Daegu Korean restaurant after an Apsan hike: Cafe Dongi

Cafe Dongi after hiking Apsan

After hiking Apsan, I always try to eat healthy Korean food, and Cafe Dongi Daemyeong Station Branch, a great Korean restaurant in Daemyeong-dong, turned out to be just the place.

Cafe Dongi location and hours

It’s on the first floor at 122 Daemyeongbokgae-ro 4-gil, Nam-gu, Daegu, and is open daily from 11:00 to 21:00. Break time is 15:00–16:30, with last orders at 14:30 and 20:30.

From waiting tea to a spacious dining room

Such a thoughtful touch from the owner: cool hovenia tea set out in front for waiting guests to enjoy. ☆

Cafe Dongi currently has discounts on various menu items! It was already amazingly good value, and now there are discounts too! Everyone, this is the time to visit~

Cafe Dongi Daemyeong Station Branch has a clean, roomy, comfortable dining hall, with a range of tables including solo seats, four-person tables, and group seating. I visited around 7 p.m., at dinnertime, and there were quite a lot of guests.

There were all kinds of groups—couples, families, solo diners, and friends—and it really felt like a place where you can eat comfortably, whether you come alone or with anyone at all.

By the hand-washing sink right next to the entrance, there are hair ties and toothpicks available.

A self-service bar for fried eggs and rice

That spot beside the counter where people are lining up is the self-service bar! You can help yourself to unlimited gim (roasted seaweed), fried eggs, and rice >_<

Since we urgently needed protein after exercising, we made ourselves some fried eggs too. Haha

If you head toward the back, you can also have free barley puff snacks, so don’t miss them~!

We share happiness with our neighbors through meals of greater value.

This is the owner’s business motto. As a customer, I found it such a touching message. It somehow made the food feel even more lovingly prepared, too. Cafe Dongi says it uses only Gimpo Geum rice (five-color brown rice), contract-grown in the clean DMZ area at the northernmost tip of Gimpo. Rice is the most important thing at a restaurant serving meals, so knowing they use such high-quality rice made me trust them even more.

Two doenjang-jjigae set meals and side dishes

• Tofu doenjang-jjigae set meal
• Zucchini doenjang-jjigae set meal
• Dongi nuruk-aged tangsuyuk (small)
• Meat patties

Tofu doenjang-jjigae set meal

This is the tofu doenjang-jjigae (soybean paste stew) set meal I ordered.

It has especially generous amounts of tofu and enoki mushrooms, plus all sorts of vegetables—the perfect doenjang-jjigae, savory with just a little kick. I felt this at my last meal too, but Cafe Dongi’s doenjang-jjigae really brings back even a lost appetite... I think I could eat two bowls of rice with this alone 🤤

Zucchini doenjang-jjigae set meal

My friend ordered the zucchini doenjang-jjigae set meal. The components are the same, but the stew has a whole lot of zucchini.

Dongi nuruk-aged tangsuyuk (small)

This is Cafe Dongi’s signature menu!! No flour! No gluten! They say this tangsuyuk (Korean sweet-and-sour fried pork) is aged with traditional rice nuruk (fermentation starter), making it rich in lactic acid bacteria and amino acids, then fried only in clean oil managed daily with acid-value test strips.

A chewy rice-based batter wrapping moist, tender meat.

It was seasoned perfectly on its own, so I loved adding just a little wasabi and giving it a good dip in the sauce.

Meat patties

How should I put it? They tasted like the meat-and-vegetable filling inside dumplings, pan-fried almost like fritters. They were nicely seasoned with no meaty odor, so these were really great as a side dish too~ Stop by when you’re craving a warm, filling home-style meal~🥰