Yongdam, Jeju grilled fish lunch with rockfish add-on: Naneun Jigeum

I had lunch at Naneun Jigeum Saengseoni Meokgo Sipda, a well-known grilled fish spot near Jeju Airport :)

Where is Naneun Jigeum Yongdam Airport Branch, and what are its hours?

• 📍Location · 168 Yongmun-ro, 1st floor, Jeju-si, Jeju, South Korea
• 🕔Hours · Daily 09:00–21:00
• 🚗Parking (free) · In front of the restaurant

Located in Yongdam-dong, close to Jeju Airport, this grilled fish specialist's brick-toned building with a fishing-boat logo and signage caught my eye right away.

Inside the Yongdam fish restaurant: seating and baby chairs

The interior had a retro feel with cute little photos scattered around, and the menu designed like a 'Sunday Jeju' newspaper concept was especially unique.

Since it's a Korean restaurant concept that works for both family meals and solo dining, the space was practical too. Tables were mostly set up for four, and baby chairs were ready for families with young kids. Grilled fish comes with rice, stew and several side dishes all at once, so the table fills up quite a bit — the tables here are set up to handle a full spread comfortably.

What's on the menu at Naneun Jigeum?

This is a place where you can enjoy various charcoal-grilled fish — mackerel, cutlassfish, flounder, croaker and more — served as set meals.

The space where you can see the fish being grilled felt like it blended the image of fish and the region of Jeju together nicely.

Ordering the Big Son's Set with a rockfish add-on, cheonggukjang and kimchi jjigae

Among the many menu options, I ordered the Big Son's Set. The assorted grilled fish (mackerel, cutlassfish, flounder, croaker) came with cheonggukjang as the stew, and I also added rockfish on the side — since you can pick your stew, I went with kimchi jjigae for that one. The menu itself is built around grilled fish and stew, with everything from solo-dining sets to various family-style sets available.

Grilled fish is light yet still has a bit of oiliness, so pairing it with the deep, savory cheonggukjang and kimchi jjigae gave the meal that proper Korean home-table feel. Eating the grilled fish with rice and occasionally adding a bit of the kimchi jjigae broth and kimchi meant I didn't need much extra seasoning sauce. If you want the safest choice for a stew to go with grilled fish, kimchi jjigae seems like a good bet since it's hard to dislike.

How the assorted grilled fish tasted: mackerel, flounder and cutlassfish

The assorted grilled fish included mackerel, cutlassfish, flounder and croaker, so I could pick a bit of each. I also added rockfish separately. The mackerel had thick, meaty flesh and wasn't strongly fishy, and overall the seasoning wasn't too heavy, which I liked. Grilled fish can start tasting salty after a few bites of rice if the seasoning is too strong, but this fish itself wasn't very salty, so that wasn't an issue. The mackerel's characteristic oily richness and soft flesh tasted great on rice even without much extra sauce. Mackerel in particular can end up smelling fishy or turning too dry if grilled poorly, but here it barely had any fishy taste at all.

Mackerel and cutlassfish are familiar enough, but the flounder had a light, clean taste when grilled that made it an easy, agreeable choice. The flounder was relatively easy to debone, and the mild seasoning let the fish's natural flavor come through. The grilled cutlassfish also leaned toward enjoying the plain flavor of the fish flesh rather than relying on seasoning. If you've had a lot of braised cutlassfish in Jeju already, trying it grilled this time for a lighter taste seemed like a good idea.

Was the extra grilled rockfish worth adding?

The rockfish had a chewy bite thanks to its naturally firm, springy flesh. The outside was grilled crisp, but the inside stayed moist with juicy flesh, so it was soft without any dryness.

If you're looking for a good restaurant near Jeju Airport, especially a grilled fish restaurant near Jeju Airport, I'd recommend stopping by Naneun Jigeum Saengseoni Meokgo Sipda :)