Pot rice for one in Gwangalli while pregnant: eel and shrimp, Solsot

Where is Solsot Gwangalli?

Solsot Gwangalli (솔솥 광안리점) is a pot rice restaurant at 78 Gwangnam-ro, Suyeong-gu, Busan, on the 1st floor. It's near Geumnyeonsan Station, so it's a good Gwangalli food stop while you stroll over from Gwangalli Beach. I went this time.

• 📍 78 Gwangnam-ro, Suyeong-gu, Busan, 1st floor
• ⏰️ Daily 11:00-21:00
• Last order 20:30

It's close to Geumnyeonsan Station, so if you're taking public transport, keep that in mind!

Solsot Gwangalli menu and prices

Pot rice (solbap, rice cooked in an individual iron pot) at Solsot Gwangalli runs from ₩14,900 to ₩25,900, and the eel pot rice is the priciest at ₩25,900. They also offer double toppings, so if you want plenty of garnish, you can add more.

• Steak pot rice ₩17,900
• Sea bream scallop pot rice ₩17,900
• Abalone pot rice ₩17,900
• Eel pot rice ₩25,900
• Cockle pot rice ₩14,900
• Salmon pot rice ₩17,900
• Pork bracken pot rice ₩14,900
• Boneless hairtail pot rice ₩17,900
• Lobster shrimp pot rice ₩17,900

For sides there were handmade fried shrimp, yurinki (fried chicken with scallion soy sauce) and cheese pork cutlet, which look like great partners for pot rice.

Soju, beer, soft drinks, and even Asahi draft beer! I really wanted a cold draft beer, but a pregnant woman has to squeeze her eyes shut and walk past.

You can order comfortably on the tablet at your table!

How do you eat Solsot's freshwater eel pot rice?

At Solsot Gwangalli, each pot rice has a slightly different way of eating it. I had the freshwater eel pot rice, and you don't mix the rice and eel together; you scoop them up together. When about a third of the rice and eel is left, you move it to your small plate and pour broth over it, with wasabi and perilla leaves.

There were really a lot of foreign customers, too. Gwangalli is such a hot tourist spot these days that I, a born-and-raised Busan local, felt like I was the one traveling from far away.

Crispy nurungji (scorched rice) for putting into the sungnyung (scorched rice tea) is set out nearby too, so you can take as much as you like.

Ordering eel pot rice and fried shrimp for one

This day at Solsot Gwangalli, I ordered the freshwater eel pot rice and the fried shrimp.

The pot is hot, so be careful!

Side dishes at Solsot Gwangalli

• Starter salad
• Perilla leaves, pickled ginger, myeongi namul (wild garlic pickles), wasabi
• Young radish kimchi (yeolmu kimchi)
• Soybean paste soup (doenjang-guk)

A little seaweed (gim) came on the small plate too.

Fried shrimp with egg mayo sauce

The fried shrimp at Solsot was piled with egg mayo sauce, tangy and addictive.

Take a look at this freshwater eel pot rice, please T_T Golden-brown eel, grilled with the sauce brushed on nicely.

Is Solsot Gwangalli good for eating alone?

There were more solo diners at Solsot Gwangalli than I expected, so I could eat comfortably on my own. My husband suddenly had to go on a business trip to Gunsan that very day, so I came for a meal alone, and with so many other solo diners I enjoyed it.

Eel and fried shrimp, no less! My husband is out on his trip working hard for money while I'm living in luxury, ahem. Honestly, I was hooked on how this fried shrimp looked and rushed over, hahaha.

With the eel pot rice, you're supposed to scoop some out and then pour in broth to make sungnyung, but I only like plain rice and water, so I took everything out and ate it that way. If my husband had been there, he'd have put in eel, rice and broth and eaten it like ochazuke (Japanese tea over rice)!

How the eel pot rice tastes, plus a sungnyung finish

With Solsot's freshwater eel pot rice, you lay the eel gently on the rice and take a spoonful. Chewy, sweet eel with a light smoky flavor over rice, it's a total rice thief.

I recommend putting wasabi on the eel to taste, which gives it a deeper flavor. I poured in broth generously to make sungnyung; the rice itself is lightly seasoned and the broth is nutty, so it came out twice as nutty.

Eaten with chopped scallions, it felt like a digestive aid, a K-digestive dessert, hahaha.

Who should go to Solsot Gwangalli?

Solsot Gwangalli has wide tables, so it works for groups, for eating alone like me, and for dates, so drop in when you come to Gwangalli Beach. When you don't feel like cooking at home and want pot rice, it's Solsot.

After the meal: Gwangan Bridge and the slow mailbox

Since I'd come all the way to Gwangalli, I looked at Gwangan Bridge and got some fresh air. There's a slow mailbox (느린우체통) out front, and they say the letter gets mailed a year later. I recommend going to Solsot and then taking the mailbox route, haha.