Weekend terrace seating and sweet-and-sour pork at Jjamppong Jijon, Yeoksam

There are days when Chinese food hits me hard out of nowhere, and Jjamppong Jijon filled that craving very comfortably!

Since it's a proven chain with many branches, jjajangmyeon, jjamppong, and sweet-and-sour pork were all delicious — and the jjamppong menu in particular had some distinctive options.

Basic info for Jjamppong Jijon Yeoksam Branch

• Open daily 10:00–22:00
• Parking available
• Group seating (private rooms available)
• Takeout, delivery
• Wi-Fi provided
• High chairs available
• Terrace seating
• Indoor restroom

Getting there from Yeoksam Station and parking

• 6-minute walk from Yeoksam Station Exit 3
• Parking at Jjamppong Jijon Yeoksam Branch

There's a parking space right in front of the restaurant where you can park for free. Considering it's in the Gangnam area, the space is pretty generous, and valet parking is also available for ₩3,000.

Terrace seats plus a spacious interior — the ultimate in comfort

You go up the stairs on the right to reach the restaurant, and even before stepping inside I could sense how spacious it was.

They thoughtfully added terrace seats so you can sit and relax after your meal... and there are actually a lot of terrace seats. As you'll see in the photos, the restaurant has coffee and tea, so it's really nice to sit on the terrace, sip something, and chat.

On weekday lunches it seems to get crowded with office workers, to the point of needing to wait. You can queue remotely in advance through TableManager, and high chairs are available too.

There's plenty of seating — 2-tops, 4-tops, group tables, and private rooms — so it works well whether you're dining solo or with a group. I went on a weekend and saw plenty of solo diners as well as groups enjoying a daytime drink. The whole place feels clean and comfortable to eat in, and there's something called a 'dim sum lab' that piqued my curiosity.

The thoughtfulness of the self-serve bar

The self-serve bar has lids on everything so it feels hygienic, and it's stocked with pickled radish, jajai (pickled mustard stem), raw onion, chunjang sauce, kimchi, and rice. There are even kids' utensils, making it easy for children to eat. Rice refills are unlimited, which makes the meal even more filling, and I really appreciated that they use domestic kimchi.

When you eat Chinese food, the smell tends to cling to your hair fast, but they had hair ties ready to prevent that in advance. There were so many little touches like this that felt genuinely thoughtful.

I tried both the yuja tea and plum tea, and both were sweet and refreshing. The plum tea especially helped settle my stomach, so I drank it a few times. There's also Americano, macchiato, and job's tears tea for dessert — great for taking a moment on the terrace with a coffee before your lunch break ends.

Menus with adjustable spice levels

Both jjajang and jjamppong can be adjusted up to 4 spice levels. I considered ordering spicy jjajangmyeon, but the younger folks I was with already looked scared just seeing the word 'spicy' haha. You can also add noodles, soft tofu, hand-torn dough (sujebi), or extra broth.

For dish-style menu items, there's crispy eggplant, sweet-and-sour pork, menbosha, spicy stir-fried shrimp, and yuringi-style flavored chicken.

They even have the half-and-half option, which is hard to find these days these days — self-recommend it! With half-and-half you can try two dishes at once, and the soft tofu, sujebi, and rice-noodle jjamppong options all sound distinctive and intriguing.

There's a receipt review event that gets you fried dumplings and a soft drink.

I ordered sweet-and-sour pork (medium) for ₩27,000, soft tofu noodles for ₩14,000, and jjajangmyeon for ₩9,500.

No-frills deliciousness

Setting the table before the main dishes arrived! The pickled radish was sliced thin, so I kept reaching for more. Every table has soy sauce, vinegar, pepper, chili flakes, and small plates ready, which made setting up easy.

Sweet-and-sour pork (medium)

The sweet-and-sour pork came topped with red cabbage and onion, and eating it with the vegetables made it even better.

The flavor was clean with no gamey taste at all — the pieces without sauce were crispy, and the pieces coated in the sweet-and-sour sauce were moist, so you got both crispy and juicy textures in one dish.

Jjajangmyeon

Since this place is a jjamppong specialist, I didn't expect much from the jjajangmyeon — but wow, it was a textbook-perfect version. The chunjang sauce was generous, so it stayed moist and sweet until the last bite, packed with savory depth. Sharing it works really well as a combo.

Sprinkle on plenty of chili flakes and pair it with jajai and pickled radish, and you'll find yourself thinking 'yeah, this is the taste' as you inhale it. On its own, the base flavor has no spice at all — just a light sweetness!

Soft tofu noodles

I was shocked by the sheer portion size of the soft tofu jjamppong right from the first look. It's genuinely generous, packed with soft tofu, seafood, and vegetables.

The zucchini and soft tofu were the real highlight. The soft, fluffy tofu completely mellowed out the spice, and it tasted a bit like sundubu-jjigae (soft tofu stew), which naturally made me crave rice.

In the end I scooped out some broth and mixed it with rice. I'd ordered the mild version, so it wasn't spicy at all but the broth was still rich — I finished all the broth and mixed in rice, which added that extra filling satisfaction!

In summary

A proper finish with mint candies~ The mint candies were so cute and colorful I naturally grabbed one.

• Fully equipped group seating makes it great for office lunches or gatherings
• A Yeoksam lunch spot for Chinese food with parking — the sweet-and-sour pork (medium) is the recommended order at Jjamppong Jijon
• Terrace seating, coffee for dessert, and parking make this the ultimate in comfort