Evening 5-fish, 7-piece grilled fish set in Goyang: Min Cook Apbadang

The name is 'Apbadang' (front seaside), not 'Apmadang' (front yard) — easy to misread at first.

I heard there was a restaurant in Seongsa-dong that's great for taking your parents to, so I visited. Most of the diners were older, so it really does seem to hit the sweet spot for the parents' generation, and it's also a place you can order delivery from if grilling fish yourself feels like too much hassle. The parking lot was big too, which was nice.

Seasonal grilled fish, Min Cook Apbadang

The ₩15,900 lunch special

At this Seongsa-dong favorite, Min Cook Apbadang, the lunch special looked really well put together — a seasonal grilled fish spread that comes with sotbap rice, jaecheop (clam) soup, and salad. It made me want to come back just for lunch.

This time I unfortunately visited in the evening, so I couldn't try the lunch special. Min Cook Apbadang really felt like a proper, solid Korean restaurant, and you could tell they were using good ingredients.

And true to its name, it gives off a bit of a seaside-getaway vibe~

Most items are priced around ₩20,000, so the ₩15,900 lunch special seems like a solid lunch deal in Seongsa-dong.

The seasonal fish served that day

It seems the grilled fish lineup changes daily. On the day I visited it was:

• Weekday — cutlassfish, flounder, wild bottom cod
• Evening — croaker, flounder, wild bottom cod, gurnard, cutlassfish

— that was the lineup.

The 6-banchan self-bar and countryside doenjang soup

The self-bar was well stocked too, with six kinds of banchan (side dishes), doenjang (soybean paste) soup, and a wrap vegetable salad. Everything was kept clean and fresh-looking, which gave me a lot of confidence in the place.

The banchan were just as good and clean as at any solid Ilsan Korean restaurant. And the wrap vegetables and steamed cabbage paired surprisingly well with the grilled fish too.

You just grab the doenjang soup yourself from the self-bar, and it tasted like homemade doenjang soup made with countryside-style paste — not harsh at all, a more wholesome flavor. It really drove home why this is a good place to bring your parents.

Menu and ordering at Min Cook Apbadang

Everyone elementary school age and up needs their own order here, so the sets are neatly divided per head count. I debated between the seasonal grilled fish set and the direct-fire bulgogi plus seasonal grilled fish combo, but figured we couldn't finish the bulgogi too, so we just went with the original: seasonal grilled fish set for 3.

Pre-meal cabbage acorn pancake

The cabbage acorn pancake (dotori-jeon) served before the meal? This was genuinely delicious?????? If refills were a thing I would have kept eating it. The soy sauce drizzled on top is the real kicker — I think they sell that sauce too. I should buy some next time. It's a slightly sweet, rich seasoned soy sauce that goes so well with the mild pancake.

5 kinds of seasonal grilled fish, 7 pieces

Next came the five kinds of seasonal grilled fish. Even the fish I'd never seen before were labeled at the front of the restaurant with the day's fish, so it was nice to know exactly what I was eating.

The kicker here was that flounder was my personal favorite. It's coated in a crispy flour batter and stays warm the whole time you're eating it, which was great.

It comes as sotbap (hot pot rice) for two, and the rice itself seemed to be good quality — chewy, glossy, with a nicely crisped scorched-rice layer at the bottom too.

The soy sauce was from the self-bar, but grilled fish tastes even better dipped in wasabi soy sauce, right? If that's your thing, just grab it from the self-bar.

The first fish I picked was either gurnard or bottom cod, one of the two — the flesh was plump and delicious.

The reason flounder was my top pick is that it comes with a seasoning sauce drizzled on top, and eating it together with the flesh was so, so good. The flesh was thick and the bones were thick too, which made it easy to pick apart!!

I immediately wrapped a bite in a lettuce leaf. The wrap greens weren't spring cabbage but something slightly bitter and a bit spicy, like mustard greens. My mom loved it. It really does feel like a solid recommendation for a family-friendly Ilsan restaurant.

The cutlassfish also had a thin flour coating, which made it even crispier and nuttier.

To finish, I topped the scorched rice with a little cutlassfish innards jeotgal (salted fermented sauce), but there was so much fish that even after eating and eating, some was left over. Makes sense — five kinds of fish came out as seven whole pieces, so the portion was genuinely generous. And it wasn't grilled over an open wood fire but had more of a home-grilled feel, giving it a different flavor from charcoal-grilled fish, which I liked. Grilling fish at home can feel like a hassle because of the smell, so it's even better that you can order it through Baemin or Coupang and enjoy it at home.

Sikhye to finish, and a perk for bringing your parents

To wrap up, there was sikhye (sweet rice punch)?! Having a glass of sikhye cleaned my palate nicely, and the leafy green view outside when we left the restaurant was really healing too. It's noted as a good restaurant to bring your Ilsan-area parents to, and apparently if you visit with your parents they give you seasoned crab as well. Even without parents in tow, if you want delicious, generous grilled fish, I'd recommend Min Cook Apbadang, a Seongsa-dong favorite.