Busan hagfish restaurant near Choryang Station: Gyeongbuksan

Today my boyfriend and I came to Gyeongbuksan Kkomjangeo, a well-known kkomjangeo (grilled hagfish) spot in Busan, for our very first lunch on day one of our Busan trip. I've eaten plenty of plump grilled eel and sweet eel rice bowls in my life, but I'd never once had kkomjangeo. Turns out it tastes nothing like I imagined, and it was genuinely delicious. I wanted to recommend it to anyone else who hasn't tried it yet, so let me introduce it below.

Where is Gyeongbuksan Kkomjangeo? A 4-minute walk from Choryang Station

Gyeongbuksan Kkomjangeo is at 25 Choryang-ro, Dong-gu, Busan, a 4-minute walk from Choryang Station. Even from a distance, the huge pink sign with the restaurant's name was impossible to miss, so we didn't get lost at all! The vibe was screaming 'this is a good place' from the outside.

On the front door, there was a photo of a visit from Hibab. I came here because I heard it was a Busan kkomjangeo hotspot, but I had no idea Hibab had already been here.

There's a big kkomjangeo menu board on the wall, so it was easy to see at a glance. Below the menu board, the wall was covered in celebrity signatures. Guess it really is a famous place.

Main building or annex: which entrance to use

Gyeongbuksan Kkomjangeo has an interesting layout — of the two entrance doors, the left leads to the main building and the right leads to the annex. It's not that one side is better than the other; just good to know that the restaurant is split into two.

Gyeongbuksan Kkomjangeo menu and how to order

At Gyeongbuksan Kkomjangeo you order through a tablet at your table.

What two people ordered, and what it cost

• Half-and-half medium (for 2) - ₩55,000
• Fried rice - ₩2,500
• Cider - ₩2,000

Side dishes and the self-bar at Gyeongbuksan Kkomjangeo

Once we finished ordering, a neat spread of side dishes arrived! There were fresh peppers, garlic and onion, plus total drinking-snack items like beondegi (silkworm pupae), quail eggs, and whelk.

They also gave each of us our own clear bean sprout soup! Cold and refreshing, it really hit the spot.

We grabbed a big pile of perilla leaves and mint leaves (bangaip) from the self-bar. It was my first time seeing bangaip, but my boyfriend said he's always loved it.

Half-and-half kkomjangeo: salt-grilled vs sauced

The kkomjangeo at Gyeongbuksan Kkomjangeo comes pre-grilled from outside. It looked so plump that I honestly couldn't imagine what it would taste like. The owner grilled it up nice and sizzling, and our order arrived — half sauced, half salt, with the sauced version cooking a bit slower than the salt one, we were told. Let's start with the salt-grilled first.

We wrapped it in a perilla leaf and took a bite. Wow, my first taste of kkomjangeo was completely different from what I expected. It was so chewy and springy and genuinely delicious. My boyfriend, also having his first kkomjangeo, said if we'd come in the evening he'd definitely be drinking. It really is the ultimate drinking snack.

While we were eating the salt-grilled version, the sauced side finished cooking too, so we tried that as well. Maybe because it's eaten right as it finishes cooking, the sauced version had a firmer, crunchier bite. It looked red so I thought it might be spicy, but there was no spicy kick at all.

Finishing with fried rice for 2,500 won

After finishing the kkomjangeo, we even ordered fried rice! It was delicious too — honestly one of the best post-grill fried rices I've had recently. I think it's because the sauce itself is just that good.

Honest review: is kkomjangeo good for first-timers?

Gyeongbuksan Kkomjangeo is a place I'd want to come back to next time I'm in Busan. Like I keep saying, it was so much chewier and springier than I expected, and it was totally my style — I think I found a genuinely great Busan kkomjangeo spot. If you're ever in Choryang, give Gyeongbuksan Kkomjangeo a try. I personally preferred the salt-grilled version, but I'd recommend trying the half-and-half first.