Solo drinking at the dachi bar seat, Jumak Inho, Gwangju

Jumak Inho, a Geumnam-ro spot I visited on the last day of my Gwangju trip. Pretty sure Inho is the owner's name, right? Or maybe not, haha~ It's the same name as my high school senior-year homeroom teacher, so it's a place I won't forget. (Funny enough, I don't even remember the teacher's face, just the name...)

It's a dining space run by an owner who turns it into a gukbap place at lunch and a bar at night.

Location and parking

Jumak Inho is a Korean restaurant-bar right at Exit 6 of Geumnam-ro-5-ga Station. With a bus stop and the station right nearby, it's super accessible. I heard a lot of people stop by for lunch after shopping at Lotte Department Store.

✨Parking✨ There's no dedicated parking space. I'd recommend going with whichever nearby lot is cheapest‼️

• Geumnam Private Parking Lot, Geumo Private Parking Lot
• ₩1,000 per 30 min / ₩2,000 per 60 min / ₩4,000 per 120 min / ₩8,000 per 240 min

Inside there are 5 tables and 4 dachi bar seats. Since I was traveling solo, I sat at the bar seat. Ate while watching Bad Romance haha, had a really good time.

Menu and prices

• Red gukbap ₩10,000
• Octopus tempura & potato dumplings ₩12,000
• Dubu kimchi ₩8,000
• Mushroom stir-fry ₩9,000
• Oneul Rice Soju ₩5,000 x2

At lunch it's just gukbap, but if you come in the evening you get to enjoy the full, glamorous lineup of small plates. Since I was having it as a dinner meal, I ordered gukbap plus added on one small plate after another, and basically turned into a pig....🔥 The upside is that a lot of the small plates are cheap, so even ordering everything doesn't add up to much — the value for money is insane 〰️

They also have a wide variety of traditional liquors, so I'd recommend ordering one to try.

The basic side dish is nurungji (scorched rice) tempura

As a complimentary starter, you get this nurungji tempura sprinkled with what seems to be ramen soup powder(?), and the umami is out of control. Since the owner prepares everything alone, it might take a little time, so I waited patiently and snacked on this while I did.

It seems a bit under-seasoned at first, but then the ramen powder pops in with a burst of flavor.

How Oneul Rice Soju tastes

Bars on Geumnam-ro don't carry the green-bottle soju. This was my first time trying Oneul Rice Soju, and it tasted a bit like cheongju (rice wine) to me.

The alcohol content wasn't high either, so it was easy to drink.

There's fun in just browsing all the different traditional liquors on display💕

Mushroom stir-fry / Octopus tempura & potato dumplings

The mushroom stir-fry arrived. It comes with 3 kinds of mushrooms — when I visited it was enoki, king oyster, and shiitake.

The enoki was grilled almost crispy, while the king oyster and shiitake were grilled to keep their moisture, so they were absolutely delicious. The sauce seemed to be a doenjang (fermented soybean paste) base — smooth without being sharp. Then smoked chili oil gave it a kick in the middle.

Great dipped generously in the sauce, and great eaten as just mushrooms on their own‼️ It was a totally new flavor for me, and I felt like my palate expanded a bit.

This is the octopus tempura and potato dumplings. The sauce is a grilled gim (dried seaweed) sauce. To me it tasted like abalone innards, and I thought the seaweed flavor alone was insanely good value. It matched the octopus tempura and potato dumplings perfectly⁉️

The seasoning was spot on, and the tempura batter wasn't super crispy but more fluffy, which really brought out the chewy texture of the octopus. If they'd had the lettuce tempura (which used to be on the menu), I would've ordered it right away‼️ The umami was insane...💕

Dip it generously in the seaweed sauce 🩷

Clean-plate club, sauce and all. Yep, that's me.

Red gukbap / Dubu kimchi

The red gukbap arrived. A flavor I'd never had before. It was loaded with lean meat, egg garnish, minari (water dropwort), and perilla seeds. My first bite was like, what is this flavor⁉️ but the more I ate the better it got, and I finished every last drop of the broth. The rice portion was pretty big though ㅜ^ㅜ

If you're not into whole perilla seeds or minari, you should probably let the owner know in advance.

Side dishes are self-serve — just take as much as you'll eat. There was kimchi, pickled radish, chili peppers, and onion.

I loved how the whole perilla seeds popped between my teeth, bursting with nuttiness and filling the broth with that perilla aroma.

Once the rice goes in, the broth thickens up and the flavor gets even more concentrated.

Paired so well with the side dishes, yum><

This is the dubu kimchi (tofu with stir-fried kimchi). I felt like I was about to explode, but since this place is clearly good with sauces, I was curious about the pine nut sauce and ordered it anyway. And besides, Jeolla-do is kimchi country‼️

The pine nut sauce was so good that I want to beg the owner to please start making kongguksu (chilled soy milk noodle soup) too😉 That would be amazing in summer...🔥

How was it for solo drinking

A Geumnam-ro spot that stuffed me full and then some. It's a bar as much as a restaurant, and the quality of the small plates was really high, with textures and flavors I'd never tried before. Personally I think it's a great spot for solo drinking, so I'd recommend it. It also works well as a second-round bar in the Geumnam-ro area! The value on the small plates is seriously unbeatable 〰️