Palgeo Station Vietnamese restaurant and movie date course: Raichen

Today's post is about a place I really love among Vietnamese restaurants — Raichen Chilgok Branch, haha. I've been swamped with work lately so posts have been sparse, and real life is so busy I haven't even been able to visit back everyone who's visited my blog... 😂 I said I'd visit back even if it's late, and I feel so sorry about that. Still, I'm here to share useful info actively 🥲 so please take whatever you need!

Raichen Chilgok Branch near Palgeo Station: a date course that ends at the cinema

Raichen Chilgok Branch is a Vietnamese restaurant on the first floor of Heat Town near Palgeo Station in Daegu. There's a Home Plus right next door and a recliner-seat cinema too, so I highly recommend it as a date-course restaurant in Chilgok. My boyfriend and I ate here and then went to see a movie in the Odyssey recliner theater — the route was perfect, haha.

So today, a restaurant that's delicious just from the photos!!! Let me properly introduce Raichen Chilgok Branch, a Palgeo Station spot I genuinely love!!!!

Raichen Chilgok Branch location, hours and parking

• 📍1F 108, 109, 30-23 Dongcheon-ro 23-gil, Buk-gu, Daegu, South Korea
• ⏰ Daily 11:00–21:15 (last order 20:30)
• Closed every Monday
• 🚗 Free parking at the Heat Town building lot / on weekends and holidays, use the Statistics Korea office parking lot across the street
• 📌 Gluten-free and vegan menu options available / baby chairs provided

I visited on a weekend, and since going into the parking lot felt like a hassle, I just parked across the street at the Statistics Korea office lot! It was a bit past lunchtime so the place was fairly quiet.

You can check the menu even from outside the restaurant. This is genuinely one of my favorite Vietnamese spots — a Dongcheon-dong, Daegu favorite — and I love that so many menu items are light enough for lunch.

Inside Raichen Chilgok Branch, and coming with kids

The inside of Raichen Chilgok Branch has a warm Southeast Asian vibe overall 🍃, and the tables are spaced fairly wide apart so it's comfortable to eat here. They also have baby chairs, so I'd recommend it as a dinner spot near Palgeo Station for families with little ones too.

The restaurant was kept really clean, which I loved even more. Each table has a tidy set of utensils, napkins, and wet wipes ready to go.

Check out the menu and any ongoing events! There's a Naver receipt review event going on too, so be sure to take part and get a tasty freebie ~✨ There's also a discount event running in September at this Palgeo Station lunch favorite, Raichen!

There's also a free condensed milk coffee coupon if you go on Naver, so if you're curious, go download it there 👍🏻 And at Raichen, a genuine pho favorite in Chilgok District 3, there are tips placed on the tables for how to enjoy the dishes best — definitely worth checking before you dig in!

The three dishes we ordered at Raichen

Ta-da ✨ our order arrived 😎 Raichen is already famous as an authentic Hanoi-style restaurant, made with a recipe the owner — who's from Hanoi — developed herself! What we ordered:

• Hanoi-style pho
• Charcoal-grilled bun cha
• Banh xeo (Vietnamese savory pancake)

Those three! I really like Raichen's pho because it's so clean-tasting, and I'm genuinely obsessed with banh xeo, while my younger sibling says the bun cha at Raichen is the best. My boyfriend, who came along, loved everything too, haha.

Charcoal-grilled bun cha, full of smoky flavour

Genuinely grilled over charcoal, this authentic Hanoi-style bun cha (grilled pork with rice noodles) is packed with smoky flavor! The smoky aroma hit the moment the dish arrived — it smelled amazing, and the visuals were so good I wanted to eat it right away.

Bun cha is a dish where you dip noodles, vegetables, and nem (spring rolls) into a bowl loaded with smoky grilled meat and sauce, then scoop it all up together with the meat! There's really a generous amount of meat.

Piling it up like this and eating it with the noodles — how could that not be delicious? The smoky flavor fills your whole mouth and the meat is so tender it's just amazing.

The meatballs in Raichen's bun cha — this Chilgok, Daegu favorite — are also super soft, and the charcoal flavor makes them taste even better. I usually don't like meatball-style dishes, but I genuinely enjoyed this one 🤤💛

How the Hanoi pho broth tastes

I love that the authentic Hanoi-style pho broth, simmered for 24 hours from beef bone and brisket, is clean but also rich and deep!

The meat is so tender and pairs so well with the noodles. I like dipping it into Raichen's sauce along with the pickled onions — it's absolutely delicious! 👍🏻💛

Banh xeo: a generously sized Vietnamese pancake

Next up — honestly, this is what I came to Raichen, this Chilgok, Daegu favorite, craving so badly — the Vietnamese pancake, banh xeo!! It's genuinely huge and packed with generous fillings inside, so it's really delicious... the best 👍🏻

You place lettuce, banh xeo, and pickles onto a dry rice paper wrap right there and roll it up — it's genuinely delicious. Honestly, Raichen's banh xeo is so hearty in size that I cut it in half before wrapping, and it's still huge even then 🤓👍🏻👍🏻

Wrapped up neatly and dipped into the nuoc mam sauce, the crunch of the vegetables and pickles, the sweet-tangy sauce, the savory flavor of the banh xeo itself, and the varied flavors of the seafood all come together in harmony ~ Genuinely delicious, so I highly recommend it!! 💛

Why we would go back to Raichen Chilgok Branch

Raichen's pork trotter rice is also really, really delicious, so I recommend it too! All three dishes we ordered were amazing, and my boyfriend and I left completely satisfied, haha 🤪 Recommending Raichen Chilgok Branch as a great restaurant in Chilgok District 3, Daegu! Whenever you're craving Vietnamese food, go check it out ~🤩