Mapo Korean bar for flatfish sashimi and gopdoritang: Baennori

When you think of Mangwon-dong, there are all those bakeries gathered together, right?! From Hwa Hwa to Neighbors' Ttongtong!! Don't just buy bread—there are so many great restaurants too, so stop by for a little bread hangover cure, haha.

I went to Baennori (뱃놀이), a great Mangwon-dong spot for a date!!! To give you the conclusion first: it was a seriously great restaurant I hadn't visited in a while!!

Where is Baennori?

It's close to the famous bakeries too!! Come out of Exit 2 at Mangwon Station and head straight in—you'll find it easily.

A Korean bar beyond the onggi jars

Wow, it looks like a Korean bar right from the outside, haha. Just pass the onggi (traditional earthenware) jars and head in.

Keep heading through this kind of entrance.

A cozy interior with window seats

Ta-da, here's the cozy interior.

There are window seats like this too, and later they filled up with couples on dates, haha.

One unusual thing is how you pay!! Haha, you take the numbered spoon from the kettle to the counter—that's the concept. We're table 8.

From raw fish to jeon and soups, plus lots of drinks

There were so many varied items that I couldn't photograph everything, but I quickly got the main menu. There are loads of raw-fish options, along with jeon (Korean savory pancakes) and soups, so I think anyone would find something they like. There were also so many drinks, especially highballs and makgeolli (Korean rice wine), and the makgeolli even listed its sweetness and alcohol level. That kind of consideration from the owner made ordering easy.

Moist tofu served with three salted seafood sides

The basic bar snack is tofu, no less!! It comes with three kinds of jeotgal (salted fermented seafood), and it was even a proper item on the side menu. It was so delicious I almost ordered more. The tofu was so moist and went incredibly well with the salted squid and everything else, really waking up my appetite.

Jeonggojip old-fashioned dongdongju

Alcohol is mandatory on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, so I tried dongdongju, a type of makgeolli! Honestly, I probably would have ordered alcohol even if it hadn't been required. 🤭😋

My first time trying this makgeolli!!

My favorite makgeolli is Neurin Maeul Makgeolli, and I think this tasted similar!! It was sweet, nutty, and delicious.

The flatfish and beef sashimi basket pairing

The first dish out was the flatfish and beef sashimi!!!

I couldn't not order the beef sashimi after hearing that they bring in top-grade Korean beef from Majang-dong!!! If you visit Baennori, I really recommend making one of the beef tartare or sashimi dishes a must-order.

Seriously, can you feel how bouncy it is even in the photo..? I ordered the flatfish because I already love it and didn't expect as much from it as the beef sashimi, but the flatfish was sooo delicious too!! Both had an amazing chew, and I could tell immediately that they use great ingredients.

Even flatfish fin meat ㅠㅠ

Wrapping the flatfish in gim (roasted seaweed) with aged kimchi is my favorite combination, so I kept eating it like this. 🤭

The sesame oil dipping sauce was delicious too, along with the special gochujang sauce, aged kimchi, and wasabi—how did they put together only such perfect pairings!! The raw fish is seasonal, so now I'm really curious about Baennori's other boatman menu items, like raw shrimp sashimi. ㅠㅠㅠ

Garlic-loaded boneless gopdoritang

Next was the garlic boneless gopdoritang, a spicy chicken-and-offal stew!! Can you see how much garlic there is..? It was a full spoonful by Korean standards, haha, so I was really looking forward to it.

It was packed with chicken, beef intestines, mushrooms, and potatoes too, haha.

Cheers~ Even the bowl was ceramic. It wasn't very spicy—just like a nicely warming Korean gochujang stew!!

There was daechang (beef large intestine) in it too~ Maybe because of all the garlic, it had a clean Korean-food base. Some gopdoritang places have oil floating all over the top or are full of that capsaicin heat, but this was a proper cooked dish, haha.

So, to enjoy that broth even more, we added kalguksu noodles too, haha.

🥹🥹 So lovely—I was already excited, haha.

Ahh~ The noodles came pre-boiled, so they cooked super quickly, almost like shabu-shabu, haha.

And apparently that still wasn't enough, because we added scorched rice too, haha.

We scraped the bowl completely clean, right down to the last drop of broth!! I genuinely couldn't choose between the kalguksu and scorched rice, so if you order the gopdoritang, I really hope you'll add the extras too, haha.

Ice cream for writing a review

Finally, ice cream too!! You can get it just by writing a review, along with yakgwa (honey cookies) and puffed rice, so everyone, write a review and take one! After eating all this, I truly felt like I might burst. I definitely want to come back again!! If you're ever in Mangwon, give it a try.