Kid-friendly seasoned pork ribs at a Suwon eel buffet: Songnim Bok

There's an eel all-you-can-eat spot near Suwon City Hall where you can eat eel cheaply, so let me walk you through the price, taste and vibe in detail.

What kind of place is Songnim Bok Jangeo, the eel buffet near Suwon City Hall?

Located on the 1st floor at 8-35 Gwonjung-ro 50beon-gil, Gwonseon-gu, Suwon, Songnim Bok Jangeo Freshwater Eel All-You-Can-Eat serves fresh eel along with pork belly and chicken neck meat.

You can also eat pork ribs all-you-can-eat, which makes it a great eel restaurant for a work dinner or family outing.

Most all-you-can-eat eel places use cheap frozen eel, but Songnim Bok Jangeo Freshwater Eel gets its eel selected and prepped directly at the wholesale market before it's supplied fresh to the restaurant, so

the eel tastes so good that once you visit, you become a regular — it's a real Suwon City Hall favorite.

Parking and the dining room: does it work for group dinners?

There's free parking in the basement and behind the building, so it's easy to visit, and it's open daily from 11:00 to 22:00.

Like a proper all-you-can-eat restaurant, the interior is simple, but with fewer tables set in a spacious dining room, the table spacing is wide enough for a comfortable meal, and

there are large tables for 8 or more people, making it a great spot for company dinners too.

Songnim Bok Jangeo prices and what's at the self-serve corner

Unlimited eel, pork belly and chicken neck meat costs ₩29,800 for adults and ₩14,000 for kids, with a ₩3,000 table setting fee for adults only; à la carte dishes like eel soup, galbitang, yukgaejang, buckwheat makguksu and spicy ramyeon run around ₩10,000, which is pretty affordable.

Once seated, you get side dishes like green onion kimchi, white kimchi, ginger, pickled onion and pickled perilla leaves along with eel, pork belly and chicken neck meat, and at the self-serve corner you'll find the basic side dishes plus wraps like mushrooms, garlic, perilla leaves and lettuce, and

eel, pork belly, pork ribs and chicken neck meat, so feel free to grab whatever side dish or eel you're running low on.

How does the same-day trimmed freshwater eel taste?

Well-lit charcoal came out and we put the eel and pork belly on the grill; since it wasn't frozen but eel prepped that same day, the freshness was excellent, and as the eel cooked, the aroma completely stimulated my appetite.

After grilling the eel well and cutting it into bite-sized pieces

I picked up a big piece of eel to taste it, and the outside was slightly crispy while the inside had a nice soft texture,

with the deep, rich flavor and nutty taste unique to eel, and the more you chewed, the more that clean flavor continued.

Since you can grab fresh freshwater eel — not frozen — from the self-serve corner, I refilled it again and again; aside from overeating (I probably ate about ₩60,000–70,000 worth if this were a regular eel place), I was completely satisfied.

At eel places with low-quality eel, some people can't eat much because of the greasy taste unique to eel, but Songnim Bok Jangeo Freshwater Eel All-You-Can-Eat had absolutely no fishy smell, so not just me but my kid ate it happily too.

Pork belly, chicken neck meat and seasoned pork ribs

Eel alone is filling and delicious, but when the eel feels a bit rich, you can switch to pork belly, chicken neck meat or pork ribs.

The pork belly had the perfect balance of fat and lean meat, and when placed over the charcoal it grilled to a golden brown with a smoky aroma soaked in,

and the nutty flavor unique to pork belly was so good you could come here just for the pork belly alone.

Chicken neck meat, one of my personal favorite drinking snacks, is a must-eat for anyone who likes the clean flavor and chewy texture unique to chicken — grilling a piece of chicken neck meat and washing it down with beer makes for a pretty excellent drinking snack.

If you're visiting with kids, you absolutely have to try the house-made seasoned pork ribs made with pork shoulder — the sweet-savory seasoning soaks all the way into the meat,

and it was the dish my kid ate the most of — the balance of sweet seasoning and porky flavor made it delicious for anyone.

Finishing with cold buckwheat makguksu noodles

After eating our fill of meat and eel, we ordered buckwheat mul-makguksu (cold buckwheat noodles in broth) as a palate cleanser, and it was truly the perfect choice.

The broth, floating with fine ice, was slightly spicy yet clean, which was great for cutting through the rich flavors of the eel and pork belly, and

the buckwheat noodles seemed to have a high buckwheat content, with a soft texture that made for the best possible finish to the meal.

Is Songnim Bok Jangeo in Suwon worth it?

Songnim Bok Jangeo Freshwater Eel, the eel restaurant near Suwon City Hall, is an all-you-can-eat you can enjoy at a low price, but since fresh eel selected directly at the wholesale market is supplied to the restaurant every day, you get sturdier eel than at most other eel restaurants, and

since you can enjoy pork belly, chicken neck meat and pork ribs all in one place, it's a top spot for family dinners or work get-togethers.

If you love eel but have been hesitant because of the price, I'd recommend visiting Songnim Bok Jangeo Freshwater Eel and eating eel until you're stuffed.