Unlimited eel and grilled meat in Ansan: Songnim Bok Jangeo

My mother and I were looking for somewhere we could eat both eel and meat, so we visited Songnim Bok Jangeo Freshwater Eel Unlimited Refill, Sadong Branch (송림복장어 민물장어 무한리필 사동점). My mother tends to find the fishy taste of seafood difficult, so I liked that there was meat for us to share as well.

How far is it from Sari Station, and is parking available?

The restaurant is on the first floor at 61 Chodang-ro, Sangnok-gu, Ansan, Gyeonggi-do. It is about a 10-minute walk from Sari Station, near Chodang Elementary School. The original post lists its hours as 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM daily.

We visited on a weekday afternoon. There was also parking space in front of the restaurant.

What are the interior and self-service bar like?

When I went in, the restaurant was generally neat. To me, it seemed like it had not been open for very long.

There was a self-service bar in the middle of the restaurant. We could help ourselves to everything from rice, bean sprout soup, and side dishes to eel and meat.

Alcoholic drinks were also self-service.

I visited around 1 PM on a Tuesday, expecting few customers, but there were more people than I expected. I saw customers dining with their parents, families, and people eating alone. A staff member told us that it gets busier in the evening.

What does the unlimited refill cost, and what meat comes with it?

Besides the unlimited refill, the menu also had meal options. Eel soup was ₩10,000, yukgaejang (spicy beef soup) and buckwheat makguksu (cold buckwheat noodles) were ₩9,000 each, and spicy ramen was ₩5,000.

We ordered the ₩29,900 adult unlimited refill, with a separate ₩3,000 table-setting fee. When we ordered, they brought us eel, pork belly, and chicken neck meat. I liked that the selection let us eat eel and meat together.

The basic side dishes were ginger, perilla leaves, garlic, pickled radish wraps, aged kimchi, green onion kimchi, and pickled onions. My mother found the green onion kimchi unusual and enjoyed it. The whole garlic cloves were quite large, but became sweet when grilled on the griddle.

Was the eel fishy, and how was the chicken neck meat?

We put the eel, pork belly, and chicken neck meat on the griddle and grilled them all at once. With several kinds to choose from, it was fun alternating between them.

The eel, which I had been most curious about, did not taste fishy to me. My mother, who can barely eat seafood because of its fishy taste, took a bite and said it was delicious. I also found it mild and clean-tasting, without an off smell, so it was easy to eat.

The pork belly was good too, but surprisingly, my mother's favorite was the chicken neck meat. It suited her taste so well that she kept eating it until the end.

When we visited, they brought the basic side dishes and also gave us a bottle of Sejong bokbunja (Korean black raspberry wine) as a service. At 12% alcohol, it was not a particularly light drink, but I thought it went well with the eel.

How was this family meal with eel and grilled meat?

My mother and I were both satisfied because we could eat a variety of foods, from eel to pork belly and chicken neck meat. What stayed with me most was that even my mother, who has difficulty with seafood, enjoyed the eel. It was easy for us to dine together because each of us could choose what we liked.