Three lunch specials for one at Cheongju Korean restaurant Jeju Badang

Jeju Badang (제주바당), a Korean restaurant in Gagyeong-dong, Cheongju. A review of a weekday lunch special that packed a neat spread plus an all-you-can-eat Korean side-dish salad bar!

Where Jeju Badang is in Gagyeong-dong, and is there parking?

Jeju Badang is on the 2nd floor of a building near the roundabout by Gagyeong Xi and Gagyeong I-Park 5-danji apartments. There are plenty of parking spots both in front of and behind the building, so it's easy to visit!

Walking in, it feels totally like Jeju 🍊 the interior was clean and every little prop felt considered, so the vibe was great too!

As soon as we sat down they brought out a whole spread — neat side dishes with stir-fried pork and seaweed soup already included as base banchan!

What comes in the weekday lunch specials, and the 2,000-won pot rice swap

We ordered boneless braised hairtail, grilled mackerel set, and grilled Atka mackerel set from Jeju Badang's lunch special. We switched the rice to pot rice (+₩2,000 extra). You can order each as a single serving, so it was so nice to get to try several dishes.

Besides the lunch specials, there's also a set menu combining braised hairtail with grilled black tilefish and pot rice,

and grilled Jeju black tilefish and grilled Jeju hairtail, both shipped 100% direct from Jeju. There's also Jeju's specialty horned turban shell salad, and a kids' half-grilled-Atka-mackerel + rice set that's great for feeding a child.

Inside the 15-dish Korean salad bar and its freshly fried chicken

Just ordering a lunch special gets you unlimited refills from a salad bar with 15+ Korean side dishes 🥗 It's not just refilling the base banchan — there's salad, wrap greens, water kimchi, japchae, and even fried chicken. Total best value.

The chicken is fried fresh and refilled right away, so go for seconds — no, thirds. Honestly crispier than plenty of dedicated fried chicken places, and so moist inside too. Genuinely delicious!!

The main dishes hadn't even arrived yet and there was already a whole spread to eat, so our chopsticks never rested. The japchae was so good too — the table was genuinely too full to fit another plate!! Since we ordered pot rice too, the food took a little while to come out.

How do the braised hairtail, grilled mackerel and Atka mackerel taste?

They said the Jeju braised hairtail only uses Jeju eungalchi (hairtail), and it comes with all the bones completely removed, so you can just mix it right into the rice — so convenient, and the sauce is a real hit!! Just the right amount of spicy with incredible savory depth, a total rice thief. The radish braised alongside was also soaked through with sauce — so delicious ❤️

For the grilled mackerel, we forgot to squeeze lemon on it, but there was zero fishy taste, just plump flesh throughout. Picking it apart with the provided gloves was so easy! Makes me wonder why it never tastes this good at home — guess you really have to come to a proper grilled fish place.

The grilled Atka mackerel was moist and soft, so the flesh came apart easily. It was a bit bland in seasoning for my taste though, so I grabbed the fish soy sauce from the salad bar, dipped it, and topped it with a chili pepper — that fixed it.

Scorched-rice tea from the pot rice, plus stir-fried pork and seaweed soup refills

Need I even say anything about the freshly made pot rice,, Jeju Badang seems to use good rice — it was so chewy and delicious! Pour water into the pot at the end and you get warm nurungji (scorched rice tea) to finish the meal, so even with the extra cost, I fully recommend the pot rice. Plain rice with fish is truth 😋

Just a heads up — the stir-fried pork and seaweed soup that come as base banchan will keep getting refilled if you ask. We were so full we only refilled the seaweed soup once more, and the broth was really rich and delicious.

Can you bring a child to Jeju Badang? The play room and free coffee

Honestly, there's no better menu than fish for eating with a kid,

and Jeju Badang even has a kids' play room, so it's a place both kids and adults can enjoy and drop by! It's technically a toddler play room, but even my elementary schooler played happily there haha.

There's even coffee and snacks for dessert, so you can properly cleanse your palate before leaving Jeju Badang. Next time I'll have to try the grilled Jeju tilefish and the Jeju horned turban shell salad. Ate well, thanks for having us :)