Dunsan-dong kaoyu restaurant with free follow toppings: Bantiannyao

Time for a review of an authentic mainland Chinese kaoyu (grilled and simmered fish) spot in Dunsan-dong, Daejeon — Bantiannyao Kaoyu Daejeon Branch!

Bantiannyao Kaoyu Daejeon Branch: location and basic info

Bantiannyao Kaoyu Daejeon Branch is a kaoyu specialty restaurant located at 13 Dunsan-ro 31beon-gil, 2nd floor unit 1, Seo-gu, Daejeon. It's near the heart of Dunsan-dong, so it's convenient to head to a nearby café or elsewhere after eating 🙌🏻

Inside Bantiannyao: two-person tables, group seats and private rooms

Bantiannyao Kaoyu Daejeon Branch felt spacious and clean overall. With two-person tables, seating for larger groups, and private rooms, it looked great for a date as well as for eating with friends or family in a bigger group.

💁‍♀️ Staff friendliness: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

How do you order kaoyu at Bantiannyao?

Bantiannyao is a bit different from a typical Chinese restaurant — it specializes in kaoyu. Kaoyu is a Chinese-style fish dish where the fish is grilled and then simmered in a spicy sauce, and you choose your fish and flavor, then add various extra ingredients (sari).

Step one is choosing your fish! 🐟 The menu offers sea bass, ocean sea bass, yellow croaker, and more, and you pick based on the type.

Step two is choosing your kaoyu flavor! 🌶️ The main options are as follows.

• Mala kaoyu — a numbing, spicy mala flavor
• Qinghuajiao kaoyu — the sharp kick of cheongyang chili with mala aroma
• Suancai kaoyu — a tangy and spicy Chinese-style pickled mustard green flavor
• Garlic kaoyu — a familiar, savory garlic taste

There are also honghuajiao, braised mushroom, and tomato kaoyu, so you can choose according to your taste.

The self bar costs 2,000 won per person

Adding ₩2,000 per person gets you unlimited access to the self bar — rice, soda, snacks, sauce bar, and more, well worth more than ₩2,000 in value, so I'd definitely recommend adding it!

Mala kaoyu with ningbo fish, 43,000 won: how it tasted

🍽️ We ordered the mala kaoyu (ningbo fish) at ₩43,000. This was the dish I was most curious about — ningbo fish with a numbing, spicy mala broth, a combination that anyone who loves mala should be curious about!

You pull off pieces of fish and dip them into the broth, which carries that distinctive numbing mala spice aroma. The ningbo fish was soft and moist, which paired really well with the mala broth!!

At first I wondered if fish and mala would really go together, but once the broth soaked into the fish, adding that spicy numbing kick, it worked out better than expected 🤤

Vegetable and mushroom side set, 8,800 won

We added the vegetable-mushroom mix (₩8,800), and cooking the vegetables and mushrooms in the mala broth made it feel just like a Chinese-style hotpot! The mushrooms and cabbage that soaked up the mala broth were incredibly delicious.

Staff debone the fish at your table

Once the kaoyu was cooked enough, a staff member came over and prepared the fish into bite-sized pieces, making it easy to eat.

Since the fish arrives whole, you might wonder at first how to eat it, but at Bantiannyao Kaoyu the staff break it down into perfect bite-sized pieces, so there's no need to handle it yourself — you can just dig right in.

Making your own signature sauce at the self bar to dip the fish in is also really tasty 🤤

Ongoing events at Bantiannyao, and you can combine them

Bantiannyao Kaoyu Daejeon Branch was running several events at the time, and all three could be stacked together.

This is the extra we received from following on Instagram and subscribing on YouTube. Cream kkwabaegi wasn't available, so they substituted with a different topping!

A receipt review event was also running! Writing a receipt review gets you cucumber salad, so don't miss that either 🥒

Best part: free ice cream and cheap draft beer

For dessert, they even provide a variety of ice cream for free 🍦

We were on a no-drinking streak that day so we held off, but they've apparently just started offering cool draft Hanmac beer at a low price, so it'd pair well with kaoyu ^0^

They also give out coupons, and the perks get even better with repeat visits. Top-tier regular customer treatment 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

Final verdict on Bantiannyao Kaoyu Daejeon Branch

🙋🏻‍♀️(Ju): A unique dish that lets you enjoy mala and fish together. If you love mala and steamed fish, this is a must-visit 👏🏻👏🏻

🙋🏻‍♂️(yong): Now you barely need to go to China — this tastes exactly like the real thing! Such a delicious kaoyu restaurant