Siksa-dong grilled fish restaurant in Ilsan: Atka mackerel kiosk set

I'd been craving grilled fish for a while, so my mom and I headed to Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo Siksa Branch in Ilsan — here's the write-up!

Where is Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo Siksa Branch, and where do you park?

Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo Siksa Branch is located at 6-70 Wisiti 1-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, Units 201–204, and it's open daily from 11am to 9pm.

You can park in the basement of the building, and there's also an outdoor lot on the ground floor right across the street. The basement is a bit tight and has only one entrance/exit, so I'd recommend using the outdoor lot instead haha.

Inside Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo: the dining room and the wood-fired oven

The place is clean and pretty spacious overall, so it's a comfortable spot to eat. Grilled fish restaurants are often visited with family or parents, and with the roomy tables here, it seemed like a great fit for a family meal or a group outing ☺️

True to the name Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo ("mackerel gone to the wood-fired oven"), there's a big oven taking up one corner of the restaurant. Regular grilled fish is already good, but imagine how good it gets cooked in a wood-fired oven~~

What's on the self-serve bibimbap and banchan bar?

Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo Siksa Branch also has a separate bibimbap corner, where you can mix rice with various seasoned vegetables (namul). Rice refills are free too, so if you eat a lot, this is a great way to fill up!

Next to the bibimbap corner, there's a refill station with cucumber-pepper soybean paste salad, chonggak kimchi (young radish kimchi), and black sesame lotus root salad — all really clean and well kept. They also had tteokbokki (stir-fried rice cakes) and japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), so I got to try a variety of side dishes haha.

There was also coffee, plum tea, and sikhye (sweet rice punch) available, perfect for a drink after the meal 👍

Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo menu and set meal prices

Menu board at Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo in Siksa-dong, Ilsan

• Mackerel set ₩17,000
• Atka mackerel set ₩19,000
• Yeonggwang gulbi (dried croaker) set ₩22,000
• Hairtail set ₩25,000
• Barley-cured gulbi set ₩29,000

You order at each table via a kiosk, and pay at the counter after you're done eating.

Mackerel and Atka mackerel sets: banchan and pot rice

Our order: mackerel set ₩17,000, Atka mackerel set ₩19,000.

After ordering, the banchan came out first, all neatly arranged. It's not just grilled fish by itself — a variety of side dishes come along too, so it felt like a proper full meal. The cucumber peppers were surprisingly spicy, so if you're not into spicy food, watch out haha. There was also seaweed soup, cabbage salad, and seasoned crab, but the tastiest banchan by far was the chonggak kimchi — the young radish kimchi was genuinely delicious.

After eating banchan and waiting a bit, the hot pot rice and grilled fish arrived. Just the sight of that golden-brown fish is enough to make any grilled-fish lover drool haha.

The hot pot rice was perfectly chewy and fluffy, and eating it with the wood-fired mackerel and Atka mackerel on top made for an amazing combo. Fish can sometimes end up too fishy-tasting or dry when badly grilled, but here it was clean and nutty in flavor. The fish wasn't heavily seasoned, so mixing wasabi into the soy sauce on the side and dipping it in was just right!

Is the Ilsan grilled fish set worth it? Final verdict

Eating grilled fish alone the whole meal can get a bit repetitive, but with the hot pot rice and all the different side dishes, I never got tired of it and felt really full and satisfied. If you're craving grilled fish but hesitate because your place gets smelly from grilling it at home, I'd recommend checking out Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo Siksa Branch in Ilsan 🤗