Bonchon-dong charcoal eel BBQ, 44-team wait in 30 min: Deokeun Jangeo

I was in Gwangju recently and went to Deokeun Jangeo (더큰장어), a well-known eel place, with my family. Friends and people around me kept saying the eel is huge and the price is so kind that it's always packed~~ A Gwangju eel place and I love eel? No way I wasn't going. So I went right away.

Where is Deokeun Jangeo, and what about parking?

Deokeun Jangeo is in Bonchon-dong, Buk-gu, Gwangju, next to Honam Regional Rehabilitation Hospital, and it's open 11:00–22:00. I used to come here a lot during my practicum at the hospital. Back then there were no eel restaurants or cafés like this, but when I came back after a long time, so many places had opened. Mountains and rivers really do change!!!

There's a local food market, the hospital and pretty cafés, and Deokeun Jangeo sits next to the hospital. Even before we went in, the cars were crowded, and I thought the wait would be crazy, so I hopped out and ran in to get our spot!

I've gone out for eel in Gwangju a lot, but I've never seen such a big restaurant. Deokeun Jangeo uses the whole building, and even from far away the sign saying pungcheon jangeo (Pungcheon-style wild-type eel) gives off real famous-restaurant vibes.

How long is the wait at Deokeun Jangeo?

For the wait, you enter your phone number on a device inside the 1st floor. Around 6:30pm it showed 44 teams and an estimated 176 minutes, but we actually got in about 7pm. The moment I went to type in my number I saw the count: 44 teams.... 176 minutes...?? (eyes trembling) But customers kept coming in behind me, so I thought, surely it won't really take 176 minutes? and signed up right away.

People whose turn is coming up wait in the 1st-floor waiting seats. The restaurant is already full inside, and plenty of people were standing outside or wandering around the area. The weather was nice, so we walked around and did some shopping, and the time flew.

KakaoTalk messages tell you where you are in the queue, and you can check in real time too. I'd thought about going to a café, but I was out walking instead, and I'm glad I skipped the café~ The place is huge, so the turnover is incredible. We got in sooner than expected and I was so happy haha

How much does it cost and how does it work?

At Deokeun Jangeo you pick eel by weight, pay on the 1st floor, then go upstairs and grill it yourself. The price was about ₩4,830 per 100g. There were lots of options, like 2026g for ₩97,850 and 1902g for ₩91,860. On the staff's recommendation we ordered an amount good for 4 people, paid, and went up.

The table setting fee is ₩4,000 per person, and you pay it on your way out together with anything extra you ordered!!

After you pay, a staff member tells you which table number to go to. Off to the table we go!

Inside Deokeun Jangeo and the atmosphere

This is the inside of Deokeun Jangeo the moment you walk upstairs. It's a popular spot, so it was completely full with hardly a free seat, but the staff are really fast, so the turnover still seemed good. It's also very big, so there were seats I couldn't photograph. That's probably why the queue kept shrinking quickly! Mostly it felt like families coming for a health-boosting meal~~ Gotta recharge before summer comes!!!

Since the place is so big, extra orders go through a kiosk, and the food arrives super fast right after you order haha. Before you start grilling, study the eel-grilling tips on the table and you'll grill it better. I read them three times before I started lol

Side dishes and the self-bar

The side dishes at Deokeun Jangeo include myeongi namul (pickled wild greens), green onion kimchi, napa cabbage kimchi, sliced onion, ssam-mu (pickled radish wraps), ginger, garlic, ssamjang (dipping paste), lettuce and perilla leaves, and more. There's a self-bar, so if you run out you just go get more, which I loved. The sides taste clean, which goes well with the eel.

Deokeun Jangeo grills eel over charcoal. Charcoal is the best, right!?!? It was heated just right, and the eel cooked quickly once it went on. It doesn't burn, so let's grill it gently~~~

Is the eel really big and fresh?

The eel at Deokeun Jangeo comes raw, with no pre-grilling, so you can see the freshness yourself. Once on the grill, part of the tail stuck out past the edge, it was that big and thick. At other restaurants the eel arrives pre-grilled, so you can't tell how fresh it is, but even from the photo you can see it's fresh and glossy, right? The condition is great and it's well prepared, and what surprised me was the size. It's enormous...!!

The order I grilled it in, following the tips

• Put the eel skin-side down on the grill and sear it lightly
• Sprinkle salt, flip it, and grill the white flesh side for 2 minutes
• When it looks fairly cooked, check that it cuts easily with scissors and cut it into bite-size pieces
• Stand the pieces up on their sides to cook evenly
• Once golden, move them to the side of the grill with no charcoal and eat

I grilled it exactly as the eel-grilling tips said. Who's the grill master today!?!? It's me~ it's me~ Once the eel was golden and fairly cooked, I moved it to the side with no charcoal and started eating as I grilled.

I ate it plain, wrapped in perilla leaves and lettuce, wrapped in ssam-mu, and wrapped in myeongi namul. The eel itself is fresh, and the more you chew the nuttier and milder it gets. Eaten without any wrap, it was perfectly crispy outside and juicy inside. Who grilled this eel so well~~~?? It's me haha

Food is all about flow~~ To keep the flow going while eating, I kept putting more eel on. The charcoal isn't blazing but gentle, so if you leave pieces like that, by the time you finish one batch you can start on the next, which is perfect timing.

Seasoned eel and wasabi: which combo is best?

Deokeun Jangeo has a soy-based sauce and a seasoned (spicy) sauce, so you can enjoy the eel glazed too, and brushing it on means you never get tired of it. Even when I was full, it kept going down. I thought it would burn quickly if I grilled it with the sauce on, so we grilled for a while first, then brushed on the sauce and grilled a bit more.

The sauced eel was less about the mild flavor and more like a different dish with the seasoning added. The flesh is so plump that it's fun to chew. I thought wasabi only went well with meat, but eel is an oily fish too, so it pairs nicely with wasabi. Give it a dip in wasabi~

Eel without soju is just sad~~~ A glass of soju, cheers cheers cheers

How is the eel soup?

The jangeo-tang (eel soup) at Deokeun Jangeo arrives scalding hot in a ttukbaegi (earthenware pot), and when I mixed it well with the perilla seed powder, the broth was very rich and deep. While eating eel I'd read on another blog that the eel soup here is good, so I ordered it. I figured a bowl with rice mixed in would disappear fast, so I mixed in rice and polished it off haha. It was also the best side dish for soju....

Dessert fruit and the receipt-review ice cream

The self-bar at Deokeun Jangeo also had oranges and cherry tomatoes for dessert, and after fruit too I was stuffed. We each took one, and my mouth felt fresh and clean, a perfect finish to the meal.

On the way out I noticed an ice cream freezer, and there's a receipt review event: if you write one, you get ice cream for everyone in your group, and even if you don't, you can have one for ₩1,000 each. We wrote the receipt review and each picked an ice cream too! A Gwangju eel restaurant, Deokeun Jangeo, and the eel was really big and delicious.

Overall verdict on Deokeun Jangeo Main Branch

Even while waiting I wondered, how good must this be for so many people to come? It was worth the wait: the eel is sold cheaply, big and thick, and grilled over charcoal it was wonderfully crispy outside and juicy inside. The staff were also very kind, so it's a place I'd love to visit often. Next time I'm in Gwangju I'll definitely go again!! My parents said it was delicious too and that we should come here often~~