Daejeon hagfish restaurant open late in Bongmyeong-dong: Jinppaei

Last Friday I had a plan to head straight to Daejeon after work, and since it was Friday night I wanted something really delicious that goes well with drinks — so I went to Jinppaei (진빼이), a charcoal-grilled hagfish spot in Bongmyeong-dong! Bottom line: totally satisfied, jjap-chae!! Let me show you the review >_<💛

Where is Jinppaei? The Bongmyeong-dong food alley near Yuseong Oncheon Station

Jinppaei, a Daejeon hagfish restaurant, is located in the Bongmyeong-dong bar street near Yuseong Oncheon Station, so the location was excellent. Since Bongmyeong-dong is near a university area, there are tons of restaurants and it was packed with people. Jinppaei is a place where the drinks just flow, whether you go for round one or round two 👏

What is Jinppaei like at 10pm on a Friday?

The inside of Jinppaei has a slightly retro feel~ decorated in a relaxed atmosphere 🌿🔥 The walls are covered with messages from regular customers, so we left a note too haha. It wasn't super crowded around 10pm, but the music was upbeat and the atmosphere really got the drinks flowing — totally glad we visited on a Friday night! The food was so good and the vibe was so good that my husband ended up getting drunk.. hehe; 🫠🫠

Jinppaei's menu and what the couple ordered

Jinppaei's main dishes are hagfish, conger eel, and shellfish grill, with plenty of side dishes as well. The prices were also pretty reasonable, which was satisfying. It had been such a long time since I'd had hagfish grilled over charcoal >< so we ordered the hagfish right away~💛

• Hagfish + shellfish tasting set ₩51,000
• Busan gaja cold milmyeon ₩6,000
• Soju ₩5,000

Side dishes and dried pollack soup worth a bottle of soju on their own

Here are Jinppaei's basic side dishes :) Just looking at them, they're perfect soju snacks~~👍👍

Dried anchovies with gochujang (red chili paste), vegetable sticks, and quail eggs — just picking at them while waiting for the food is totally my favorite old-school pub style.. Since I'm pregnant and can't drink, it's such a shame ㅠㅠ sniff 🥹

And the owner here really knows how to cook — all these seasoning-type side dishes are delicious... The chive salad looked like nothing special, but I kept eating it like kimchi, it was that good...👏 The condiments that come out with the recommended way to eat hagfish, like baekmuk-eunji (white radish kimchi) and garlic sauce, also come along.

And the pollack soup comes as a basic side too..👍👍 A combo where you could easily drink a bottle of soju just off the basic side dishes,,, The broth was so refreshing and rich that I wanted to add a bowl of rice..

And thanks to the owner's amazing sense, we each got a heotgae (raisin tree) stick too >_<

Live hagfish from the tank, pre-grilled over briquettes

At Jinppaei, they catch fresh hagfish straight from the fish tank out front and prep it, so maybe that's why the freshness was on another level...‼️‼️‼️ I hadn't had charcoal-grilled hagfish since Busan, so it had been so long that I was totally hyped!

At Jinppaei, the hagfish is first pre-grilled over charcoal, then put into a lunchbox container to cook a bit more, and this process locks in the moisture! So maybe that's why the hagfish here tastes softer than anywhere else — total game changer 👍👍👍 Softer and chewier than the hagfish I had in Busan, and really delicious.. Even my Busan-native husband admitted this place is legit,,,!

The moisture-locked hagfish can be re-grilled over the charcoal as much as you want, and eating it this way meant it never got tough — you could keep eating it deliciously 🫶 The charcoal fire was also so hot that it cooked quickly, which I really liked~~

The hagfish had a great chewy texture, plus the charcoal smoky flavor, so we both went 'this is so good..' the moment we took a bite, and got kind of emotional..❣️ Personally, I thought the seasoned grill was really delicious. The owner is really skilled with seasoning... The seasoned grill was so good. ㅠㅠ

What comes in the shellfish tasting set: 4 scallops, 2 abalone, 1 fan mussel

They also put the shellfish tasting set we ordered on the grill~ 4 scallops, 2 abalone, and a fan mussel came out, and the portion was really generous for two people!

They also piled a ton of cheese on the shellfish grill ㅠㅠ, delicious, no complaints,,,! It's tasty on its own or dipped in cho-gochujang (vinegared chili sauce), so it's the kind of drinking snack that makes soju go down smoothly 😉

Finishing with Busan gaja cold milmyeon at Jinppaei

To finish, we filled the somewhat empty carb spot with cold milmyeon (buckwheat noodles) 😛 My Busan-native husband said the milmyeon at Jinppaei, this Bongmyeong-dong restaurant, was actually quite good even by his standards. The broth was refreshing and the noodles were chewy, making it the perfect refreshing finish! 🥰

And the owner even gave us corn cheese on the house..🥹 The food was delicious, the atmosphere was great, and the owner was so kind — there's no reason not to go to Jinppaei, this Bongmyeong-dong bar!