Solo dining at a Goyang grilled fish restaurant: pork stir-fry add-on

Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo Siksa Branch, a 500°C wood-fired grilled fish restaurant in Ilsandong-gu

The signature grilled Atka mackerel, cooked in a 500°C wood-fired oven so the skin turns crisp while the flesh stays moist, served with a spread of banchan and freshly steamed pot rice.

Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo Siksa Branch, a well-known spot in Ilsandong-gu, grills large, varied fish in an oven over 500°C for a crisp exterior and juicy interior. The fish is seasoned with salt aged more than 10 years to draw out its natural brine, making it gentle enough for grandparents and kids alike — it looked like a great pick for a family meal.

What the dining room and kids' play room are like

A spacious, comfortable dining room with plenty of seats and tables makes this Ilsandong-gu restaurant a good choice for group meals.

The kids' play room is also quite well set up, so little ones can have fun while parents eat with peace of mind.

The Atka mackerel set as a solo lunch

The signature grilled Atka mackerel set, crisp outside and tender inside from the 500°C oven, paired with an excellent pan-fried pork stir-fry — eating solo, the portions were still generous and made for a very filling lunch.

The neat, varied banchan and seaweed soup can be refilled as much as you like at the self-serve bar, which was a nice touch. Nutty black sesame lotus root salad, cabbage salad with a tangy dressing, fragrant deodeok (bellflower root) namul, well-fermented chonggak radish kimchi, warming seaweed soup, and hot japchae — all refillable at the self-serve bar.

The freshly steamed pot rice was the real kicker at Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo Siksa Branch — the rice was so good it tied everything together, making both the grilled mackerel and the pork stir-fry taste even better.

Special sets for a date or a family meal

With its varied composition, this Ilsandong-gu restaurant makes for a hearty, satisfying grilled fish lunch.

• For a date: the 2-person special set at ₩45,000, featuring domestic sea eel, fat greenling, seasonal braised fish, and Norwegian mackerel on one table
• For a family meal with parents: the 3-person special set at ₩63,000, the 2-person set plus Atka mackerel and seasoned crab

Either one seems like a perfect order depending on the occasion.

Can the wood-fired pork stir-fry be ordered on its own?

Spicy pork stir-fry cooked in the 500°C oven. Dining solo, I wanted to try both the pork stir-fry and the grilled fish together, and being able to order it as a single side dish was a great option.

Cooking it in the wood-fired oven seems to strip away the excess oil while keeping that smoky char flavor. The portion was generous and the taste was excellent.

How the grilled Atka mackerel tasted

The skin looked crisp just from the sight of it, and the inside was extremely moist — getting both textures at once was very satisfying at Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo Siksa Branch.

Seasoned with salt aged more than 10 years to bring out the fish's natural flavor, the Atka mackerel's taste really came through. The crisp-outside, tender-inside mackerel paired nicely with the braised mackerel, bracken, and radish dish, its chewy bracken and spicy, refreshing sauce a great match alongside it.

Beyond Atka mackerel, the menu also includes mackerel, hairtail, dried barley corvina, Yeonggwang dried corvina, seasoned raw crab, a fresh roe-and-milt hotpot with freshwater shrimp and minari for deep umami, and wood-fired gorgonzola pizza — a wide range that should satisfy everyone from kids to grandparents at this Ilsandong-gu restaurant.

Pouring hot water over the freshly steamed pot rice to make savory nurungji (scorched rice tea) for dessert feels like the perfect finishing touch.

Tteokbokki and kimchi pancake at the self-serve bar

The self-serve corner has a variety of basic banchan and ingredients ready for making your own bibimbap.

Fish cake tteokbokki and kimchi pancake aren't part of the standard spread but can be enjoyed freely from the self-serve bar — a nice bonus at this Ilsandong-gu restaurant on Wisiti1-ro in Goyang, Gyeonggi.

Parking at Hwadegeuro Gan

Both the underground lot and the lot behind the building are available, so parking is generally ample, and 2 hours of free parking made it easy to enjoy the meal without rushing.