Nami-myeon eel restaurant in Cheongju, busy on a weekday: Samhwa Susan

Cheongju restaurant, Nami-myeon restaurant, grilled eel at Samhwa Susan — a real local favorite packed with elderly diners.

What kind of place is Samhwa Susan in Nami-myeon, Cheongju?

Today I went to a spot famous for Cheongju grilled eel: Samhwa Susan. It's located in Nami-myeon, a bit out on the outskirts away from downtown Cheongju. Even though it wasn't a weekend, the place was packed with elderly customers.

Looking around the spacious dining room, most of the customers were older folks — I think we were almost the youngest people there that day, hahaha. I figured this had to be a genuine local favorite, and seeing everyone come all the way out to Nami-myeon for it already got me excited.

• Address: 269 Daerim-ro, Nami-myeon, Seowon-gu, Cheongju, Chungbuk, South Korea
• Hours: 11:00 - 21:00
• Closed every Monday
• Other info: Parking available in front

This is the exterior of Samhwa Susan, the Cheongju eel restaurant. It's in Nami-myeon, about a 7-minute drive from Gaesin Seonghwa Intersection, so it wasn't hard to get to. On top of that, there's a large parking lot right in front, which made parking really convenient.

Inside Samhwa Susan: group seating for 24 and a self-serve bar

This is the interior of Samhwa Susan. The dining room was completely spacious — plenty of tables with generous spacing between them. There's also group seating for up to 24 people, perfect for gatherings or company dinners.

I was surprised once seeing this huge room nearly full, and surprised again seeing that most of the customers were elderly. You all know a place packed with older regulars is a real find, right? Seeing people travel all the way to Nami-myeon for eel made me think this really is a genuine local favorite in Cheongju.

The self-serve side dish bar was also kept clean and tidy. If you run low on banchan (side dishes), you can just help yourself there!

They also sell Han River self-serve ramyeon. If you write a receipt review, they'll give you a pack for free!

The restaurant also sells eel extract separately. It comes in boxes of 50 packets, and buying with cash gets you an extra discount.

Samhwa Susan menu and prices, plus the 4,000-won table setting charge

This is the menu board at Samhwa Susan, the Cheongju eel restaurant. Gochang grilled eel is sold by the kilogram.

The table charge is ₩4,000 per person. It comes with a range of side dishes that pair well with eel, plus sushi rice and clam soup as standard, both great to eat alongside the eel.

The clam soup is made fresh daily with fresh clams, so it's spicy and refreshing — great for spooning up between bites of eel.

Is 1 kg of Gochang Pungcheon eel enough for two?

There were two of us, so we ordered 1kg of Gochang grilled eel. The eel comes pre-grilled once before serving. After trimming, 1kg of eel apparently comes out to about 580g of actual edible meat. The eel pieces themselves were big and thick, so it was plenty for two people.

They placed the pre-grilled eel onto a well-heated grill plate. It was clearly a busy day with so many customers, and the staff looked completely run off their feet — but even so, they kept coming by our table to check on the eel. Thanks to that, it came out golden and perfectly cooked without burning, and we got to enjoy it fully.

The thickness was pretty impressive — you could tell just by looking that the meat was substantial. I also liked that Gochang grade-1 eel at ₩50,000 for 1kg felt like a reasonable, non-intimidating price.

Once the eel was nicely browned on both sides, they cut it into easy-to-eat pieces for us. The texture of eel can vary a lot depending on how it's grilled, so it was nice to have staff grill it for us — much easier to just sit back and eat!

How does the grilled eel at Samhwa Susan taste?

Out of all the eel I've had so far, this had one of the strongest, chewiest textures! The meat itself was tender, so there was no toughness — just a nice bouncy chew. You could really taste that clean, savory eel flavor too.

Best ways to eat the eel: side dishes and combinations

Eel is delicious on its own or dipped in sauce, but it's also great on top of pickled perilla leaves, or wrapped in lettuce for ssam! Personally, I loved pairing it with tangy baek-kimchi (white kimchi) — it really brought out the savory flavor.

Eating just the eel felt like it wasn't quite enough, so we ordered a bowl of rice too. Ordering rice comes with doenjang-guk (soybean paste soup) as well. With the warm soup, the meal felt satisfyingly complete.

Piling well-grilled eel on top of the sushi rice was also a nice little specialty combo~

A Nami-myeon restaurant in Cheongju to take your parents to

The chewy texture left a particularly strong impression, so this is a Nami-myeon restaurant I'd love to bring my parents back to. I heard they stay open as usual during Chuseok holiday too, so it seems like a good option for a holiday meal with elderly family members.