500°C oven-grilled mackerel set at a Cheonan grilled fish restaurant

I usually love grilled fish, but cooking it at home means dealing with the smell and the cleanup, so it's the kind of dish I end up ordering out instead. This time I visited Hwadeuro-ganggodeungeo Cheonan Main Branch in Baekseok-dong, Cheonan :-)

Where is Hwadeuro-ganggodeungeo Cheonan Main Branch, and its hours and parking

Hwadeuro-ganggodeungeo Cheonan Main Branch is located at 46-5 Handeul 2-ro, Seobuk-gu, Cheonan, Chungnam, in Baekseok-dong. It's open Mon–Fri 11:00–21:30 (with a break time from 15:30–16:50), and Sat–Sun 11:00–21:30, with its own parking lot. Reservations and group bookings are possible, and there's Wi-Fi, takeout, delivery, separate men's/women's restrooms, and baby chairs.

There's plenty of parking space right in front of the restaurant, so it was easy to drive there, and I could park without stress even during meal hours. This area of Baekseok-dong is packed with popular restaurants, so the parking spaces here are set up to be really large haha.

It's a good idea to check the meal hours before you go ✔️

How a 500-degree wood-fired oven grills the fish

Hwadeuro-ganggodeungeo Cheonan Main Branch is apparently famous as a specialist restaurant that grills fish in a 500-degree wood-fired oven! I heard a lot of famous celebrities have visited too.

The restaurant is very clean and pretty spacious. I saw all kinds of guests, from families to work dinners and gatherings.

Besides mackerel, they also sell set meals of Spanish mackerel, Atka mackerel, yellow corvina, and other grilled fish, so it's easy to pick according to your taste.

The self bar: tteokbokki, japchae and build-your-own bibimbap

The self bar has tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) and japchae (stir-fried glass noodles) too. There's even white rice and nurungji (scorched rice) ,,,, I wondered if there'd be any room left haha.

After ordering, I checked out the self bar and loved that you could grab as many side dishes as you wanted without running short, and they paired really well with the meal. There were even side dishes, bowls, sesame oil, and gochujang set up so you could make your own bibimbap ... 🤍

We made ourselves a bowl too haha

The basic side dishes were all winners too 🐷

How the grilled mackerel and Spanish mackerel sets tasted

The grilled fish came out right away too!

The grilled mackerel was nicely browned on the outside with moist flesh inside 💦 Maybe because it was cooked in the wood-fired oven, the excess oil had drained off just right, and the mackerel's characteristic savory flavor came through even more. Putting a piece of fish on warm rice gave me that hearty, home-cooked feeling haha. Seems like a good spot to visit when you're craving mild, non-spicy Korean food 😻

The grilled Spanish mackerel had thick, tender flesh, so even a single piece was satisfying, and the clean yet moist texture was amazing 👍 It was mild enough that even people sensitive to fishy smells could eat it without any issue, so I thought it would work well as a family meal too.

Overall, it was a meal where I could really feel the appeal of fish grilled in a wood-fired oven, and I think anyone who loves grilled fish should give this place a try at least once!

Finishing the meal with puffed rice crisps and plum tea

To finish, we neatly polished off some puffed rice snacks and plum tea. If you're looking for a great grilled fish restaurant in Cheonan, or a Korean restaurant to take your parents to, Hwadeuro-ganggodeungeo Cheonan Main Branch seems like a solid choice haha.