Siksa-dong fish restaurant: half grilled, half braised mackerel sets

What is Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo Siksa Branch in Siksa-dong, Ilsan?

Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo Siksa Branch (화덕으로간고등어 식사점) is a brand-new pot rice and grilled fish restaurant in Siksa-dong, Ilsan. I'd visited another branch of Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo once before and thought, "hey, nice grilled fish," and then this one opened in Siksa-dong. So I went, and yep, it was good.

Pot rice plus grilled fish made for a really filling meal. And the self-serve bar isn't just a few kinds of kimchi. It has rice, seasoned greens, japchae and even tteokbokki, so I kept bringing back a bit of this and that and ended up way fuller than expected, haha.

Hours and parking

• Address: 6-70 Wisi1-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang, Gyeonggi, South Korea (Units 201–204)
• Hours: 11:00 - 21:00
• Parking: There's a private lot behind the building and an underground garage. I parked and they registered 2 hours for me.

Atmosphere and the kids' play area

The restaurant is on the 2nd floor of the building, and since it's new, it's just spotless!

And attention, parents coming with kids!!! There's a separate space for children to play. You can see it right from inside the restaurant, so it should be pretty convenient if you're eating out with little ones.

Kids can't sit still once they've finished eating, right? haha Parents can keep eating a bit longer while the kids play inside, so it looked like a good Siksa-dong restaurant for families.

How do you order?

The restaurant uses a kiosk menu, so you look at the menu at your table and order right there. There are several kinds of grilled fish, and there are also braised dishes and pork stir-fry, so even someone who isn't a big fish fan would find something to pick.

We ordered one grilled mackerel and one braised mackerel with radish and bracken. Getting one grilled and one braised and splitting them half and half keeps you from getting tired of either, haha.

What side dishes come with the meal?

The side dishes come out first after you order. There was kimchi, spicy seasoned chili peppers and bellflower root, plus japchae (glass noodle stir-fry) and a cabbage salad.

The cabbage salad dressing was a bit unusual. Strawberry jam flavor, I'd say? Definitely odd.

The sides aren't super fancy, more like Korean banchan that go well with fish. I love japchae, so I pretty much finished it the moment it arrived, haha.

The seaweed soup was well seasoned and generous in portion too. And the nice thing here is that if you run short, you can just go refill at the self-serve bar.

The self-serve bar: bibimbap, japchae and tteokbokki

Honestly, the self-serve bar was as much of a highlight as the fish this time. I've seen plenty of places with side dish refills, but here you can practically build a whole second meal, haha. There are seasoned greens and free rice in a rice cooker, so you're set up to make bibimbap.

WoW~ It's funny to eat more rice after pot rice, but when you see the greens you just want to mix them in, right?

Like how there's always a separate stomach for fried rice, even when you're full, haha. And I liked that the japchae was at the self-serve bar too.

The surprise: self-serve bar tteokbokki

And the real surprise was the tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes)! It's a grilled fish place, so at first I just grabbed some to try. But whoa? Seriously tasty!

Maybe they use good rice cakes, because the texture was nice and chewy. I went close to dinner closing time, so the rice cakes were a little soft, but still delicious. If you time it for dinner when it's freshly made, I bet you'd get really good tteokbokki.

I was hungry before the fish came out and thought I'd just take 2 pieces, then immediately went back for a whole plate, haha.

Mackerel pot rice set: a whole mackerel

The mackerel pot rice set comes with a whole mackerel on a long plate. The mackerel finally arrived, and honestly, grilled fish just feels right when a whole fish lands on the table like this.

The outside is nicely golden, and the flesh pulls apart moist with chopsticks. It's salt-cured mackerel (ganGodeungeo), so it's already seasoned. It was delicious just placed on top of rice.

Wasabi comes with it too, and a little dab on a piece of mackerel cuts the oiliness, which was nice. As you can see in the photo, the flesh is pretty thick.

The rice isn't a plain bowl but pot rice. When I opened the lid, the rice was white and glossy, wow~ Freshly made pot rice like this tastes great even without side dishes. I scooped some rice out to eat with the mackerel and poured water into the pot.

I plan to finish with the scorched rice tea (nurungji), haha. A piece of fish with a spoonful of warm pot rice feels just like a home-cooked meal.

What does the braised mackerel with radish and bracken pot rice set taste like?

The braised mackerel comes in red sauce with mackerel and radish, topped with plenty of bracken (gosari, fernbrake). I ordered it because eating only grilled fish felt like a letdown, and the color alone is a total rice thief, right?

There's a good amount of sauce, so it was nice to mix a bit into the rice. Honestly, when I eat braised mackerel, I like the radish even more than the fish, haha.

Radish that has soaked up the seasoning and cooked soft is so good on top of rice. With the bracken added, there's more chew than ordinary braised mackerel, and the combination worked.

If the grilled mackerel is mild and clean, the braised one is clearly the seasoned, saucy side, so alternating between the two was just right.

Verdict: half grilled, half braised, plus the self-serve bar

I ordered one grilled mackerel and one braised mackerel at Hwadegeuro Gan Godeungeo Siksa Branch. The grilled one was mild and moist, and the braised one had a seasoning that went well with rice.

What I liked most this time was the self-serve bar! It's not just side dish refills. You can make bibimbap with rice and greens, and there's japchae and tteokbokki too, so there's a lot to eat. I didn't expect much from the tteokbokki, but the rice cakes were chewy and tasty, so I kept picking at it, haha.

Pot rice, grilled fish and the self-serve bar made for a properly full meal. With a play area for kids, I'd also recommend it if you're looking for a Siksa-dong restaurant in Ilsan for a meal with your parents or a family meal with children~