Wood-fired grilled fish set with mackerel and Spanish mackerel in

As much as I love grilled fish, cooking it at home is a bit much because of the smell. My kid wanted fish, so we headed to the newly opened Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo Siksa Branch.

Order any grilled fish and you get freshly made pot rice, an all-you-can-refill self-bar of side dishes, and even herb bibimbap — basically a full Korean table spread. Grilled crisp on the outside, moist inside, cooked in a 500-degree wood-fired oven — let me introduce this Siksa-dong restaurant.

Hours

• ⏱️ 11:00 - 22:00
• 📌 Last order 20:20

• ▪️ Crispy, moist grilled fish from a wood-fired oven
• ▪️ A wide range of set menus beyond grilled fish
• ▪️ Self-bar with side dishes and bibimbap ingredients
• ▪️ A kids' play room for little ones

Where to park?

You can park in the building's basement lot or the outdoor lot. For outdoor parking, you enter a code given to you when you leave, so don't forget it after your meal.

The vibe

Being newly opened, the interior felt clean and pleasant overall. Tables range from 4-seaters to 8-seaters with generous spacing, so it works well for family meals or larger groups.

A kids' play room that's great to bring children to

There's a small play room for kids. While they play, the adults can eat a bit more leisurely.

📌 Note that children 8 and older or taller than 125cm are not allowed to use it!

There are also baby chairs set up in one corner of the restaurant, so families with young children can dine comfortably.

500-degree wood-fired grilled fish

They happened to be grilling fish just then, so I went over to watch. You could see the fish being grilled in the 500-degree wood-fired oven.

Grilled fast at high heat, the fat renders out and the surface turns golden and crisp — no wonder it tastes so good. Grilling fish at home and getting rid of the smell afterward is such a chore, so it was great to enjoy wood-fired fish comfortably at this Ilsandong-gu restaurant.

A generous self-bar spread

Besides the grilled fish, the self-bar has seaweed soup, kimchi pancake, japchae, and tteokbokki.

You can freely help yourself to as much as you like of various side dishes like lotus root, seaweed stems, gochujang-seasoned peppers, cabbage pickles, chonggak kimchi (young radish kimchi), bean sprouts, radish salad, and bracken fern.

Rice is also provided free so you can turn the self-bar herb dishes into bibimbap.

There's also coffee, plum tea and sikhye (sweet rice punch) to drink after the meal, great for cleansing the palate.

Menu and prices

Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo's menu centers on set meals of grilled fish with pot rice and side dishes. The mackerel pot rice set is ₩17,000, atka mackerel ₩19,000, Spanish mackerel ₩21,000, Yeonggwang gulbi ₩22,000, hairtail ₩25,000, and bori gulbi ₩29,000 — the price changes depending on the fish.

Besides grilled fish, there's pork pot rice, yellow crab stew set, egg soup, and braised bracken fern with mackerel. If you're going with a group, the set menus look good too.

• ✔️ Nourishing 2-person set ₩45,000 (sea eel, flounder, braised fish, mackerel)
• ✔️ Nourishing 3-person set ₩65,000 (2-person set plus atka mackerel and yellow crab stew)
• ✔️ Mackerel set for ages 5-7, ₩9,000
• ✔️ Wood-fired hand-made tteokgalbi ₩10,000 📍there's a separate kids menu too

Here's what we ordered.

• ▫️ Wood-fired mackerel set ₩17,000
• ▫️ Wood-fired Spanish mackerel set ₩21,000

After ordering, seaweed soup and basic side dishes were neatly set on the table. We also grabbed kimchi pancake and tteokbokki from the self-bar.

Grilled mackerel & grilled Spanish mackerel

Soon after, the fish came out golden brown from the wood-fired oven, and the table was suddenly full of food.

With grilled fish, pot rice, and all sorts of side dishes, it was a really satisfying meal.

We tried the mackerel first. The savory, salty flavor mackerel is known for really woke up the appetite. Grilled in the wood-fired oven, even the skin was nicely crisp. The flesh was soft and moist, and eating it with the pot rice was basically criminal — I couldn't stop.

The grilled Spanish mackerel was arm-length, which honestly surprised me with its size. The flesh was really thick too, plenty for me and my kid to share.

The seasoning was mild, so dipping it lightly in wasabi soy sauce was just right. Being wood-fired, the flesh wasn't dry at all — the distinctive clean, chewy quality of Spanish mackerel really came through, and my kid and I enjoyed it a lot.

The pot rice served with the grilled fish deserves mention too. Freshly cooked, it was glossy and sticky, and tasted great.

Pour water into the leftover pot and let the rice crust soak — nurungji prep!

We tried the seaweed soup first — the seasoning wasn't salty, so it was easy to enjoy on its own.

It was nice to pair the side dishes bite by bite between mouthfuls of grilled fish. The japchae hadn't gone soggy, and the tangy kimchi pancake and tteokbokki really suited our taste — we even went back for refills.

Tteokgalbi for the kid

Since we came with a child, they gave us a complimentary tteokgalbi (grilled minced beef patty) to try. If your kid prefers meat over fish, you can order tteokgalbi as a separate dish too.

Grilled in the wood-fired oven, it had a subtle smoky aroma — golden outside and tender inside, and my kid said it was delicious and ate it right up.

Finishing with herb bibimbap and nurungji

Even though we were pretty full from the grilled fish and side dishes, herb bibimbap was a must! We mixed the various herbs with gochujang (red chili paste) and sesame oil. The gochujang wasn't too spicy or salty, and its sweet-tangy flavor went well with the herbs. The tangy radish salad especially perked up my appetite — even full, I kept eating.

📌 Definitely try the herb bibimbap!

We topped the nurungji with a slice of cucumber pepper for a refreshing finish.

And to finish, a glass of sikhye! After the grilled fish, the sweet, cold sikhye cleaned up the palate nicely. It tasted homemade, so I had two cups :)

Final thoughts

This Siksa-dong restaurant let us enjoy a neat, hearty spread of crisp-outside, moist-inside grilled fish straight from the wood-fired oven. The staff were friendly throughout, which made the meal even more pleasant, and it was nice being able to freely help ourselves at the self-bar without feeling awkward about it.

I think I'll be craving this again when I want grilled fish — I plan to come back to Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo next time that happens.