Grandma Na Jeong Sun's Jjukkumi — Restaurant in Seoul

Going on holidays in a place you don't speak the language, sometimes you've got to take things on faith, and sometimes you've just got to be lucky. Tonight we pulled both levers.

After our first choice for a Bossam restaurant fell through (apparently they didn't have the ingredients to run the restaurant tonight) I went to a backup restaurant called Grandma Na Jeong Sun's Jjukkumi 나정순 할매 쭈꾸미.

This restaurant took us on a trip today. Opened the door, held up 4 fingers for a table, was sat in the cnr and food was brought out. There is no ordering here. You get the portion size for the number of people. For us it was 2 bowls of marinated baby octopus. Immediately the first bowl was poured onto the hot plate and mix of steam and chilli filled the air.

As reviews have mentioned, it is a spicy dish, but not extreme. My boys managed to work through it, and Maki made an attempt as well. Wrapped in a leaf with some mayo based side dish, and the baby octopus, each mouthful was moreish. I can imagine a group of people eating this and drinking a boat load of shochu.

Then, with the first bowl of octopus eaten, I heard "rice? " and held up 2 fingers. I thought, a it of white rice would be nice, but we were in for a surprise. With 1/2 of the second bowl of octopus taken off of the hot plate, the rice and some seaweed were added to the hotplate, at which point the motherly server made a sensational fried rice in the now jammy gochujang based marinade.

Letting the rice sizzle on the hot plate, it built up a delicious crust, and was a brilliant addition to the meal.

Heading over to pay (having cleaned up all the food) I was in for one final surprise. They gave each of us a yakult bottle to drink before we left.

This was probably the most Korean meal I've ever had. Nothing I could easily order. An experience unlike anything I've had, and it just took a bit of faith in the quite full restaurant and the...

An authentic experience off the beaten tourist path!

We came here twice to eat the octopus (the only dish on the menu) and did not see any other tourists. The meal itself is prepared right in front of you as you sit down. Raw octopus is mixed with an extremely spicy red sauce (don’t come here if you don’t like spicy), and within a few minutes you can start eating.

Take a piece of octopus, wrap it in a perilla leaf, add some more sauce, pickled onions, and cabbage, form a little ball with the leaf and eat it (just look at the other guests if you are not sure how to eat it).

Once you are half way done, I would recommend ordering fried rice with seaweed (comes with a tofu soup). The rice perfectly soaked up the sauce and tastes delicious with the octopus. Service was very attentive and prices were fair.

Only downside is that your clothes will smell like seafood even if you wear the provided bib, but if you are looking for a unique place to eat in Seoul, this is the...

I am writing this to tell that this restaurant discriminates people who eat alone. I came from overseas and wanted to try and got turned away just because I am alone dining. Thanks for wasting my time and effort to come. Restaurant that discriminates and don't welcome 1...