Octopus pancake and free parking, Milyang restaurant Ilpum Irojeong

Last weekend, after Bbung's English class ended, we went for lunch to Ilpum Irojeong in Milyang.

Since we hadn't eaten in Milyang in a while, I looked up good places for lunch in Milyang and settled on Irojeong because they serve loach soup (chueotang) and pork slices (suyuk) together as a set.

Where is Ilpum Irojeong, and where do you park?

Ilpum Irojeong is on the first floor of the Beomchang Building at 1565-16 Naei-dong, Milyang-si, Gyeongnam. It was easy to find since it's in the same building as Milyang Cinema — the cinema is on the 3rd floor, and Irojeong is on the 1st.

They're open from 11 AM to 9 PM with a break time from 3:30 to 5 PM. Last order is at 8:30 PM.

There's space in front of the restaurant for about 4 cars, but by the time we arrived, it was already full.

There's a free public parking lot called Gonghanji about 1–2 minutes on foot, so we parked there.

With two free parking lots nearby, we had no trouble finding an open spot even during weekend lunch hours.

If you're driving to try good lunch spots in Milyang, you can use the nearby Gonghanji free parking lot when the spots in front of the restaurant are taken.

Menu: the sanghwang loach soup set and what kids can eat

Inside, Ilpum Irojeong was overall clean, and toward the back of the hall there were separated room-style seating areas.

With tables that fit several people, it looked like a good spot for family gatherings or meetups with friends too.

There was a baby chair, and when we asked for a kids' spoon, they brought one over separately. Bbung ate rice with the kids' spoon.

What we ordered and what it cost

We ordered through the kiosk on the table. For our Milyang lunch, we got two servings of the warm pork slices and sanghwang loach soup set (₩14,000 each), grilled mackerel (₩7,000) for Bbung to eat, and octopus seafood pancake (₩18,000).

The water on the table wasn't plain water — it was tea brewed from sanghwang mushroom. I only realized this from the text printed on the water bottle, and it tasted good enough that I kept drinking it throughout the meal.

After a short wait, the warm pork slices and sanghwang loach soup set was served.

With loach soup, pork slices, fried loach, japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), wood ear mushrooms, and various other side dishes all arriving at once, the table filled up quickly.

The pork slices came cut into bite-sized pieces, and they went well topped with kimchi.

The fried loach was crispy too, and I alternated between that and the other side dishes on the set.

Namwon-style loach soup in sanghwang mushroom broth, with turmeric rice

Ilpum Irojeong's loach soup is a Namwon-style chueotang made with broth brewed from sanghwang mushroom. I've mostly only had the loach soup served at my office cafeteria, so the loach soup we had this day in Milyang, with its thick and rich broth, felt noticeably different from what I was used to.

My husband must have liked it too, since he finished his entire bowl. With the hot broth and pork slices together, it felt like a properly nourishing meal that day.

Instead of plain white rice, we were served yellow turmeric rice.

The 18,000 won pancake with a whole octopus on top

The octopus seafood pancake caught our eye the moment it arrived, since a whole octopus was laid on top.

The pancake, packed with chives and seafood, was tasty once we cut it into bite-sized pieces with scissors and dipped it, along with the octopus, into soy sauce.

We ordered the grilled mackerel separately as a side dish for Bbung.

Once we picked off the flesh, Bbung ate it well, and the turmeric rice must have agreed with her too — she finished a whole bowl by herself that day. Since we'd gone out for a Milyang lunch with our kid, I checked whether there was anything else on the menu besides grilled mackerel that a child could eat, and it turns out Ilpum Irojeong also has seaweed soup as a separate option — good to know if your child likes soup.

Self-serve side dish bar, pumpkin sikhye, sujeonggwa and gangjeong

If you run low on side dishes while eating, you can help yourself to more at the self-serve bar. We went back for a bit more of the side dishes we were enjoying and kept the meal going.

Near the entrance, they also had sweet pumpkin sikhye (rice punch), tonic sujeonggwa (cinnamon punch), and gangjeong (rice snacks) ready to go.

I've often seen sujeonggwa at Korean restaurants, but having sweet pumpkin sikhye and gangjeong too, so we could try all three, was a nice touch.

Is Ilpum Irojeong a good lunch spot with a child?

As we left after the meal, Bbung was given a bag of heart-shaped ppeong-twigi (puffed rice snacks). She ate well and got a heart-shaped snack on top of it, which made her happy.

It was a Milyang lunch we enjoyed with our kid — we got to have the loach soup set and Bbung got to pick something she liked too. It was our first time visiting Ilpum Irojeong, and since both my husband and Bbung ate well, we left in a good mood.