Cheongju solo lunch with unlimited seaweed soup: Jeju Badang

Hi, I'm Yeondaeng 🐟 Today I want to introduce Jeju Badang, a Korean restaurant in Gyeongdong-dong. Grilling fish at home is great and all, but the smell can be a real deterrent, right? This is the perfect Cheongju spot for exactly that 👍🏻

Location and parking for Jeju Badang in Cheongju

Jeju Badang in Cheongju is located in the area packed with Gyeongdong Iparks. It's in Seohyeon Plaza, right across from the Xi apartments next to the Iparks, and parking and finding it were both super easy 🚗 As you're looking for it, you'll spot Hanseongmak Hwaetjip — that's the building! Jeju Badang is on the 2nd floor 🐟

Jeju Badang is a place where you can try everything from premium Jeju silver hairtail, specialty catches from Jeju's coast, to horned turban shells hand-harvested by Jeju haenyeo (women divers). This Korean restaurant in Cheongju was really tidy and impressive.

Take the elevator up to the 2nd floor and you'll see Jeju Badang right there. The exterior vibe was clean and — you could already smell a good restaurant coming 🩵

Interior atmosphere and kid-friendly amenities

The interior atmosphere was nice too. Nice wood tones with a clean seating layout! There were even bits of basalt rock scattered around, so it genuinely felt like being in Jeju.

There are plenty of high chairs, and even disposable bibs you can use while eating!

The truly amazing part is this kids' room. It's not some thrown-together play space in a cramped corner — it had a slide, coloring books, and even a small selection of children's books, everything a kid could want to play with 🩵 As a mom raising a little one, I can't tell you how happy this made me..

Everywhere you look there are these aesthetic posters and basalt rock 🪨 It gave off both a Jeju feel and a clean, tidy vibe at the same time, which just made me feel good 👍🏻

Six banchan plus unlimited seaweed soup and stir-fried pork

The basic side dishes come as six kinds of seasoned vegetables. What's truly amazing is that the seaweed soup and stir-fried pork are unlimited!!! Of course you can also add more of the other side dishes at the self-serve bar, but honestly, I assumed seaweed soup and stir-fried pork would cost extra if you wanted seconds? Turns out you just ask a staff member if you want more. My initial portion was already generous enough that I didn't need seconds. Honestly, with just the stir-fried pork, seaweed soup, and side dishes, I feel like I could polish off two bowls of rice!

Boneless fried chicken and japchae at the self-serve bar too

The self-serve bar is amazing, right? There are even ssam (wrap) greens and salad! There are items here that don't come out as regular side dishes, so it's worth browsing and grabbing more 🩵 And here's another amazing thing — you get unlimited boneless fried chicken and japchae! Honestly, since it was unlimited, I didn't expect much quality, but it was so good. The batter wasn't too hard, and the inside of the chicken was juicy..🍗 The japchae looked dark in color so I worried it'd be salty, but the seasoning was spot on! The noodles weren't soggy either, they were just right, so I completely inhaled it.

And for dessert, you get barley candy, sujeonggwa (cinnamon-persimmon punch), and coffee, all for free!!!!! When you add up the lunch special plus dessert, you realize how incredible the value is 👍🏻

Lunch special: boneless hairtail stew or mackerel set, both with pot rice

Since some menu items come with pot rice, each table has water ready for making the pot rice tea.

I ordered the lunch special boneless hairtail stew + pot rice, and the mackerel set + pot rice. You can also order plain rice instead of pot rice, and it works out a bit cheaper!

The pot rice was seriously well done, right? I really love pot rice, and this one was perfectly fluffy. I scraped every last grain into one bowl, poured in water to make nurungji tea (scorched rice tea), and by then I was starving ㅠㅠ

So I quickly piled the delicious boneless hairtail stew onto the pot rice and took a big bite — wow, my mouth was so happy. Since it's boneless, there's no need to pick out bones, you just dig in, and the sauce was so good I even mixed it all together ⭕️

The color on the grilled mackerel is insane, right? I tore off a piece, put it on rice with a bit of wasabi, and.. I could've eaten two bowls of rice like this. Fish is easy to mess up and end up fishy, but both the hairtail stew and grilled mackerel were spot-on with no fishy taste at all. I don't grill fish much at home because I hate the lingering smell, so being able to eat it out like this made me so happy ㅠㅠ

A finish with no lingering fish smell to worry about

This Korean restaurant in Gyeongdong-dong really nails the finishing touches. Toothpicks are there, of course, and for anything they don't handle, there are interdental brushes to scrub things clean !!!! And to top it off, individually wrapped mint candies to get rid of any lingering fish taste in your mouth 🩵

You might worry about the fish smell sticking to your clothes, but there's a really nice-smelling deodorizer spray right at the entrance, so no worries there!!! Jeju Badang, this Korean restaurant in Cheongju, cooks with ingredients sourced from the sea in Jeju. So the prices might seem a bit high, but the lunch special is very reasonably priced, and after eating it, I felt the taste was well worth even more than the price 🐟 If you're looking for a place for solo dining or a good Korean restaurant in Gyeongdong-dong, why not take this chance to visit Jeju Badang?