Suseong, Daegu Korean restaurant: squid pork lunch after a checkup

A fire-grilled Korean lunch in Suseong, Daegu after my checkup

After finishing a hospital checkup, I headed to Banwoldang Buja Sikdang Suseong Branch (반월당부자식당 수성점), a fire-grilled specialist in Suseong, Daegu, for lunch. It's known for smoky fire-grilled Korean food, so it was perfect for a single lunch.

How to get to Banwoldang Buja Sikdang Suseong Branch, and parking

The restaurant is a 400m walk from Exit 1 of Eorinisesang Station. It's a 7-minute walk from Hwanggeum Market and a 3-minute drive from Dongsan Elementary School, right next to the Mija Pocha main branch on the Bokgae-doro food alley, so it's easy to reach.

You can park for free at Public Roadside Parking Lot No. 3 in front of the restaurant. It's open Monday to Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 8:45 p.m., with a break from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. and regular closures every Sunday, so plan your visit accordingly.

Atmosphere inside the restaurant

Banwoldang Buja Sikdang has appeared on several TV shows, including MBC's Live Tonight and KBS's Saengsaeng Jeongbo, and celebrities have reportedly visited too. They say only two branches, Banwoldang and Suseong, are run directly. The Suseong branch is clean and cozy, with several 4-person hall tables, which makes it a good spot for dates, gatherings or family meals.

Menu and ordering rules

The signature dishes are fire-grilled jeyuk-bokkeum (spicy stir-fried pork), squid stir-fry and squid-pork stir-fry, and you can choose the spice level. Every menu item requires an order for 2 or more people, black rice is charged separately, and the cheonggukjang stew (strong fermented soybean stew) is free, so keep that in mind when ordering.

Side dishes with burdock fries, and the wrap-veggie self-bar

After we ordered, the staff first brought out neat, mild side dishes such as seaweed stems, bean sprouts, radish salad and crispy fried burdock.

Besides the side dishes, there's a self-bar stocked with wrap vegetables, so you can easily take as much as you want.

A fire show in the open kitchen

While waiting for the food, you can see the fire-grilled cooking in the open kitchen at a glance, and watching the flame show was surprisingly fun.

What does the free cheonggukjang stew taste like?

Before the main dish arrived, the staff brought the complimentary cheonggukjang stew. It's said to be made from a 36-year veteran mother's recipe, boiled with 3 parts country-style soybean paste to 1 part cheonggukjang, and it was full of a clean, nutty savoriness without being harsh.

The deep umami of the soybean paste blended with the fermented aroma of the cheonggukjang, making the broth rich and full. It felt nutty yet clean going down, with the care of home cooking and a traditional aroma.

Fire-grilled squid and pork stir-fry for ₩14,000: how did it taste?

Fire-grilled squid and pork stir-fry (ojebokkeum), ₩14,000

The restaurant's ojebokkeum combines deep-sea squid prepared fresh every day, coated in a mother's-touch special sauce, with pork aged 24 hours in a special marinade, so it takes the best of both dishes. It arrived on a hot stone plate, full of fire-grilled flavor.

The fire-grilled squid and pork carried a faint charcoal aroma, so even within the spicy sauce a rich, nutty depth came through.

Putting pork and squid together on rice let the spicy sauce soak into every grain, and the heat and smoky flavor made a perfect meal. It also went well with the fresh wrap vegetables.

Mix the ojebokkeum with rice and vegetables

When I mixed vegetables and rice into the fire-grilled ojebokkeum, the sweet-spicy sauce of the smoky squid and pork soaked in, and the umami kept building the more I chewed.

The smoky heat and the fresh crunch of the vegetables came together into an unforgettable meal.

Earn 3% Dodo Points when you pay

After the meal, the restaurant gave me 3% of the payment as Dodo Points, so the fun of collecting points was added to the taste, and I enjoyed both the food and the perk. I recommend stopping by Banwoldang Buja Sikdang Suseong Branch at lunchtime for smoky fire-grilled dishes and a hearty bowl of mixed rice.