Seoul | Mapo Eats – Hanu / Hanwoo Beef (한우) at Jobakjip (조박집)

While in Seoul, we stayed in the un-trendy, (former) blue-collar part of Mapo-gu, right next to “Mapo BBQ Alley” which is an area known for its Korean bbq, and in particular, pork ribs. After a painfully long drive, most of which was spent in barely moving traffic, we decided to find a place within walking distance for dinner. Even though I wasn’t necessarily in the mood for Korean bbq, I really didn’t feel like exerting any more energy than necessary in finding and getting to a restaurant.  Jobakjip (조박집), known for its Hanwoo Beef (한우), was one of the first restaurants that popped up when we did a neighborhood location search, and as the reviews were pretty solid, we decided to give it a try.

Thus began the start of our 3-course food tour of Mapo-gu…

First dinner/course, eaten prior to the fireworks festival: Jobakjip (조박집)

Jobakjip (조박집) seemed to be a super popular restaurant as there were two locations right across the street from one another. Both had lines and waiting lists, but both restaurants moved pretty fast. We probably only waited 15 minutes or so before being seated.

The menu itself featured only two items: Hanwoo beef and pork ribs. For an extra 1,000KRW you could add a bowl of rice or radish water with cold noodles (dong chimi noodle -동치미국수). I recommend the noodles as they provided a refreshing break from the meat-heavy meal.

As I’m not really into eating pork, and since we have never tried Hanwoo beef, we ordered two portions of the beef. Hanwoo or Hanu beef is Korea’s version of Wagyu/Kobe/Matsusaka beef, and is supposedly the highest quality (and most expensive) beef you can find in Korea. The seasoned beef contained a good amount of marbling and had a chewy, yet tender, texture. Delicious.

After the fireworks show, we moved on to second dinner. On our short walk to Jobakjip, we noticed a very cute fresh seafood bar that had maybe 10 seats. By the time we made our way back to the tiny seafood restaurant, the place was pretty packed. I peered inside and noticed there were two seats available, although it would have involved one person scooting down to make room. Instead of scooting one of the chairs so that two chairs could be side by side, they told us it was full. They didn’t even bother to take our name or tell us how long the wait was, just that it was full. We got the hint and moved on.

There were a ton of late night eats and Japanese-Korean fusion (mostly Korean-style sushi) izakayas across from our apartment building, so that’s where we walked next. The chicken sandwiches from Bongee Chicken & Burger called out to us, so we took two of the last few available seats and placed our orders.

“Max Cream” was the only beer on draft. It tasted like Lone Star to me, which I liked.

We started out splitting a chicken sandwich and a plate of fries, washed down with two icy cold mugs of beer. The chicken sandwich was a bit on the odd side with a patty that kind of reminded me of a slightly sweet, Japanese-style chopped chicken patty with a bunch of herbs mixed into the chicken. The chicken burger was topped with coleslaw, sweet mayo, tomato, and shredded carrots.  It wasn’t quite what we expected but it turned out to be strangely addicting.

I don’t know if we were still hungry or if we were just too tempted by the food we watched other people eat, but we ended up also ordering a plate of garlic chicken. The chicken was coated with a wet garlic sauce and topped with chopped peanuts, served with a side of coleslaw salad (with ketchup dressing) and pickled radish. Once again, not quite what we expected, but being the pigs we are, we had no problems finishing all our food.

And as if that weren’t enough food, we stopped by the nearby GS25 convenience store to pick up some dessert. Sly chose a sweet red bean stuffed sandwich, while I opted for a more unusual item, Cookie O. Apparently it’s a “European Dessert for those who want the best biscuit sand ice cream.” (Sand in this case = sandwich.)

What I was expecting: cream cheese or cheese cake flavored filling with a vanilla cookie outside

What it actually tasted like: a mild, slightly sweet cheesy (brie?) filling with a salty ritz cracker cookie. It had a kind of salty-sweet flavor profile, which I actually really liked. I would eat it again.

DETAILS

Jobakjip (조박집) | CUISINE: Korean bbq | COST – 250g pork ribs: 13,000 KRW, 200g Hanwoo beef: 37,000 KRW | DESCRIPTION: Located in Dwaeji Galbi / Dwaeji Jumulleok Alley / Mapo BBQ Alley where you can find rows of restaurants specializing in grilled pork ribs. Jobakjip stands out because it offers Hanu/Hanwoo beef, Korea’s answer to Wagyu beef. As it’s considered to be Korea’s finest beef offering, an order of Hanwu does not come cheap — approximately $35 for a half pound of seasoned meat. We ordered 500g, and with the unlimited banchan and one bowl each of the cold noodles, we were pretty full… at least for a couple hours. The English/Korean menu is very basic with just a couple items. Don’t be turned off by the long lines and wait list, we found that the lines moved very fast | VERDICT: Recommended.

Bongee Chicken & Burger | CUISINE: Chicken and beer | COST: Inexpensive | DESCRIPTION:  Despite this looking like a chain restaurant on the outside, it was a total family-run business on the inside. Pretty much everything on the menu featured some sort of chicken dish, with fried chicken bites (sharing size) as their most popular item. While the menu is entirely in Korean, it’s like Korean phonetic versions of English words. For example, if you can read Korean (and I mean read, not speak/understand) you can make out menu items like “Double Cheeseburger,” spelled out in Hangul. (A “double cheeseburger btw refers to a chicken burger.) Otherwise, when in doubt, point.  Unfortunately I couldn’t find this on a map, but it’s really close to Mapo subway station, exit 1, and on the same street at 2 GS 25s, across from Shihan Bank. | VERDICT: Good drunk food, or good local place to get drunk and eat