Eel buffet in Seongsu, Seoul for Malbok, the last dog day: Songnim Bok

Songnim Bok Jangeo Unlimited Freshwater Eel Seongsu Branch (송림복장어 민물장어 무한리필 성수직영점)

Location: 148 Seongdeokjeong-gil, 1st floor, Seongdong-gu, Seoul Hours: Daily 11:50-23:00 Unlimited refills Takeout/delivery Groups welcome No parking

How to get to Songnim Bok Jangeo Seongsu Branch

I remember eating at Songnim Bok Jangeo on my own dime before and it was delicious, and then I saw there's a branch in Seongsu too, so I went with my boyfriend to recharge our energy in the hot summer!

The Seongsu branch sits somewhere between Seongsu, Jayang and Konkuk University Station. Rather than the subway, it's closer if you take a bus and get off at the Yeongdong Bridge North (영동대교북단) stop.

The Seongsu branch newly opened on May 16, and as an opening event they give one bottle of bokbunja per table. You don't even have to sign up for anything, they just hand it out, such a generous deal haha

Unlimited domestic freshwater eel, haha!

Inside the restaurant and how it works

This is the inside. There aren't a lot of tables, and there are another 3-4 in the middle. We arrived a little after 6 pm on a weekday and luckily got in without a wait. After that, the place filled up completely.

Prices at Songnim Bok Jangeo Seongsu Branch

- Price guide - Unlimited, adult (₩29,900) Unlimited, child (elementary school) (₩14,000) Table charge (children excluded) (₩3,000)

For adults it's ₩32,900 per person including the table charge for unlimited eel, which is great value. You can also order extra meals: eel soup / galbi-tang / yukgaejang / buckwheat makguksu / spicy ramyeon.

Takeout is available too. It's ₩35,000 for 1 kg of eel (650 g after trimming). Sauces (3) and ginger for 2 people are sold separately for ₩5,000.

The unlimited time is 2 hours total. There are also instructions on the wall for grilling eel well. Give them a read before you start grilling! The side fins and head fins burn easily and turn hard, so cutting them off before grilling makes the eel softer to eat.

On the table there are small plates, spoons and chopsticks, paper cups and so on.

This is the bokbunja they gave us as a freebie. It's sold in the restaurant for ₩9,000, and they gave it to us for free.

They say it's a partner of the freshwater eel aquaculture fisheries cooperative (No. 8 mid-domain). You can eat with confidence.

The first plate is brought to you by the staff. It's eel, pork belly and duck neck.

Self-serve bar

After that, you can get more of whatever you run out of at the self-serve corner inside the restaurant.

The self-serve bar has the main items, eel / pork belly / duck neck, plus shredded ginger / white kimchi / green onion kimchi / pickled onion / pickled perilla leaves / chili peppers / garlic / lettuce / ssamjang (dipping paste). It was a little disappointing that there were no fresh perilla leaves, but wrapping in lettuce was plenty tasty too.

Grilling it ourselves: review

They lit the fire and set the grill plate for us.

We start by grilling only the eel! Place it skin side down.

Once it's cooked a bit, flip it over and cook the other side.

Then cut it, stand the pieces on their sides, and grill the sides until golden before eating. The eel pieces standing up in rows of 3-3-3-3 looked so appetizing.

They also brought a teriyaki sauce, which you can't skip with eel, to each table, so we could eat as much as we wanted.

When the eel is nicely golden, move it to the side of the grill and immediately bring fresh eel to put on. It would be a shame if the grilling stopped, right? We have to eat efficiently, haha

The plump, well-cooked eel was good even just dipped in salt. No fishy taste, light and tender, the best!

A piece of cooked eel on a leafy wrap with teriyaki sauce and a little shredded ginger is an absolutely delicious combo! The sharpness of the ginger cuts the richness of the eel.

Eating it with green onion kimchi is the best too. With all these different combos, it never gets boring and you feel like you could keep eating forever.

Time for another refill! This time we put duck neck on too.

Legendary plump eel

The plumper ones are softer and tastier. They're all good, but pick out the especially plump ones!

The pork belly was good too, and the duck neck seemed a little salty, but the chewy texture was fantastic.

If you grill the pork belly well and eat it with green onion kimchi, it wipes away the greasiness so it tastes even better. You can also put garlic and chili on lettuce and dip it in ssamjang.

Look at the eels all lined up so neatly haha. I have no idea how many the two of us ate. We ate the most eel, but the meat was good too, and we went back for pork belly once more. Songnim Bok Jangeo lets you enjoy tasty eel unlimited at a good price! I think it's the best for summer stamina. I highly recommend it as a meal out for the coming Malbok (the last of the three hottest days of summer).