Nowon eel restaurant, post-trip family dinner: Cheonsanga Jangeoga

A full eel set near Hagae Station

My family visited Cheonsanga Jangeoga Hagae Branch to have a restorative meal for Dad after he came home from a trip. It is known around Nowon and Hagae as a good-value, friendly place where they grill the eel for you.

• Daily 11:30–22:00 / last order 21:10
• Break time 15:00–17:00; open without a break on weekends and public holidays
• Takeout, reservations, and group visits are available; high chairs and a waiting area are provided
• Parking is available, and corkage is ₩5,000 per bottle

Cheonsanga Jangeoga Hagae Branch is easy to reach from Exit 2 of Hagae Station, or by buses 100, 146, 111, 1224, and 1132. The nearby outlets are also within a 10-minute walk, so it is great before or after shopping 🙆🏻♀️

There is room for five cars in front of the restaurant 🚗 and public transportation is easy too, so just come whichever way is most convenient for you.

There is a simple menu posted out front. The lunch special is available until 14:30, and a large eel order gets five eels through a 4+1 offer. Isn't that amazing value?

You can pack up leftovers, but please note that vegetables cannot be packed ✔️ There is also a spacious waiting area with soft chairs 🪑

Cheonsanga Jangeoga Hagae Branch has spacious, comfortable seating and an upscale interior, accommodating from two diners up to groups of 66. They also have a wild-ginseng liquor event for group reservations 🍶 so it is a suitable spot for company dinners or group gatherings too.

They are currently running a receipt-review event, offering a drink or five pieces of stone-grilled sushi, so join in and try whichever item you want 🫧

The eel set and what we ordered

Here are the eel set and eel soup menus. The set is the main menu, though I heard many people also order the eel soup. The set includes eel, one stone-grilled sushi per person, salted oyster or pickled deodeok (bellflower root), soybean paste stew for every two people, and scorched-rice tea.

There are plenty of additional side dishes too. From their best-selling eel soup to cold noodles, squid and sausage that taste even better grilled over charcoal! 🦑 There is a wide selection of alcohol and drinks, including bokbunja (Korean black raspberry wine), as you would expect at an eel restaurant. Eel + bokbunja = 😘

Some menu items are available for takeout, and they also sell eel extract. You can have Korean beef sirloin if you reserve it a day ahead. We ordered the three-person set for ₩104,000, Chamisul for ₩5,000, and Coke Zero for ₩2,000.

Once our order was in, a hardworking robot came over to serve it 🤖

The banchan (Korean side dishes), from scallion kimchi to perilla leaves, all go beautifully with eel. They said the perilla leaves are made fresh every morning. Maybe that is why they tasted even better than the ones I usually have!

For extra side dishes, use the self-service bar near the entrance—and please only take what you can eat ~~ 🤍

Eel grilled for you from start to finish

The eel at Cheonsanga Jangeoga Hagae Branch is Japanese-style freshwater eel, and it looked so much plumper. They also use Korean hardwood charcoal. I was shocked by how huge the eel was when they first put it on the grill. Compared with my fist... it was enormous 👊🏻

I especially loved that they grill it for you 🫧 Getting eel nicely browned without burning it is important, and the staff member assigned to our table was a veteran who had worked at every eel place in this neighborhood. Our eel was in such capable hands 🤍

The soybean paste stew comes one per two people, but they generously gave me some extra too, which I was so grateful for.. 🥹💛

The stew is included with the set, and it was a warm soybean paste stew full of mushrooms, onion, and tofu—great alongside the eel. Since there were three of us, we received three stone-grilled sushi pieces. They were much bigger than they look in the photo, so splitting one in half would be plenty. I cut mine into three pieces haha.

You can choose salted oyster or pickled deodeok with the set, and we chose the pickled deodeok. It was delicious on its own and with the sushi, so it is a choice I do not regret. They cut the eel into easy-to-eat pieces and sprinkled salt on it as they went; it was Korean sun-dried sea salt, which I think made it even tastier 🧂

After a long wait, the eel was all cooked. They placed the cooked pieces directly onto our small plates, so all we had to do was eat 🫧 It was beautifully golden-brown. The thick eel looked amazing at a glance, and the nutty aroma alone had me swallowing hard.

It is seasoned with Korean sun-dried sea salt, so it is good on its own, but it is even more delicious dipped in sauce! 🤍 From the first bite, the soft, clean-tasting eel just melted in my mouth—melted 🫠

I can't resist, I can't resist—high-protein, high-fat eel and alcohol are impossible to resist!!

The stone-grilled sushi was also so good topped with wasabi. The rice was lightly seasoned too, so it really felt like eating eel sushi haha. The scallion kimchi + ginger combination was incredible as well. It leaves no chance for the meal to become rich or heavy.

They grilled the last eel too, so the flow of the meal never stopped. Having everything cooked for us made the whole meal so comfortable and enjoyable.

It is delicious wrapped in lettuce or perilla leaves, but my family picked scallion kimchi as the best combination. That is probably why scallion kimchi is in every photo! I cannot even remember how many times we went back to the self-service bar for it ㅎㅁㅎ

Once the last eel was cooked, they slightly raised the grill so it stayed warm without burning. How did they think of that? Such amazing attention to detail 👍🏻

The eel was thick and clean-tasting—how could it stay delicious all the way to the end without becoming tiring? It was amazing that there was not even a hint of fishiness.

The scorched-rice tea that came midway through was warm and mild, absolutely perfect for finishing the meal. It is served only once, so savor it ㅎㅁㅎ

It got quite hot while we were eating, but the owner noticed right away and said they would remove the charcoal. I could really feel how attentively they looked after their guests. Wow, we were seriously, seriously full. We cleared every bit 🐷 I think we properly recharged ourselves haha.

The restroom is immediately outside when you leave through the restaurant door. It has separate facilities for men and women, and it was very clean 🚽

Why it was great for a family restorative meal

They say they use Japanese-style freshwater eel to raise the quality and portion while keeping prices down. Thanks to the house-made side dishes, the meal never felt rich or tiring until the end, and with soybean paste stew and scorched-rice tea included—not to mention staff grilling the eel for you—I cannot imagine a more comfortable meal. It is suitable for group gatherings, family meals, and company dinners, and there are plenty of nearby places to see, including outlets and an art museum, so I highly recommend it for lunch or dinner. The kind owner and staff made it taste twice as good ✨💛