Gangseo Korean restaurant with spicy octopus and fried rice: Jju Baksa

While wondering what to eat near Seoul Botanic Park, I was craving spicy webfoot octopus, so I went to Jju Baksa Magok Branch 🐙❤️

It is fairly close to Yangcheon Hyanggyo Station, and it is in a good spot to drop by for a meal after visiting Seoul Botanic Park! Best of all, parking is available, so it was easy to visit by car 🚗 You can use the building parking lot, so I think it would be great for anyone driving. It was indeed listed as a restaurant with parking.

Jju Baksa Magok Branch with outdoor tables

It is at 130, 1F, Daebang DM City 2 Officetel, 23 Magokdong-ro 10-gil, Gangseo-gu, Seoul. Parking available, restroom available, and outdoor tables available! They even provide blankets when you eat outside!

One thing I loved about Jju Baksa Magok Branch was the outdoor seating.

On a nice day, you can eat at the tables set up outside, which has a completely different vibe from eating indoors ✨ It is also listed as having outdoor seating and a terrace.

It can get a little chilly in the evening, but they had blankets ready too, which felt so thoughtful 🥹🧣 It is just the right kind of place to enjoy the outdoor-table atmosphere with webfoot octopus and a drink! 🍻

The 2-person fried rice set and banchan

I ordered the 2-person fried rice set for ₩33,000! For the set options, I chose cheese steamed egg and flying-fish-roe fried rice.

Before the webfoot octopus came out, several banchan (Korean side dishes) arrived too. I liked that I could have them with perilla leaves, pickled radish wraps, bean sprouts, and more.

In particular, there were side dishes that gently toned down the heat, so wrapping them up with the webfoot octopus made for a nice combination. 💚

Level-3 webfoot octopus: How spicy is it?

I ordered level-3 heat. 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Level 3... it is definitely spicy haha. The first few bites had me thinking, “Oh? This is manageable?” But as I kept eating, the heat slowly started building 🔥

Still, it was not just spicy—the seasoning was rich and punchy, so I kept reaching for more. Pile lots of bean sprouts onto the webfoot octopus and eat them together, and you get an extra crisp crunch too,

and if you wrap it with a perilla leaf and pickled radish too, it takes the edge off the spice and makes it much easier to eat. 😋

If you are not great with spicy food, you probably do not need to push yourself to level 3!

A bite of cheese steamed egg when it gets spicy

And if you order level 3, choosing the cheese steamed egg was such a good decision 👏 A generous layer of cheese sits on top of fluffy steamed egg filling the earthenware bowl,

and after a bite of spicy webfoot octopus, a spoonful of steamed egg feels like it completely calms the heat. It was nice to eat in between bites, and the portion was more generous than expected, so it paired really well with the webfoot octopus. 🧀💛 The corn butter also came out warm; the popping corn kernels added a nutty flavor, making it great to nibble on between spicy bites.

Finish with flying-fish-roe fried rice

Eating the webfoot octopus does not mean you are finished haha. With food cooked on an iron griddle like this, you have to have fried rice to feel like you have eaten properly! I chose the flying-fish-roe fried rice,

and they spread it across the griddle, stir-frying rice, seaweed flakes, flying fish roe, and more in the remaining sauce. Just the sight of fried rice spread all over the griddle was the real deal 🤎 The webfoot-octopus seasoning soaked into every grain, giving it wonderful savory depth, while the popping texture of the roe made it even better—I kept eating even though I was full. Scraping up the bits lightly stuck to the griddle was especially delicious... 🤤 Even if you are full, make sure to get the fried rice!

If you are craving something spicy after Seoul Botanic Park, or looking for a good webfoot-octopus place near Yangcheon Hyanggyo Station, Jju Baksa Magok Branch is worth a visit 🐙

With parking and a restroom, plus outdoor tables on nice days, it was a good spot for anything from a meal to drinks. Personally, I recommend the fried rice set + cheese steamed egg + flying-fish-roe fried rice combination! ❤️ But level 3 is certainly on the spicy side, so I recommend it for people confident with heat 🔥🔥🔥