Eel rice bowl lunch in Mapo, Seoul: Ryeok Freshwater Eel Grill

This is an eel specialist that serves grilled eel in the evening, but at lunch they also sell eel rice bowls and a range of meal options!

I visited at 1 p.m., and when I arrived, it looked like the first lunch rush had just passed, so the tables were still being cleared. When I said I had a reservation, the staff cleared everything away so quickly. Crazy fast!

The restaurant was cool and comfortable.

Ordering the special eel rice bowl and yuringi

• Special eel rice bowl (hitsumabushi) – ₩27,000
• Yuringi side dish – ₩10,000

Special eel rice bowl

The eel rice bowl arrived first, and I was shocked by how many things came with it... ♥︎ I tend to eat a lot haha, so I added yuringi because I was worried the eel rice bowl might not be enough! (Really, I just wanted to eat it..) But the bowl alone was so generous that, for the first time in my life, I thought, Wait, I might not be able to finish this...? Such amazing value... ✨

How to enjoy hitsumabushi

They set down a stand explaining how to eat it along with the food. Ah, truly such thoughtful service 👏 There were so many ways to enjoy it! It said I could combine the ingredients and seasonings in four ways, so I read it closely in full study mode and tried every one of the four suggested methods. You scoop out small portions with the rice paddle and eat them in different ways!

This gatjeorim (pickled mustard greens) was seriously delicious! It was not overly sour, with the feel of a Korean-style pickle, so it was perfect with the tender eel.

Mixing it with the gatjeorim like this was really delicious!

And sprinkling on a little sansho pepper, adding wasabi, and eating it with ginger was absolutely delicious too. I had no idea sansho could taste this good! The ochazuke was great for a clean finish at the end.

The eel came cut into perfectly manageable pieces on top, and there was seriously so much of it!!!

The miyeokguk (seaweed soup) was so rich too! The seaweed had been simmered until soft, and the broth had almost the depth of beef-bone soup... It was movingly delicious.

The chawanmushi, a Japanese-style steamed egg, had a few pieces of something like fried crumbs on top—I am not quite sure what the topping was—but it was really tasty!

The bare minimum of conscience to avoid a blood-sugar spike.. I loved the salad!

I already love marinated tomatoes, and the two little pieces were so cute and perfect as a palate cleanser 🍅

They even included a bite-size piece of cake. I underestimated it and only took a tiny bite off the edge, but the chocolate was intensely, properly chocolatey—so delicious?! The cake was wonderfully soft and fluffy too, so I tipped the remaining half-bite right into my mouth.

Such thoughtful service, giving you yogurt for dessert too! Ah, I was so full that I packed this to eat later, but then forgot it and left it behind. My yogurt... goodbye... be happy... haha. I was so satisfied that ordering just one rice bowl let me eat such a varied, substantial meal! 👍 They take care of dessert in one go too... I cannot help but love it!

Yuringi side dish

The yuringi I ordered as a side had really big chunks of meat! The outside was unbelievably crisp, almost like eating a cracker, which was completely my style.

If you have a sensitive roof of your mouth, be careful: taking a huge bite and chewing could scrape it! The meat was delicious, and that batter was incredible... 🔥

Even the fabric deodorizer was so thoughtful... And one of the things I really loved here was the staff. Truly so sweet... 🍯 You know those people whose genuine kindness naturally comes through in the way they speak, rather than it being just routine politeness? They were unbelievably considerate and kind haha.

A satisfying choice for lunch or a dinner gathering

Overall, the food was so good that I want to try the grilled eel next time too! Even during the daytime when I visited, there were already guests with the atmosphere of a work dinner. It would be great for a dinner gathering with grilled eel, and since lunch gatherings are popular these days too, I think a hearty eel rice bowl lunch gathering would be perfect(?) as well. (If a company buys me eel rice bowls for lunch, I am loyal! 🫡) Ryeok Minmul Jangeogui Jeonmunjeom (력 민물장어구이전문점) was a great Sangam-dong spot I want to revisit, thanks to its generous eel rice bowl set and sweet staff. Anyway, I ate so deliciously today that it was a lovely meal with a satisfaction score of a million!