Charcoal-grilled eel in Buk-gu, Gwangju: Deokeun Jangeo

For grilling charcoal eel yourself in Buk-gu, Gwangju

While my boyfriend and I were deciding on lunch, we went out for eel for the first time in a while 🐟 I’d been craving eel but was looking around for somewhere to go when I found Deokeun Jangeo (더큰장어)! We set off hoping it would be delicious, haha.

Once we arrived, I had to snap one from the entrance first 📸

The sign at the entrance says “Direct Sales Market Entrance / Basement Level 1,” so just follow the directions downstairs. I also looked around inside, and the whole place felt clean and neatly organized!

How it works, from choosing eel to eating

As soon as you walk in, you’ll see where to register for a waiting number! We visited at weekday lunchtime, and there was a wait. Even for a first visit, the instructions made it easy :)

• STEP 01. Choose and pay for your eel at the seafood counter.
• STEP 02. Take the eel you paid for to the restaurant and grill it yourself.
• The table setting and any extra menu items are paid for separately when you leave after your meal!

When it was our turn, we chose our eel, but I had no idea how many grams we should get, so I asked! They explained it so kindly, haha. Then we took our paid-for eel upstairs to the second-floor dining area! They tell you your table number when you pay.

Once upstairs, you’ll find your table number. Ours was No. 35, to the left!! This is a self-service place where you grill your own eel over charcoal, so you cook it right at your table 🔥

Eel browning beautifully over charcoal

Ready to eat eel, haha. It looked thick and so appetizing just sitting there~ Once the eel arrived, we put it on the charcoal and grilled it until golden! Watching it cook and brown over the charcoal suddenly made me even hungrier 😂

Meal options and the self-service bar

A little look at the meal options too 👀

We also checked out the self-service bar 👀 It was convenient to take as much as we wanted and pair the eel with whatever we liked :) Garlic and ssam vegetables (wrap greens) are a must with eel, haha.

We worked hard at grilling it, flipping it over so it would cook well, haha. (Grilling master 🫶🏻) Grilling it ourselves over charcoal made the eel smell wonderful, and it was so nice to eat it straight away while it was warm~!

It was delicious wrapped in lettuce with all sorts of things~ The kind of flavor where, once you eat one piece, you reach for the next 😂 Definitely an eel restaurant worth recommending!! For reference, ours weighed a little over 800g and came to about ₩40,000! The eel was really great, and the price was kind too 👍🏻

My boyfriend even said we wouldn’t need to go all the way to Gochang for eel anymore! He’s always honest when he eats something tasty, so I guess he really liked it that day 😂🤍 We ate so well, haha. And for our final dessert, nurungji (scorched rice) too, hehe.

For the table setting fee and extra menu items, you head downstairs to pay again!! It’s ₩4,000 for adults and ₩2,000 for preschool children. You can get ice cream too if you leave a Naver review~ 🍦 We finished with hot chocolate and an iced Americano!

A day out to eat something delicious might seem like no big deal, but somehow it makes the whole day feel better. We filled up on eel that day and both ended the meal very satisfied~! Next time, I’d like to bring my parents here :) 🤍