Sintanjin grilled atka mackerel set with a friend: Hwadeogeuro Gan

Let me introduce a Sintanjin favorite where every single thing — the many side dishes and the grilled fish alike — was delicious: Hwadeogeuro Gan Godeungeo Sintanjin Branch (화덕으로간고등어 신탄진점).

Hours and parking at Hwadeogeuro Gan Godeungeo Sintanjin Branch

• Hours: Daily 10:00–21:00
• Break time: 15:30–17:00 (no weekend break)
• Last order: 20:20
• Address: 490 Sintanjin-ro, Jena-dong 102-ho, Daedeok-gu, Daejeon, South Korea
• Parking: In front of the restaurant

Arriving at 11am on a Monday: first impressions

A friend and I went on a Monday at 11am. There's a wide parking lot right in front, so parking was no trouble at all, and the interior's first impression was bright and clean — I couldn't smell any fishiness either.

Near the entrance there's a clay oven. True to the restaurant's name, the mackerel really is going to the oven 🐟 Working in front of that hot fire all day must be so tough — but that's exactly how the delicious clay-oven grilled fish comes together, right?

The menu and what we ordered: two clay-oven fish sets

Here's the menu at Sintanjin favorite Hwadeogeuro Gan Godeungeo Sintanjin Branch. There are sets, plus à la carte dishes like stir-fried pork, egg roe soup, braised radish — and even pizza, which is great for kids. Since there's a clay oven, maybe it's clay-oven pizza? Now I'm even looking forward to the pizza .. 🫢

There was a wide variety of fish (mackerel, atka mackerel, Spanish mackerel, hairtail, dried yellow croaker/gulbi, flounder, sea eel), and you can add more à la carte after ordering. After going back and forth over which fish to get, we ordered the grilled atka mackerel set and the grilled mackerel set. You can choose white or brown rice, so my friend went brown rice and I went white.

These are the side dishes that come standard with the order — of course you can add more from the self-bar!! They also gave us a warm, clean-tasting napa cabbage doenjang soup. Shall we take a look at the self-bar?

What's on the self-bar at Hwadeogeuro Gan Godeungeo?

The self-bar has roughly 10-plus kinds of side dishes, and rice is unlimited too, with a separate corner of seasoned vegetables for making your own bibimbap. Such a shame I was too full to make bibimbap..

On top of that — sungnyung (scorched rice water), japchae, pork cutlet, french fries, and even tteokbokki! Plenty of items that would be great to bring kids along for too.

These are the extra side dishes we brought back from the self-bar. Both of us love lotus root, so we grabbed lotus root, stir-fried julienned potato, and cucumber-pepper muchim, and since we're both wrap fanatics we also brought lettuce wraps, japchae, pork cutlet, and french fries. Once we brought it all back, the table looked even more lavish, right? Every single side dish was neat and clean.

The tteokbokki was a spicy-sweet soupy style, so I scooped some of the broth in too, and eating it together was delicious. The japchae and fried items were warm and crispy too~

Before the grilled fish arrived, we started in on white rice with the napa cabbage doenjang soup and side dishes. Honestly, the side dishes alone would have been more than enough!! The doenjang soup was clean-tasting too, with the natural sweetness of the cabbage coming through nicely.

Atka mackerel vs mackerel: how the two grilled fish compare

Nicely grilled mackerel and atka mackerel, fresh off the clay oven. The atka mackerel's flesh was a bit firmer and nuttier, while the mackerel was soft and had no fishy taste at all. They gave us wasabi too, so mixing it into soy sauce and dipping the grilled fish in was so good…! Grilling over a clay oven really does seem to make it taste even better!

Such a sweet gesture, someone picking the bones out of the fish for me..💗 We brought over some sungnyung and topped it up hot again, which made everything even tastier, and when we ran low on side dishes we just went and got more — another belly-busting meal today too.

After the meal: sujeonggwa, plum tea and how long you wait

A thoughtful touch — sujeonggwa (cinnamon-persimmon punch) and plum tea are ready to cleanse the palate after the meal 🙂↔️ I don't have many reasons to be in Sintanjin, but this was satisfying enough that I'd want to come back again. It seems like a newer opening, because by the time we finished eating, the waiting line was no joke!? A Sintanjin favorite that adults and kids alike can enjoy fully — Hwadeogeuro Gan Godeungeo Sintanjin Branch! Another great meal today.