed noodles + rice, stir-fried jjukkumi + pot rice, jjukkumi samgyeopsal, and so on. The combinations were generous and reasonably priced. Jjukkumi and pot rice go really well together and it looked like the perfect filling meal.

There were about four spice levels — mild, spicy, original, and slightly spicy — so you could order to your own taste. There were also side dishes like jjukkumi mandu (dumplings), fried jjukkumi mandu, galbi mandu, fried galbi mandu, and cheese balls. I'd never seen jjukkumi mandu before, so I was curious and wanted to try it.

Banchan and wrap vegetables served with the meal

The basic banchan spread had oi-naengguk, mu-saengchae, bean sprouts, salad, and dressed lettuce. You could mix the bean sprouts, mu-saengchae, lettuce, and jjukkumi together like bibimbap too.

Ordering jjukkumi samgyeopsal came with lettuce and perilla leaves for wraps, plus ssamjang (dipping sauce) and garlic. The vegetables were nice and fresh too.

Jjukkumi samgyeopsal, mild, 17,000 won for two servings

Jjukkumi samgyeopsal ₩17,000 × 2

I can't handle spicy food very well, so among the jjukkumi samgyeopsal options I ordered the mild spice level. It wasn't spicy at all, so even I could enjoy it fully.

It came fully cooked and ready to eat right away, which was nice. The jjukkumi and pork belly were piled high with scallions. They keep a burner going underneath so it stays warm the whole time you eat.

The jjukkumi and pork belly came in a half-and-half ratio. There was a generous amount of octopus too, so I ate until I was full. The octopus flesh was plump and chewy — delicious. The pork belly slices were thin, which paired really well with the octopus.

They also mixed the pork belly together with the jjukkumi and scallions so the pork belly would pick up the sauce too.

Both the jjukkumi and the pork belly were tasty. The seasoning was just right, and it wasn't too spicy, which I liked.

How to eat it: lettuce wraps, bibimbap and whether to order rice

You can wrap the jjukkumi samgyeopsal in lettuce, or mix everything together — bean sprouts, mu-saengchae, lettuce, jjukkumi, pork belly — like bibimbap, which was great too. Just a heads up: rice isn't included with the jjukkumi samgyeopsal, so you need to order it separately! The portion of jjukkumi samgyeopsal itself is really generous though, so I left full even without ordering extra rice.

If you're looking for a jjukkumi restaurant in Baekseok-dong, Cheonan, give Bulnaneun Jjukkumi Main Branch a try — the jjukkumi is delicious and there's a wide parking lot right in front, so parking is easy too!