[Jeju] Samseonghyeol Haemultang 삼성혈해물탕 본점 @20 Seondeok-ro 5-gil Seogwipo

Travelled to Jeju for the very first time with my foodie/travel buddies and was excited for the first meal in Jeju. Read about our non-food related activities via this post of where we went for our rental car as this was a continuation from there.

It was late lunch after we had gotten our rental car and fueled it up. It was time to fuel our famished tummies. Tracy had chosen our lunch spot before hand and it was on purpose to be near the rental car place. Let's go get some seafood stew!

Samseonghyeol Haemultang

live octopus

Was half expecting to be turned away as it was way past the last order time and the shop was ready to take their mid-day break. Fortunately, the boss indicated that we could dine in if we are able to finish our meal within 45 minutes. Ok, challenge on!

interior

Ordered a seafood stew good for 3 pax and a portion of abalone porridge. This was us being cautious as we were unsure of the portion size in Jeju. Plus we wanted to maintain some space for dinner, which will happen in a few hours time, haha~

Was ordering easy? Yes especially after the staff asked us if we could converse in Mandarin instead. Haha!

Banchan was served right after our order. Speedy service as we were the only ones in the restaurant.

six types of side dishes

We were given two sets of banchans and each set consists of 6 varieties. And yes, you could ask the staff to refill those that you preferred. The outstanding side dishes were the anchovies (tasted super nice/fresh) and the potato pancake. Kimchi was mellow yet not overly fermented. Whets our already active appetite!

tasty anchovies

favourite - mini potato pancake

feels healthy

And when the main dish was presented, it elicited plenty of 'oohs and aahs' from the entire table. A large stew pot, filled to the brim with seafood that's practically still moving.

Seafood stew (haemultang해물탕)

The pot consist of abalones, different types of clams, crab, mussels, beansprouts (lots of it!) and onions. The stew was probably at spice level 0.5 out of 10.

The nice staff, Ms Nie, enquired if we would like to have the stew brought back to the kitchen to speed up the cooking process since we were already famished and so we agreed. She took the pot back to the kitchen and reappeared with the pot bubbling.

huge clam

She also advised us to eat up the octopus first before it gets all chewy. We obliged and yes, the texture was perfectly tender with a good gentle bite.

boiling away

Oh, there was abalone porridge too. Although am not a fan of abalone porridge in general, this bowl was impressive due to its sheer size. So much porridge for the 4 of us!

abalone porridge 전복죽

On hindsight, this place does have a more flavourful abalone porridge as compared to other places later on.

Haflway through, Ms Nie brought out a plate of a small grilled fish. Complimentary, she said. Wow, thank you to the boss for giving us this. She said it is '港口鱼' when asked about its type, to which literally means sea port fish? Ok!

grilled fish

Whatever this fish is, I liked it. The flesh was soft, and subtly sweet. I suppose with Jeju being so close to the sea, freshness is a daily occurrence.

Then, Tracy did her customary thing which is to add ramyun as the finale of the meal.

instant noodles

One of the tips given by the staff when eating this seafood stew, is to remove the shells after all the seafood had been cooked, to avoid it continuing to flavour the soup as prolonged boiling with shells in will eventually make the soup saltier (and that with the evaporation of the water).

finished in 40 minutes

All in all, we were satisfied with our meal and the service experienced by the friendly staff. Spent ₩101,000 for our late lunch (including non-alcoholic drinks). This was about SGD35 per pax.

one hallabong drink a day in Jeju

Samseonghyeol Haemultang 삼성혈해물탕 본점

Address: 20 Seondeok-ro 5-gil, 특별자치도, Cheju, Jeju-do, South Korea

Contact: +82 64-745-3000

Business Hours: 

Daily: 10 am–9 pm

Mid-day break: 3pm