Haeundae Korean restaurant for seafood hinoki steam: Songjeongok

Songjeongok Songjeong Main Branch for abalone pot rice in Songjeong

This time, Jjireung Jjidong visited Songjeongok Songjeong Main Branch, a great pot-rice spot in Songjeong. We went for abalone pot rice as a little seasonal pick-me-up, and Songjeongok Songjeong Main Branch is in Songjeong, close to Jjidong’s home, too!

Maybe it is because the name is Songjeongok, but there is a hanok, or traditional Korean house, feel in the décor and little details everywhere. Both outside and in, it feels as though you have stepped into a traditional Korean tavern in a hanok.

The first floor is incredibly spacious, and as I will show you again below, the second floor is huge, too. With high chairs, a clean and roomy interior, and group seating, it is ideal for a large family gathering or a meal with parents and grandparents.

As you would expect from a Korean restaurant, the water is served boiled. Every table has sesame and chili sauces, ready for dipping the hinoki-steamed food!

The main menu is simply arranged, while there are plenty of add-ons and side dishes, too. Jjireung Jjidong’s pick was the abalone pot rice and seafood hinoki-steamed set for two, ₩46,000.

This many side dishes before the mains even arrive?

They brought over such a full tray of things that I thought the abalone pot rice and hinoki steam had arrived surprisingly quickly. But this is all just the basic side-dish spread.

The boiled-pork bossam (Korean pork wraps) in the middle has serious presence. It is not just a few tasting pieces; there is enough that you start wondering, “Did we order bossam too?”

The pork is moist and tender, never dry. It feels clean rather than greasy, so I kept eating it with the bossam kimchi, ssamjang dipping paste, cockles, and more beside it. There was even a fresh salad with seasoned squid and yuzu dressing.

After eating it all, I was absolutely stuffed. If I had had any room left, I would have wanted to order the ₩8,000 extra bossam—it was that good. Apart from bossam, the other side dishes can be refilled free of charge. Cockles, seasoned squid, green-onion kimchi, tofu, and seasoned raw crab: all the rice-stealers are gathered in one place. Delicious, plentiful, and generous—it is wonderful for taking elders out, but also for a date.

Abalone pot rice rich with the nutty aroma of abalone innards

While we were busy being amazed by and devouring the side dishes, the abalone pot rice appeared. The nutty fragrance the moment the pot opens already tells you this rice will disappear in no time. This is not pot rice with just a few pieces of abalone on top; the deep, nutty richness of abalone innards has thoroughly soaked into every grain.

Give it a quick, even mix, and the grains take on a gentle sheen while that nutty aroma lingers. It is not salty or aggressively seasoned at all. The more you chew, the more subtly the umami of abalone comes through!

And the highlight of pot rice!! First, mix the rice you will eat and transfer it into the empty bowl served alongside. Then pour broth into the pot and wait a moment. The rice stuck to the bottom softens up, making hot, savory nurungji (scorched rice).

A spoonful of nurungji at the end of the meal makes your stomach feel gently settled. Personally, this kind of finish is exactly why I love pot rice so much! Bring your parents here and they will go wild for this spread..

The seafood aroma that rises when the hinoki lid opens

Here comes the seafood hinoki steam, the main dish. The look is lovely, of course, but with hinoki steaming, the real moment starts when the lid opens. Warm steam and a soft hinoki-cypress aroma rush up, and suddenly you feel like you came out to eat something truly good for you.

The hinoki box is generously packed with shrimp, abalone, clams, squid, broccoli, corn, and more. The plump cooked shrimp are springy with their sweetness intact, while the abalone—what more is there to say? The more you chew, the more its nutty flavor comes alive. The squid is bouncy, too, without a tough chew.

Above all, because nothing has been stir-fried in oil or heavily coated in seasoning, it is fun to taste each ingredient so clearly.

The first floor is spacious, but the second is even bigger?

The restaurant is very generously sized. Even upon entering the first floor, I thought, “This is bigger than I expected?” But the second-floor space is even larger, with group seating ready to go.

It would be especially great for a family gathering with lots of people, a birthday meal for parents, or any group get-together.

And this matters more than you might think when dining out with children. Both the first and second floors have plenty of high chairs, too.

I found Songjeongok’s mix of hanok and contemporary interiors so pretty. On a hectic family meal where you are trying to match the adults’ food preferences while worrying about seats for the children, details like these feel quite significant.

All of this is one set meal?

From pot rice loaded with abalone innards to seafood infused with hinoki aroma, plus a side-dish spread that rivals plenty of dedicated bossam restaurants—the whole meal is neither overly salty nor aggressively seasoned. There are lots of dishes, as you would hope from a great Korean set-meal restaurant, and every one was delicious, so I really recommend it for a family meal with parents.

Songjeongok Songjeong Main Branch is a Songjeong abalone pot-rice spot whose side-dish game is as distinctive as its mains. We came for abalone pot rice and left feeling as though we had been properly treated to a full feast!