Jungdamun Bossam Bukchon : boiled pork and octopus in a 100 year old hanok in Seoul

Jungdamun Bossam Bukchon Seoul 정담은보쌈 북촌점 is a restaurant that specialises in the traditional Korean dish of bossam – boiled pork belly wrapped in cabbage with kimchi and other seasonings. Enjoying it in a traditional Korean house in the heart of Seoul made it even more interesting.

Bossam Restaurant in a 100 year old hanok in Bukchon

Located in the very historic area of Bukchon and a short walk away from the photogenic spots of Bukchon Hanok Village, the restaurant is housed in a well-restored hanok. According to the Jungdamun Bossam Bukchon website, the building is more than 100 years old. This restaurant is one of three outlets of the restaurant. Its other Seoul outlets are in Sillim and Hwaseong.

The restaurant follows the U-shape of the building, giving diners a good view of the landscaped courtyard in the centre.

Jungdamun Bossam Bukchon Menu

Here are pictures of some sample pages from the Jungdamun Bossam Bukchon Menu. We believe there may be some differences from the menus at the Sillim branch and the Hwaseong branch. The choices revolve around the main dish of bossam. A simple bossam combo with bossam and noodles for two person costs KRW38,000 (around S$35).

Even though this set meal combo would have been more than adequate for us, we were intrigued by the pictures of octopus in the menu and so decided to try the Octopus Bossam combo for two pax which was priced at KRW50,000 (about S$45).

Our Bossam and Octopus Lunch in Bukchon

Some small side dishes, condiments were already prepared on the tables as we were there at the start of lunch at around 11am. The first sitting was almost full and the tables soon filled up. We noticed that all our neighbours ordered the basic bossam and noodles combo and were served very quickly.

Our food arrived about 20 minutes after everyone else. It seemed that the culprit was the octopus which took time to be cooked. The bossam pork however is an essential ingredient and was pre-cooked, ready to be served on order. This is a picture of the beautiful food when it arrived at our table.

Looking beautiful yet weird at the same time was the octopus. It was fairly large, curled into a ball of around 15cm. The meat was tough and quite tasteless. The only way was to eat it Korean style i.e. cutting the tentacles into small bite sized pieces using the food scissors. Eating it with the sauce and kimchi gave it some flavour. But it was a workout for the jaw muscles. We left behind a big portion of this mollusc.

The star of the meal was the bossam. The pork belly had been expertly cleaned and cooked. The pieces were soft and had a good mix of fat and lean meat. Most importantly, there was no porky smell or flavour.

They were at their best eaten with cabbage and kimchi and/or bean paste that had been served in neat balls (picture below).

Reservations for Lunch

This was a satisfying Korean meal of bossam in a beautiful restaurant in Seoul. The management are justifiably proud of their building restoration (see notice posted at restaurant below) As this restaurant seems popular with both locals and visitors, it’s best to make an advance reservation. We used the Catchtable App for this purpose.

Ratings:
Food: 3
Service: 4
Value: 4
Atmosphere: 4
Overall Rating: 4 TOPs 

정담은보쌈 북촌점 Jungdamun Bossam Bukchon
주소: 서울시 종로구 계동 104-4 (안국역 인근)

Address: 104-4 Gye-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul (near Anguk Station)

Weekdays: 11:00 am – 10:00 pm
Weekend: 11:00 am – 9:00 pm

Website