Family dinner at a Gwangju eel restaurant: two whole eels at Ppaksen

The weather's gotten a bit cooler lately, with a chilly wind blowing morning and evening — and my mom seemed to be struggling with her rhinitis, so I took my parents to <Ppaksen Freshwater Eel> in front of Songjeong Station to help her build up her strength~

Paid with my own money, verified!!

Where is Ppaksen Freshwater Eel Songjeong Station Branch, and where do you park?

Ppaksen Freshwater Eel Songjeong Station Branch is at 14 Songjeong-ro 30beon-gil, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, South Korea, 1st floor, right in front of Songjeong Station. Here's what the storefront looks like — there's a small parking space right in front, but it's pretty tight with room for only 3-4 cars. It's probably more convenient to use the Songjeong Station Market public parking lot, a 3-minute walk away :)

• Parking: available
• Business hours: no information
• Break time: no information
• Regular closed days: no information

We visited on a Sunday evening, and here's what the inside looked like. The tables were spaced quite generously, which made it comfortable and pleasant.

Menu and prices: grilled eel at 9,800 won per portion

There was a menu board right in the middle of the restaurant — can you see the prices!? A regular portion of salt-grilled or sauce-grilled eel is 150g for ₩9,800, so it's quite good value. There was also an Energy Boost Set with grilled eel, deodeok, and bokbunja, and a Chadol Yukhoe Samhap Set with beef brisket.

We ordered premium grilled eel — two portions of salt-grilled and two of sauce-grilled — plus deodeok (bellflower root), steamed egg, and eel soup, one per person. For the sauce-grilled, we could choose regular or spicy sauce, and we went with spicy.

Side dishes and what comes with every order

Once we ordered, they brought out the side dishes first — though they were less like typical banchan and more like things meant to be eaten alongside the grilled eel, such as green onion kimchi, garlic, chili peppers, and ginger.

If you run out, you can also get refills at the self-serve bar.

An onion-and-chive soy sauce also came out with the meal.

Doenjang stew (soybean paste stew) is also included by default — and it tastes like, well, exactly the doenjang stew you'd expect haha.

The steamed egg came out quickly too. And again, it was that same savory, mild steamed egg everyone knows!!

Two whole premium eels, pre-grilled over charcoal

At Ppaksen Freshwater Eel Songjeong Station Branch, they bring the whole eel to the table and cut it into bite-sized pieces before putting it on the grill — I snapped a photo before it got cut up. It came pre-grilled, already about 70% cooked, so it only needed a little more time on the grill before we could dig in.

Two eels like this came to just over ₩50,000, meaning each eel was around ₩27,000 — and they were quite plump and a decent size. I'd say this place genuinely delivers on value for grilled eel. There was no grilling service, so since the sauce-grilled eel can burn easily, we made sure to flip it often ourselves.

Charcoal-grilled deodeok root at Ppaksen

While the eel was grilling, the charcoal-grilled deodeok came out too — does anyone else love deodeok? ㅠ I'm someone who can't get enough of it once it's seasoned and grilled like this, so I was thrilled.

You can eat it right away since it comes already grilled, but it's even better if you put it on the grill for a bit longer. The fragrant flavor unique to deodeok combined with the charcoal aroma was great, and it did a nice job cutting through the richness when we were getting a bit tired of the fatty eel.

Salt-grilled or spicy sauce eel: which one won?

Here's the eel once it was mostly cooked. I plated one piece each of salt-grilled and sauce-grilled — looks good, right? haha. The sauce for the sauce-grilled version was quite thick and sticky, so it wasn't easy to grill properly ㅠ

First, the salt-grilled eel, which is easy to enjoy as a base flavor~ If you want to taste the eel itself in its purest form, salt-grilled is definitely the safest choice. Grilled over charcoal, the outside turns a nice golden brown with a savory, smoky aroma, and thanks to the fat content, the inside stays moist and tender.

Eel has that characteristic richness, so eating it with ginger or the side dishes helped cut through it and made it taste even cleaner.

Wrapping it in a lettuce leaf like this was delicious too, of course,

but the winner of the day for me was lightly grilling some green onion kimchi on the grill and putting it on top of the salt-grilled eel haha.

Next up, the sauce-grilled version! The sauce I ordered was the spicy one, so it was quite spicy, with a sweet-and-salty balance that went great with rice — and even though I didn't drink that day, it looked like it would pair really well with alcohol too.

I claimed the eel tail for myself haha. I came here to help my parents recover, but ended up treating myself pretty well too. Having tried both styles, I personally found the clean flavor of the salt-grilled eel suited my taste more than the sauce.

Finishing with eel soup, and why the sancho pepper divides opinion

We finished up with eel soup.

Filling up on grilled eel and then having eel soup on top felt like properly building up our strength — and after all that rich grilled eel, finishing with a hot soup dish really hit the spot.

We even mixed in rice and cleaned out the whole earthenware bowl — it was a delicious eel soup. That said, the broth seemed to have a touch of sancho (Sichuan pepper) powder added to mask any fishy smell, and that might be a bit polarizing depending on your taste.

Is Ppaksen Freshwater Eel worth it for a family dinner in Gwangju?

This time we had quite a hearty meal with grilled eel plus deodeok, steamed egg, and eel soup. The biggest strength was definitely the good value for money, and if I come back again, I think I'll lean more toward the salt-grilled eel :) If you're looking for a great grilled eel spot near Gwangju Songjeong Station, or a place for a family meal or a health-boosting dinner, I'd recommend <Ppaksen Freshwater Eel>!

• Taste: 4
• Value for money: 4
• Atmosphere & cleanliness: 4
• Service: 4.5
• Would revisit: 4
• Honest review rating: ★★★★