Rainy-day free spaghetti noodle sari and heart fried rice: Jjuksami

Mornings and evenings are getting cooler with that crisp autumn wind, but somehow my work is only making me hotter under the collar.

To soothe my frustration, I went to Jjuksami in Cheonho.

Location and business info for Jjuksami near Cheonho Station

• Address: 8 Cheonho-daero 158-gil, 1st floor, Gangdong-gu, Seoul, Jjuksami Cheonho Spicy Octopus Restaurant (Cheonho Station Exit 6)
• Hours: Daily 12:00 – 1:00 (next day)
• Parking: Not available
• Zero Pay accepted

I really love the octopus alley in Cheonho-dong. Cheonho and spicy octopus (jjukkumi) just go together in my mind.

It was drizzling that day, which felt like the perfect match for sizzling jjukkumi.

I arrived around 5:45pm. But look how many customers were already there!

Seems like I found the real deal.

The basic side dishes and what I ordered

Here's the basic table setting they serve. It seems like this spread hasn't changed in over a decade. Wrapping perilla leaf with radish pickle on top — ahh, so good.

There's a wide variety of menu items, but I went with the octopus + pork belly combo.

Just plain octopus felt like it wouldn't be enough, and I'd been eating a lot of shrimp lately, so I decided on octopus + pork belly. It's ₩16,000 per serving.

Adding the Richgold crust cheese

I also added a cheese wing next to the octopus. It's called Richgold crust, and it seemed like everyone around me was ordering it too.

There's a reason everyone adds it. As long as you're not too full, you'll want to order another round mid-meal.

When I eat jjukkumi, I always add garlic. It's tasty raw, but cooking it alongside the octopus makes it even better.

The owner cooks the octopus for you

Once the food comes out and the pan starts heating up, the owner comes over to cook it for you personally. He checks in a few times along the way, so all I had to do was wait — so convenient!

Ahh, once the jjuksam (octopus + pork belly) is cooked just right, he says you can start with the octopus.

So what does that mean? Time for a drink.

Round two: scorched rice, egg custard, and corn cheese

Once the octopus was cooked, a second round of side dishes came out to go with it — scorched rice (nurungji), steamed egg custard, and corn cheese. The egg custard was so fluffy.

The cheese was melting into gooey perfection.

As the octopus cooked, they said it tastes best once the broth reduces down a bit.

Honest thoughts on each combination I tried

First, as instructed, I wrapped the octopus with bean sprouts.

I also tried adding bean sprouts and mayo together, but that combo wasn't really to my taste. I'd recommend eating them separately.

Just mayo without the bean sprouts was much better.

Wrapping the octopus with the melted Richgold cheese was so delicious!! I wanted to add another round but I was too full to go for it.

I also tried cheese with bean sprouts, but that one was a no for me too. Bean sprouts are probably better eaten plain with ssamjang (dipping sauce).

As the broth reduced, I mixed the bean sprouts into the octopus itself.

Topping it with enoki mushrooms and cooked garlic was heavenly.

Mayo plus Richgold cheese — an absolutely indulgent wrap.

Free noodle sari: choose spaghetti or glass noodles

Once you've eaten a fair amount, you can add either spaghetti noodles or glass noodles as a free sari (noodle add-on). They say spaghetti noodles taste best when added around two-thirds of the way through the meal, while glass noodles are better added when there's still a bit of broth left.

I went with the spaghetti sari. You can get glass noodle sari at plenty of other places, but spaghetti sari isn't something you see easily elsewhere. It's a special sari unique to Cheonho-dong's octopus alley.

I ate the spaghetti on its own for a bit, then tried wrapping it in perilla leaf. Octopus, spaghetti, and mayo together — so good, I'd definitely recommend this one!

Finishing off with fried rice

Of course, I had to order the fried rice for dessert too. Staff come by and fry it all up for you — you just wait and eat.

They usually shape the fried rice into a circle, but my friend turned it into a heart, tada! Maybe because it looked so cute, it tasted even better.

Restroom and final thoughts

The restroom is unisex, but it's located inside the restaurant and kept clean, so it's easy to use.

It's not overly spicy and there are plenty of sides to mix things up, making it perfect for trying different combinations.