Seonleung Station eel restaurant with restroom amenities: Manmok

Why Manmok, near Seonleung Station, was the pick for lunch with a friend

On a day when a friend came to visit near my office during lunch break wanting Japanese food, I took them to Manmok, a famous eel rice bowl spot near Seonleung Station~

Manmok location, hours, parking and current events

Manmok is a 3-minute walk from Exit 1 of Seonleung Station, so it seemed like a great place for a work dinner near Seonleung Station too~

• 🚩 Address: 9 Seonneung-ro 82-gil, 1st floor, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• ⏰ Hours: Daily 11:00 - 22:00 / Break time 15:00 - 17:00 / Last order 14:20, 21:20
• 🪑 Seating info: 1 to 50 people / Private booking available
• 🍾 Corkage available: 1 bottle for 4 or fewer / 2 bottles for 5 or more
• 🅿️ Parking available: 2 spots in front of the restaurant

At lunch, Manmok only sells the eel rice bowl, and at dinner they only serve special grilled eel (salt or sauce), special eel nabe, and hanwoo nabe — the menu being this simple actually gave me confidence in the taste, like this was a truly authentic spot, so I was looking forward to it 👀

Inside Manmok: window seats for one and group tables

The inside of Manmok had an overall calm feel as a Japanese restaurant — with a luxurious wood interior and tables spaced generously apart, I could see it'd be a comfortable place to eat~ It was quiet and the interior was clean, so it also felt like a great fit for meals with parents, important business entertaining, dates, or special occasions like anniversaries 👏

There were window seats set up for solo diners, and roomy group tables too, which would make this a good spot for a lunch or dinner work gathering!

The restroom amenities at Manmok were a surprise

I was surprised when I went to the bathroom — there was hand wash and hand cream from several luxury perfume brands set out to freely choose from 🫢 Seeing that they paid attention even to this small luxury touch, I thought if you brought a guest here to entertain them, they'd feel really taken care of!

Manmok menu and the Naver reservation event

• ✅ Corkage-free: 1 bottle for 4 or fewer, 2 bottles for 5 or more
• ✅ 1 draft beer per person for group dinners (parties of 4 or more)
• ✅ Complimentary champagne for wedding invitation gatherings
• ✅ Mini birthday cake

What comes with the 39,000 won full eel rice bowl?

We ordered Manmok's full eel rice bowl for 39,000 won.

You can choose the eel rice bowl in half, full, or 1.5 servings depending on how much you want, which was nice — it means you can pick what suits you, whether you want a light solo meal or something hearty~

The eel rice bowl set includes: eel rice bowl, chawanmushi (savory egg custard), salad, side dishes, radish salad, and baek-kimchi (white kimchi)

Apparently the eel Manmok uses is only freshwater eel from Gochang, known as one of the best eel-producing regions in Korea!

What is Kanto-style eel cooking?

On top of that, they use Kanto-style cooking to bring out the eel's soft texture and clean flavor — the Kanto method involves grilling the eel once first, then steaming it, then brushing on a secret sauce and grilling it twice more over charcoal! Going through this multi-step grilling process reduces the eel's oiliness while bringing out a soft texture and deep flavor, apparently~

Glistening with a charcoal aroma and shine, the eel looked absolutely gorgeous just visually ✨

The salad, radish salad, and baek-kimchi cleansed the palate in between bites, letting me enjoy the eel's rich flavor comfortably all the way through! The radish salad especially won over my friend's taste buds ❣️

How does Manmok's eel rice bowl taste?

Manmok's eel rice bowl was good enough to rank among the best eel rice bowls I've ever had..! The sauce was just the right amount of sweet, and the eel was so soft it melted in my mouth, yet surprisingly I never once felt it was greasy, so I enjoyed it happily down to the very last bite 🤤

Trying the accompanying pickled sansho pepper, pickled radish, wasabi, and pickled ginger each with the eel one at a time, every combination went well together, which had me happily agonizing over which to pair next 🤍

Usually when eating eel rice bowl, even with the side accompaniments the greasiness eventually catches up to you, but here there was no greasiness and no fishy smell, so it felt like I could keep eating it endlessly with the sides~

And the soft chawanmushi with shrimp inside, plus the warm soup with mini king oyster mushrooms, made swallowing between bites of the eel rice bowl all the more comfortable!

Dessert at Manmok: matcha or hojicha ice cream

Finally, they gave us ice cream too — you could choose between matcha and hojicha flavors, so we ordered one of each~ It was genuinely good enough to call this an ice cream spot too, and it cleaned up the slightly heavy aftertaste in my mouth after the meal 🍃

Verdict: Manmok for lunch or a group dinner near Seonleung Station

From the side dishes all the way to the final dessert, the care put into everything was so evident that both the taste and the atmosphere were satisfying — Manmok 🤎 is a neat, well-put-together eel rice bowl restaurant that's great whether you want a special lunch or a work dinner spot near Seonleung Station. If you work near Seonleung Station, it's worth a visit whether you're looking for a work dinner venue, a Daechi-dong lunch spot, a tidy Japanese restaurant, or a Gangnam eel rice bowl spot to eat solo 👍