-
Start
-
China Town
-
Sinseungbanjeom
-
Street Food
-
Donghwa Village
-
Songwoldong
-
Wolmido
-
Orakai
-
Sinbokgwan
-
Central Park
-
Akino Kitchen
-
Museums
-
Finish
There are many hotels with clean and great view in Songdo new town in Incheon so we had a nice dinner near the hotel we stayed in Songo. It has special menu that serves spicy short arm octopus dipped in fondue cheese. Their unseemingly harmonized taste was famous among tourists so I was wondering how it would taste.
Short arm octopus restaurant, Sinbokgwan, is located in downtown. It’s 5 minutes distance from hotel district so it’s easily accessed by tourists. 
Unlike Korean food restaurant, the restaurant looked fancy and clean yet Korean style. I went there quite past the dinner time so it was empty but you’ll see a long waiting line on weekends or holidays. 
We ordered the popular menu, Ujju Set. Ujju Set includes sliced beef, spicy short arm octopus, cold jelly soup, crunchy salads, fried rice and beverage for 2 people. I was satisfied with various dishes at first. 
And we ordered extra Cheese Fondue, the thing that made Sinbokgwan famous as a must-eat restaurant in Songdo, Incheon.
Ta-da~It was non-busy hours so we didn’t have to wait for long. The dishes were in general neat and plentiful. 
Cold acorn jelly soup(Muksabal) cooling down spicy short arm octopus. You might think it is not needed in winter but it was pretty good to cool my tongue down from spicy short arm octopus. Sweet and sour soup had soft acorn. 
If you cannot cool down your tongue with soup, you should drink this Coolpiss. You know that milk helps, right? This one is also dairy product so it’s helpful for spicy taste and dessert as well since it’s sweet and sour. 
Cheese fondue was served. It’s served on a small brazier for us to enjoy warm cheese fondue while we eat. 
Lastly served one is UjjuBokkeum(fried short arm octopus and beef). You see sliced onions and welsh onions with fried sliced beef(U) and fried spicy short arm octopus on them.
Sinbokgwan has other dishes like meat and octopus but the most famous one is fried short arm octopus. It’s quite spicy that made me pour cold sweat and the texture was quite good like it’s raw.
And this stir-fried beef was served with the menu. It’s soft since it’s sliced and it had a nice scent since it was fried with charcoal fire.
It’s greasy to dip fried beef into fondue cheese so you’d better wrap it with Ssam(leaves of lettuce, cabbage, sesame or other greens) and put a piece of garlic and ssamjang in it. 
And to put cheese on vegetables with short arm octopus in it, it was so nice that I got it why it is so popular.
We dipped short arm octopus into cheese in order to feel cheese and spicy taste along with cheese. Quite spicy octopus harmonized with cheese taste made me want to eat it more and more. 
When you’re almost done with meat and short arm octopus, they will fry rice with leftover sauce. And they spread the magic powder ‘chopped seafood’ on it to make it crust of overcooked rice and it was so nice as it was properly salted.
We still had fondue cheese so we applied it to top of the rice. Cheese never let me down. Fried rice was most and flavory that we finished them all.
One of greatest things of traveling is that you get to eat unique food that you cannot usually eat. In that sense, Sinbokgwan’s short arm octopus dipped in cheese was unique yet delicious. Plus it’s plentiful at a reasonable price so it must be a must-eat food for tourists in Incheon.
Address : Eunjin Plaza Room No. 105, 3-27, Songdo-dong, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon (인천광역시 연수구 송도동 3-27 은진프라자105호)
Telephone : 1688-6098
Opening Hours and Holidays : Everyday 11:00 - 22:00, 16:00 – 17:00 (Break time), Closed on National Holidays
