Daegu Korean restaurant lunch with dad, buja bibimbap: Banwoldang

Today's the place I went to for lunch with my dad!

Banwoldang Buja Sikdang Suseong Branch

Let me introduce it!

I'm totally a Korean-food person, and this is a place even Korean-food people approve of!

This is the second directly-run branch of the Buja Sikdang that's been loved in Banwoldang for years! I went with my dad and we both ate so well — here's my Suseong-gu Korean restaurant review 🫶🏻

Parking and the room at Banwoldang Buja Sikdang Suseong Branch

Banwoldang Buja Sikdang Suseong Branch is on Beomeocheon-ro in Suseong-gu, Daegu, and offers parking support. Honestly, parking support is such a big deal!

Whenever I plan lunch around Suseong-gu, parking is always the first worry, so it was nice being able to drive over comfortably with my dad.

Turns out they've been on TV quite a few times too!

The inside was bigger and cleaner than I expected! Not awkward for eating alone, but also a fine vibe for a group.

Even a thoughtful apron (a nicely thick one, too)

A menu packed with good options — so many things looked delicious I had trouble deciding, but

we went with the best-seller: the fire-grilled squid and pork stir-fry.

And the ssam (wrap) vegetables were available from a self-serve bar, take as much as you want! I can't say no to ssam.

Fire-grilled squid and pork stir-fry for two: how smoky was it?

Our main order was the fire-grilled squid and pork stir-fry, two servings, from Banwoldang Buja Sikdang Suseong Branch. A dish where you get squid AND pork at once — how could that combo fail?

It's not just the main that's delicious — every single side dish was good too. When the basic banchan (side dishes) at a Korean restaurant taste this good, your trust in the place shoots way up.

Rather than a flashy spread of random dishes, everything was chosen to go with the main. The owner clearly has serious taste-testing chops.

The second it arrived, the smoky char hit hard!! Because it's fire-grilled, it's completely different from an ordinary spicy squid-pork stir-fry.

One bite in and the smoky flavor just — wham!! The sauce already has great savory depth on its own, and layered with that fire flavor, it's genuinely stunning.

Squid so easily turns chewy-tough if overcooked, but here it was soft yet still had the right bite — perfectly cooked. Eating the pork and squid together made for great contrasting textures too (total texture party).

You have to eat this squid-pork stir-fry wrapped in ssam. Put a piece of pork and squid on a lettuce leaf, add veggies, and take a big bite! Oh, and garlic too — (the lettuce is soft too, so it pairs perfectly with the squid).

Why you should order buja bibimbap with the stir-fry

Along with the fire-grilled squid-pork stir-fry, we also ordered two bowls of buja bibimbap. It comes with a hearty spread of bibimbap ingredients in the bowl, and they mix in rice for you right there.

Add in the leftover sauce from the squid-pork stir-fry and mix it all together. This is seriously so good, ㅜㅡㅜㅜ. Once that smoky-fragrant sauce soaks into the whole bibimbap, it suddenly becomes a completely different dish. Crunchy veggies plus squid and pork on top, all mixed together — every single bite is so satisfying, so satisfying,,,

The doenjang soup: deep, nutty soybean flavor

And the doenjang (fermented soybean paste) soup was genuinely delicious. It tastes like the kind grandma would make in a countryside home with her own homemade doenjang.

There were plenty of vegetables in it too. It has that distinctly savory, deep doenjang flavor, but it's not overly salty or artificially loaded with umami, so I just kept spooning it up.

Why Banwoldang Buja Sikdang Suseong Branch works for lunch with parents

Wrap in ssam → eat some bibimbap → back for another bite of the stir-fry… I really ate like a champ.

It felt so good having a real date with my dad. Plus with parking support and food this good, it was an easy place to bring my parents to. If you're searching for a Suseong-gu Korean restaurant and thinking about somewhere easy to eat with parents, this could be a solid choice.

Definitely order the buja bibimbap alongside. Mixing in the leftover sauce from the squid-pork stir-fry makes it unbelievably good. If you're looking for a Suseong-gu Korean restaurant, or a hearty Beomeo-dong Korean restaurant, give this one a try. It's the kind of place that comes to mind again on days you want to fill up hearty for lunch 💙