Jeju whelk salad and hairtail stew for three in Cheongju: Jeju Badang
In short
Jeju Badang is a Jeju-style grilled and braised fish restaurant on the second floor of a building near Gagyeong Xi apartments in Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju, Chungbuk. On a second visit, three diners shared the lunch special mackerel set, the lunch special boneless silver hairtail stew and the Jeju specialty whelk salad (bbulsora muchim) for a total of 60,000 won, and six free side dishes plus free spicy stir-fried pork and seaweed soup filled them up before the mains arrived. The whelk salad tossed with wild chervil and water dropwort and the bone-free hairtail stew were the most memorable dishes at Jeju Badang.
Good to know
- Address
- 2F, 28 Seohyeonnam-ro, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju, Chungbuk
- Break time
- 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
- Parking
- Available in front of and behind the building
- Lunch special mackerel set with pot rice
- 17,000 won
- Lunch special boneless silver hairtail stew with pot rice
- 23,000 won
- Jeju specialty whelk salad
- 20,000 won
- Total paid
- 60,000 won
- Free with the meal
- 6 side dishes, spicy stir-fried pork and seaweed soup (refills available)
- Self-serve bar
- Wrap greens, bean sprouts, mushrooms, chicken karaage, japchae, hangwa (Korean sweets), iced tea, plum tea, coffee
- With children
- Baby spoons, forks and dishes plus high chairs provided
- Price reference
- ₩17,000 ≈ $12.5 · ₩23,000 ≈ $17 · ₩20,000 ≈ $15 (2026-09-15)
as written by the visitor on Sep 15, 2026
I went and ate hairtail stew, grilled mackerel, and whelk salad all straight from Jeju Island! And get this — even before the main dishes arrive, the side dishes alone are enough to fill you up. Let me introduce Jeju Badang, a real hidden gem for grilled fish in Cheongju.
Where is Jeju Badang in Cheongju, and is there parking?
Jeju Badang is on the 2nd floor of a building at 28 Seohyeonnam-ro, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju, Chungbuk, and break time runs from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Parking is available at both the front and back of the building!
It's located near Gagyeong Jai, on the 2nd floor of the building. There's an elevator so you can go up easily. Parking's on both the front and back sides too, so that's convenient!
Inside Jeju Badang: interior and seating
The inside of Jeju Badang is done up in wood and Jeju stone, like you've actually landed on the island! It's a well-known spot in Cheongju and it was packed — clearly the kind of grilled fish place people keep coming back to. This is already my second visit. The tables are mostly sofa-style seating, though some are regular chairs too!
What is on the self-serve bar at Jeju Badang?
The self-serve bar at Jeju Badang is set up so you can refill the basic side dish items like lettuce wraps, bean sprouts, and mushrooms, plus there's chicken karaage, japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), and hangwa (Korean traditional sweets) — the chicken especially was popular! They kept restocking it right as it ran low, so no need to worry about it running out!
For drinks there's iced tea and plum tea — honestly at this point isn't it basically a buffet? There's even coffee for dessert! And for kids, baby spoons, forks, dishes, and high chairs are all ready to go!
What three diners ordered at Jeju Badang and what it cost
At Jeju Badang we ordered the lunch special mackerel set + pot rice (₩17,000), the lunch special boneless hairtail stew pot rice (₩23,000), and the Jeju specialty whelk salad (₩20,000), for a total of ₩60,000.
There's paper table covering laid down, and the table is really wide — and that wide table gets completely packed with side dishes, so there's genuinely a lot to eat. The utensils were even individually wrapped, which looked hygienic! The place felt genuinely clean and well-managed.
Six free side dishes plus spicy stir-fried pork and seaweed soup
The basic side dishes at Jeju Badang were cucumber kimchi, seasoned cucumber, seasoned bracken fern, pickled mushrooms, seasoned mushrooms, and seasoned bean sprouts — six in total! Every single one was good, nothing to skip, and the seasoning wasn't too salty at all!
And the crazy thing is, spicy stir-fried pork and seaweed soup come free as standard! So honestly, you could fill up on just the pork and side dishes before the main dish even arrives. TT The seaweed soup had a ton of seaweed in it too, so I got a refill! Both the pork and the seaweed soup are refillable!
The self-serve bar also has chicken and japchae, and if you drizzle the seasoning sauce over the chicken it tastes just like proper yangnyeom (seasoned) fried chicken! The chicken is popular so it disappears fast, but the kitchen keeps frying fresh batches to restock it right away!
How the Jeju specialty whelk salad tastes
The Jeju specialty whelk salad arrived! Ah, I'm so curious about this secret sauce. The whelk comes tossed together with wild chervil and water dropwort, and the combination with the whelk was great!
The whelk was chewy and delicious. Great texture to bite into, with a nutty, clean flavor, and it was really fresh! Not a hint of fishiness, so I genuinely enjoyed it! There was a generous amount too — even with three of us eating, we got full. With the whelk keep coming and coming, it was a dish that delivered on both flavor and quantity!
Rather than eating the whelk alone, it's best paired with the seasoned wild chervil and water dropwort mixed in — that's the tastiest way. The chervil's fragrance especially was amazing. It wasn't tough at all, and eating it together with the whelk gave it great texture and flavor!
Grilled mackerel: half a fish with lemon and fresh wasabi
The whelk came out first, then the hairtail stew, then the grilled mackerel! By this point the table was already completely full. With that many side dishes plus the grilled mackerel and boneless hairtail stew laid out too, the whole table was packed and I got really full just looking at it!
The grilled mackerel comes as half a fish, served with lemon and wasabi, and squeezing lemon over the mackerel was genuinely delicious. If I'd known, I would've squeezed it on from the start! Even the wasabi was fresh-grated, so it had a nice sharp kick!
The mackerel wasn't dry at all — really soft and plump, with a lot of flesh on it. Eating the skin along with the meat made it even better! No fishy taste at all, and the mackerel was bigger than expected so there was plenty to eat! Healthy and delicious, so you just keep eating. You can taste the good oils in the mackerel, and with lemon juice on it, I just kept going!
Boneless silver hairtail stew: one bite, no bones
The hairtail stew at Jeju Badang is boneless! I mean, I've never seen boneless hairtail stew before. How can hairtail stew even be boneless? And it's from Jeju too! No worrying about bones — you can just eat the flesh comfortably, which makes it a great, easy, and delicious dish for eating with kids or for anyone who finds picking out bones a hassle!
The hairtail stew seemed to have the largest portion of all. Since it's boneless, there was no stress eating it, no fishy taste of course, and the seasoning was savory-salty, perfect with rice! The sauce had just the right amount of spice and a good depth of flavor, ideal for pairing the hairtail flesh with rice!
It wasn't too spicy, and piling a big piece on top of rice made it easy to eat without any worry. Normally you'd have to eat it carefully in small bites because of the bones, but since this is boneless, you can just pop it straight in your mouth — loved that.
The seaweed soup and spicy stir-fried pork are refillable!
So many side dishes that you're full before the main dish even arrives
What was best about Jeju Badang in Cheongju
Here's my honest review after a delicious meal at the Cheongju branch of Jeju Badang 💗
- So many side dishes that you get full on them alone
- Spicy stir-fried pork and seaweed soup come free
- You can even eat chicken at the self-serve bar
- The main dishes — mackerel, hairtail — are all delicious
Where it is
충북 청주시 흥덕구 서현남로 28 2층 (2F, 28 Seohyeonnam-ro, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju, Chungbuk, South Korea)충청북도 청주시 흥덕구 서현남로 28 2층
