Baby chairs and free seaweed soup at Cafe Dongi, a Daegu Korean spot

Today's post is about a Dongseong-ro favorite in Daegu that I've visited many times before and just went back to again — Cafe Dongi Dongseong-ro Main Branch. I've had great meals here in the past, and this time I came with my kids, ages 29 months and 15 months.

When eating out with kids, it matters a lot whether they can actually eat the menu and whether they'll eat well. Cafe Dongi has a self-serve bar with unlimited eggs and rice, which made it really easy to bring the kids along. After this visit too, I still think it's a great Korean restaurant for families, so I wanted to write about it again.

Where is Cafe Dongi Dongseong-ro Main Branch, and when is it open?

Cafe Dongi Dongseong-ro Main Branch 58-9 Dongseong-ro 3-gil, 2nd floor, Jung-gu, Daegu, South Korea Hours: 11:00-21:00 (break time 15:00-16:30) Parking: Nearby public parking lots (Gukchaebosang, 228) Baby chairs: Available

How big is the dining room at Cafe Dongi?

The interior of Cafe Dongi Dongseong-ro Main Branch is spacious and clean overall. Restaurants in Dongseong-ro can sometimes be cramped, but Cafe Dongi has plenty of tables, so it was comfortable to eat here without feeling rushed.

I remembered the place feeling spacious on my earlier visits, and it was still just as pleasant this time. The tables aren't packed too close together, so it wasn't uncomfortable eating with kids either. It's actually popular with office workers in the area at lunchtime, so it seemed like a solid option for a weekday lunch too. Cafe Dongi Dongseong-ro Main Branch is on the 2nd floor and has baby chairs ready, making it a comfortable place to visit with children.

A full toddler meal from the self-serve eggs and multigrain rice

One of my favorite things about this Jungang-ro spot for families is this self-serve bar. You can freely use as much fried egg and multigrain rice as you want. The eggs are fried yourself in a pan, so you can cook them exactly how you like — a nice touch.

For families like ours, this is a real advantage. I made an egg scramble at the self-serve bar for my 29-month-old and 15-month-old and served it with rice, and both of them ate really well. There was no need to worry about ordering a separate kids' menu.

When eating out with kids, there's often plenty for the adults but nothing the kids can actually eat, so you end up packing food from home. At Cafe Dongi, just rice and eggs were enough to cover a kid's meal, which was really convenient. Even my 15-month-old ate well when I cut the egg scramble up small and mixed it with rice. When the kids eat well, it puts the parents at ease from the start of the meal.

How does the prepaid meal voucher work?

Cafe Dongi also offers a prepaid charge service. If you charge ₩100,000, you get to use it as an ₩110,000 meal voucher, which seems like a solid perk for people working around Dongseong-ro who eat lunch here often. It feels designed more for office workers who come back every lunchtime than for a one-time visit.

There are plenty of restaurants around Dongseong-ro in Daegu, but eating out for lunch every day adds up, so a prepaid service like this that lets you eat a bit more cheaply seems quite practical for office workers. In fact, Cafe Dongi is known as a Korean restaurant where office workers in the area can get good value for their lunch.

Baby chairs and disposable bibs at Cafe Dongi

Visiting with kids, baby chairs are essential. Cafe Dongi has baby chairs ready, so I could seat the kids comfortably and eat at ease. They also have disposable bibs available.

Kids often splash food on their clothes or spill things while eating, so having disposable bibs made it nice and hygienic. These little details make a real difference when eating with children.

What kind of rice does Cafe Dongi serve?

True to its reputation as a Dongseong-ro Korean restaurant, Cafe Dongi puts a lot of care into its rice. They use Gimpo Geumssal rice and also serve multigrain rice, made with black barley, oats, red rice, sorghum and millet. Even just eating the rice felt a little healthier.

I think tasty rice matters more than you'd expect at a Korean restaurant, and since the rice itself was good, it paired well with mains like bulgogi or spicy octopus. I especially liked being able to give my kids multigrain rice like this instead of just plain white rice all the time.

Cafe Dongi also runs a membership program. Signing up gets you a tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) coupon for your next visit, so it might be worth joining if you visit often. We tried the taste-size tangsuyuk this time and it was better than expected, so I'd like to use the coupon to try it again next time.

The menu at Cafe Dongi and what we ordered

The menu has a wide variety of Korean dishes. There are solo-grill set-meal trays as well as stews, bulgogi, spicy octopus, tangsuyuk and more, so it's easy for a group to each order what they feel like.

• Solo-grill Dongi bulgogi set meal — ₩12,900
• Solo-grill grandma's spicy octopus set meal — ₩16,900
• Taste-size tangsuyuk — ₩9,900

Cafe Dongi, a Dongseong-ro favorite for families, has a kids menu with dishes like the bulgogi set and tangsuyuk set, and the free baby seaweed soup made it feel like a really generous deal.

The serving robot the kids loved watching

The food is brought out by a serving robot. Kids find it fascinating just watching one pass by. My 29-month-old watched intently as the robot delivered the food. Little moments like this add extra fun when eating with kids. The food also came out faster than expected, so we didn't have to wait long.

Solo-grill grandma's spicy octopus set meal, 16,900 won

First up is the solo-grill grandma's spicy octopus set meal (₩16,900). This was one of my favorite dishes of the meal. The best part was that it comes in an individual grill, so the food didn't cool down easily while we ate. I've seen personal grills used at meat restaurants before, but having one come with a Korean set meal like this meant I could keep eating it warm until the very end.

The octopus was meatier and plumper than expected. It wasn't chopped too fine, so you could really feel the texture of the octopus in each bite. The seasoning wasn't too salty either. Spicy octopus stir-fry can sometimes have such strong seasoning that you end up eating way too much rice, but Cafe Dongi's version was moderately spicy without being overly salty, so it paired well with rice. Along with the side dishes and doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) that came with it, the meal felt quite substantial.

The octopus was great with just rice, but dipping it in the sauce that came alongside was surprisingly good too. The spicy octopus with the sauce created a whole different flavor. Since the octopus itself was plump, dipping it and taking a bite was really satisfying.

Solo-grill Dongi bulgogi set meal, 12,900 won

Next is the solo-grill Dongi bulgogi set meal (₩12,900). The bulgogi also comes in an individual grill, so we could eat it warm. Bulgogi is a dish I often order when eating out with kids, since the soy sauce seasoning makes it easy to share small portions and pair with rice.

There was a generous amount of meat again this time, so it was easy to share bits with the kids. My 29-month-old ate well with bulgogi on top of rice, and my 15-month-old happily ate it once I cut it up small. It's convenient for family outings when you can share bits of an adult dish with the kids even without a separate kids' meal. And thanks to the individual grill, I really liked that the meat didn't cool down while we ate.

Side dishes and omija (schisandra berry) tea to finish

True to a proper Korean set meal, several side dishes came along with it. Stir-fried anchovies, pickled vegetables, dried radish strips and other sides that go well with rice were served neatly. They were familiar, non-intense side dishes typical of a Korean restaurant, which paired well with the main dishes.

With a Korean set meal, it's not just about one tasty main dish — how well the side dishes come together with everything matters too, and at Cafe Dongi, eating the rice, main dish and sides together felt like a proper full meal. To finish, we were served omija tea (five-flavor berry tea) for dessert, which cleaned the palate nicely as a finish to the meal.

The kimchi jjigae that comes with the bulgogi set

We also tried the kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew) that came with the bulgogi set. It arrived still bubbling, so we could eat it hot, and it had plenty of tofu, meat and kimchi inside, making it hearty.

Sometimes a stew is mostly broth, but Cafe Dongi's kimchi jjigae had plenty of solid ingredients, which I liked. The tofu pieces were large, and with meat and kimchi mixed in, it went well with rice. Alternating between the bulgogi or octopus and spoonfuls of the hot kimchi jjigae was great too.

Taste-size tangsuyuk, 9,900 won

The taste-size tangsuyuk (₩9,900). I remembered enjoying this on a previous visit, so I ordered it again this time. Being a taste-size portion, it wasn't too much, making it perfect to nibble alongside the Korean set meal. Ordering a full plate of tangsuyuk can be so filling that you can't eat much else, so having a taste-size option made it easy to add on a dish out of curiosity without much commitment.

The tangsuyuk had a chewy glutinous rice coating more like kkwabaegi-style ggwabaerou (crispy caramelized pork) than typical Chinese-Korean restaurant tangsuyuk. The batter was crispy yet chewy, and it went well with the sweet and tangy sauce. It's a flavor kids tend to like too, so I cut it up small for them, and sure enough, they ate it well. If you sign up for Cafe Dongi's membership, you get a taste-size tangsuyuk coupon to use on your next visit, so it's worth using if you're a regular.

Why a 29-month-old and a 15-month-old ate so well here

And this was the most satisfying part of the whole meal. My 29-month-old and 15-month-old both ate much better than expected. I made an egg scramble with rice from the self-serve bar and gave it to them, and both ate it really well. Adding some seaweed and cutting up the soy-sauce bulgogi and tangsuyuk into bite-sized pieces meant the kids ate a good variety of things.

The biggest worry when eating out with kids is usually 'what am I going to feed them today?' — but at Cafe Dongi, I hardly had to think about that. If we ran low on rice, I could get more, and I could make more eggs myself, so there was never a moment of scrambling because the kids had nothing to eat.

My 15-month-old especially still has a fairly limited range of foods when eating out, but he ate the warm rice with egg scramble surprisingly well. Thanks to that, we adults could eat at ease too, instead of scrambling to manage the kids' meals. I remembered feeling on a previous visit that the unlimited fried eggs and rice made Cafe Dongi great for eating with a child, and this time, bringing two kids, that advantage felt even bigger.

Final verdict on Cafe Dongi with two small children

Having visited Cafe Dongi Dongseong-ro Main Branch a few times before, I came back this time with my 29-month-old and 15-month-old, and once again had a satisfying meal. The biggest strength of this Dongseong-ro Korean restaurant favorite is that it offers a wide variety of Korean dishes at reasonable prices, and is also easy to visit with kids.

In particular, being able to freely use fried eggs and multigrain rice at the self-serve bar made it really convenient to visit with young children. Giving the kids egg scramble, rice and seaweed, and sharing bits of the soy-sauce bulgogi and tangsuyuk, meant they got a satisfying meal too.

The adults also enjoyed being able to eat mains like the spicy octopus stir-fry or bulgogi warm in an individual grill, and with the side dishes and stew served together, it felt like a proper full Korean set meal. The octopus was plump and not too salty, the bulgogi had a generous amount of meat that was easy to share with the kids, and the surprisingly tasty tangsuyuk added an extra bit of fun to the meal.

I think this is a solid pick for anyone looking for a hearty lunch spot in Dongseong-ro, or for families looking for somewhere to eat while out and about in the area. Especially for office workers in Dongseong-ro, the prepaid meal voucher and membership program are added perks for getting more value. Our family found it easy to eat comfortably with the kids here, so it's a place we'll likely come back to next time we're craving Korean food in Dongseong-ro.