Nampo-dong Japanese lunch with Mom, milk pudding to go: Daidokoro

Daidokoro Gwangbok Branch

I stopped by Daidokoro, a Nampo-dong restaurant in Busan where you really get that Japanese feel.

Daidokoro Gwangbok: location, hours and parking

• 📍 Location: 2 Jungang-daero, Jung-gu, Busan, 10th floor
• ⏰ Hours: daily 10:30-21:00, last order 20:00
• 🅿️ Parking available at Lotte Department Store
• ✔️ Takeout and group seating available

Daidokoro is a Japanese home-cooking (gajeong-sik) restaurant on the 10th floor of the main building of Lotte Department Store Gwangbok. The department store connects to Nampo Station, so it's easy to reach. It's a good stop after sightseeing around Nampo and Jagalchi Station, and also handy for a meal in the middle of department store shopping.

How long is the lunch wait at Daidokoro Gwangbok?

At peak hours there's a wait, so you can join the waitlist through Catchtable. We went after the rush, past 1:10 pm, and maybe that's why we got seated right away.

There's also a kids' curry set, so it's a good place to eat out with children!

Atmosphere and seating at Daidokoro Gwangbok

The inside is packed with adorable figures and Japanese character dolls, so it's fun just to look around. Totoro dolls, music boxes, all the Miyazaki Hayao anime characters turn up! With the warm lighting and little props, it felt like being in a Japanese goods shop.

There were various tables in units of four, and even though we went after the lunch peak, the place was full of customers. It's clean, like a department store restaurant, and the gaps between seats were decent, so we could eat comfortably.

Daidokoro menu and what we ordered

The menu has plenty of things you'd think of as Japanese, like karaage sets, tonkatsu sets and kkanpunggi (sweet and spicy fried chicken) sets. What's unusual is that the chef who appeared as the mentaiko bowl master on SBS's Master of Living (생활의 달인) is said to work here. We had to try the mentaiko bowl, right?!

• Chicken nanban set
• Mentaiko bowl (pollock roe rice bowl)
• Menbosha (shrimp toast)
• Blue lemonade
• Milk pudding (takeout)

As a Japanese home-cooking place, the food comes as a full spread on a wooden tray, and it looks so pretty~ There was soup, kimchi, pickled radish, small side dishes, and even the milk pudding dessert.

Mentaiko bowl: Mom's pick, a rice thief

First, the mentaiko set. It was Mom's choice, and it's a total rice thief (so good you keep eating rice)! It's topped with pollock roe, egg, seaweed, rice and even katsuobushi (bonito flakes), and when you mix it all up, the salty and nutty flavors explode!

It isn't greasy, and even people who like Korean food would find it easy and tasty, so if you're trying Japanese food for the first time, this mentaiko bowl seems like a good choice.

What does the chicken nanban taste like?

Chicken nanban is a signature dish of Miyazaki Prefecture in Japan. I'd seen it a lot in social media mukbang videos, so I ordered it out of curiosity, and it was sooo so so good! I loved the cute details, like the rice topped with a fried egg with a cute picture drawn on it, and the tiny curry.

Daidokoro's signature karaage (Japanese fried chicken) is piled with egg mayo that seems mixed with tartar sauce, so it's really tender. The mini curry that comes with it can be mixed into the rice, but I dipped the karaage in it! It's Japanese-style curry, so yummy.

Side menbosha and blue lemonade

The menbosha I ordered as a side was fried crispy, yet really soft inside. A crunchy crackle when you bite in, you know? Even Mom, who's older, enjoyed it.

It's good dunked in the chili sauce that comes with it, and salty enough to be good on its own too.

For a drink, I got the blue lemonade! It was cool and sweet, just right for a hot day. The color is a refreshing blue, and it went well with the rich chicken nanban, so the whole meal felt nicely balanced.

Daidokoro milk pudding: worth taking home?

This was the Daidokoro milk pudding, the best after-meal dessert. It was my third visit, and the milk pudding is great every time. Soft, moist, springy and creamy milk pudding!

Mom said it was so good that I packed one to go. It's a perfect palate cleanser, and it's cold, so it tastes great.

Who we recommend Daidokoro Gwangbok to

• Anyone looking for a great Japanese home-cooking restaurant in Busan
• Anyone looking for a good lunch spot in Nampo-dong
• Anyone looking for a date or dining spot near Nampo Station

Shopping at Lotte Department Store Gwangbok and then eating at Daidokoro made for a comfortable outing. I recommend Daidokoro, a Nampo-dong restaurant where you can enjoy Japanese atmosphere and Japanese home cooking!