Yeouido eel restaurant with loach-style eel soup: Daedong Jangeo

My husband and I went to Daedong Jangeo Yeouido (대동장어 여의도점), a well-loved eel restaurant, for a lunch to restore our energy! We wanted eel in western Yeouido near the National Assembly, so we looked around and ended up here. You can enjoy everything slowly in a private room, from the starter to dessert, and an ordinary lunch felt a little special.

It seemed like a great fit if you want a quiet Yeouido restaurant with rooms where you can talk, or when you need to host someone important, like a meal with your parents, a family gathering or a business meeting ☺️

Where is Daedong Jangeo Yeouido, and what are the hours and parking?

Daedong Jangeo Yeouido is at 24 Gukhoe-daero 68-gil, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, on the ground floor of Oakwood Yeouido Park Hotel, a 4-minute walk from National Assembly Station Exit 3. It is open 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM (opening at 11:30 AM on Saturdays and Sundays), with a break from 3:00 to 5:00 PM and last order at 9:00 PM.

• Parking: 60 minutes covered at the hotel car park, and 1 hour at a nearby car park for dinner course meals (hotel car park ₩6,000 per 60 minutes, max ₩20,000)
• Corkage: 1 bottle free, then ₩30,000 for wine and ₩50,000 for anything else
• Drinks sold in the restaurant are charged ₩30,000

Is every seat at Daedong Jangeo Yeouido a private room?

Yes, every seat is in a private room. We booked ahead on Catch Table (a Korean reservation app) and were taken straight to our room when we arrived! The entrance outside already felt calm and refined, and once we stepped inside that feeling got even stronger 🫨

The interior reworks hanok (traditional Korean house) elements in a modern way, with white porcelain and Eastern paintings placed here and there, so traditional atmosphere and modern elegance blend together naturally!

What I liked most was that every seat is a room! There are rooms of different sizes for 2 to 8 people, and if the partition walls are opened, up to 25 people can fit!

Daedong Jangeo Yeouido menu and prices

The lunch menu has a grilled eel set with 1 eel for ₩45,000, a premium grilled eel set with 1.5 eels for ₩65,000, and boyang jangeo-tang (eel tonic soup) for ₩28,000. We ordered the 1-eel grilled eel set and the eel tonic soup.

Eel menu

• Ganghwa mudflat eel 350g ₩85,000 (order from 2 servings)
• Freshwater eel 330g ₩48,000
• Assorted grilling vegetables ₩15,000

Korean beef menu

• Tenderloin 130g ₩58,000
• Premium tenderloin (chateaubriand) 130g ₩69,000
• Skirt meat (toshi-sal) 130g ₩89,000

Side specialty dishes

• Tuna sashimi with caviar 130g ₩170,000
• Korean beef yukhoe (seasoned raw beef) with sea urchin 130g ₩85,000
• Korean beef mungtigi (raw beef sashimi) 130g ₩55,000
• LA galbi with gimbugak (crispy seaweed chips) ₩45,000

Lunch menu

• Grilled eel set, 1 eel ₩45,000
• Grilled eel premium set, 1.5 eels ₩65,000
• LA galbi grill set ₩39,000
• Boyang jangeo-tang (eel tonic soup) ₩28,000
• Bowl of rice ₩2,000

Starters and side dishes before the grilled eel set

Before the main dishes, the lunch set started with muk-sabal (acorn jelly in a chilled broth) and seasoned lettuce!

The muk-sabal had aged kimchi and cucumber in it, and the broth was exactly to my taste!!✨✨ It wasn't any broth flavor I'd had before 😆

The seasoned lettuce was fresh and tangy too, and did a good job of waking up my appetite before the eel!!☺️

The side dishes were neatly prepared: white kimchi, stir-fried mushrooms, cheongpo-muk (mung bean jelly) and green onion kimchi.

How big is the eel in the whole grilled eel set?

The grilled eel set (₩45,000) comes with one plump eel, grilled in the kitchen and served ready to eat. Just as we were finishing the starters, the grilled eel set we'd been waiting for arrived, and the first thing I noticed was the size of the eel!! 👍👍

It was so thick that one piece filled my mouth haha 😆 With the ginger strips and sauce served alongside, there's no better combo 🫠

Putting the green onion kimchi from the side dishes on top adds a spicy kick and makes another great combination!! The lunch set is grilled entirely in the kitchen like this, but if you order the regular grill menu, they set it up so you can grill at the table!!

They also said that if you order grilled eel for 3 or more people, they show you the live eel in person. Now I want to come back for dinner and enjoy the grilled eel properly!! 😆

What does Daedong Jangeo's eel tonic soup taste like?

The eel tonic soup (₩28,000) looks closer to chueo-tang (loach soup) than to a clear eel soup, and it has a deep, nutty richness with no MSG taste. One dish really stuck in my memory that day...!! It was the eel tonic soup 😆😆 When it arrived, it looked more like chueo-tang than a typical clear eel soup, and there was eel meat in the broth!

And with just one sip of the broth, my eyes lit up! ✨✨✨✨✨ It was a little different from any soup or stew I'd had before!!! I couldn't taste any MSG at all, and a deep, richly simmered savoriness spread through my mouth first..... 🫢🫢🫢

It's a deep flavor somewhere between nutty and savory...?? I can't describe it exactly in one word, which is why it stuck with me even more! Truly the best eel soup of my life... ✨ (I want it again even while writing this... 🫠)

It tastes like something that would warm you from the inside with a bowl of hot rice on a cold day, so I think it suits anyone looking for a Yeouido tonic meal in winter!!

Dessert after the meal: omija tea and hangwa

After the meal, Daedong Jangeo Yeouido serves omija tea (five-flavor berry tea) and hangwa (traditional Korean sweets) for dessert. A staff member noticed we had finished and prepared it for us... wow... One sip of the sweet-tart, clean omija tea with a piece of hangwa, and my mouth felt freshly refreshed! By then it felt like I had slowly enjoyed a full course. Great!!👍

Daedong Jangeo Yeouido: overall verdict

I was happy with the eel itself, but the space and the flow of the meal are what stayed with me too!!

• Taste ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• Atmosphere ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• Friendliness ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It looked good for family gatherings, Yeouido work dinners and business meals where conversation matters! I'm definitely!! coming back!! 😆