Sinmae Station Korean lunch, Daegu: bulgogi tray for kids, Cafe Dong-i

Cafe Dong-i Sicheol (카페동이 시지점) is a hanjeongsik (Korean set meal) tray place where you enjoy a healthy, tasty meal over your own personal brazier.

Where is Cafe Dong-i Sicheol, and is there parking?

Cafe Dong-i Sicheol is at 56 Sinmae-ro 16-gil, Suseong-gu, Daegu, on the 1st floor of a commercial building, and it is open daily 11:00–21:00. For parking, use the Sinmae Market public parking lot: free for 1 hour on weekdays and fully free on weekends and public holidays.

We've arrived at Cafe Dong-i Sicheol, a well-known spot near Sinmae Station in Daegu. Cafe Dong-i has about 10 branches around Daegu, so locals clearly love it 💛 My husband visited another branch on a business trip to Daegu once, said it was delicious, and told us we had to go, so here we are.

We got there a bit early so there was no wait, but by the time we left, 4 groups were waiting.. 👀👀

The service bar and atmosphere at Cafe Dong-i Sicheol

The first thing you see when you walk into Cafe Dong-i Sicheol is the self-serve bar, where you can help yourself to fried eggs, multigrain rice, barley puffs, gopchang-gim (crispy seaweed snack), hotgae tea and more. The room is L-shaped with about 10 four-person tables.

The first thing that catches your eye inside is the service bar ✨️ It has fried eggs, multigrain rice, barley puffs, gopchang-gim, hotgae tea and more.

My husband and my little guy hard at work making fried eggs 👨👦👨👦 It's great for snacking when you're hungry before the food comes out 😉

The room is L-shaped with about 10 four-person tables. Overall it feels clean and modern.

There's an open kitchen right next to it, and I took a peek: they keep it really clean.

What's on the menu at Cafe Dong-i Sicheol, and how much is it?

You order on a tablet at the table, and sets like the 1-person brazier fire-grilled jeyuk (spicy pork) hanjeongsik, pork bulgogi tray and jjukkumi (small octopus) tray come as a full spread. The curry tray and kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew) tray are ₩9,900, and the hanjeongsik tray lets you choose between doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) and kimchi jjigae, with kimchi jjigae costing ₩1,000 extra.

You order on the tablet at the table. The menu is full spreads like the 1-person brazier fire-grilled jeyuk hanjeongsik, pork bulgogi tray and jjukkumi tray. On the hanjeongsik tray you can pick doenjang jjigae or kimchi jjigae (kimchi jjigae is +₩1,000). The curry tray and kimchi jjigae tray are ₩9,900! Overall, it's a cheap price for a full meal.

❤️What we ordered❤️

• Grandma's jjukkumi stir-fry hanjeongsik tray (할머니쭈꾸미볶음한정식밥상)
• Fire-grilled jeyuk hanjeongsik tray (직화제육한정식밥상)
• Dong-i fire-grilled pork bulgogi tray (동이직화돼지불고기밥상)

Is the jjukkumi stir-fry tray worth swapping to kimchi jjigae?

The jjukkumi stir-fry hanjeongsik tray at Cafe Dong-i Sicheol comes with the stir-fry on a personal brazier, so it stays warm to the end. I paid ₩1,000 extra to swap doenjang jjigae for kimchi jjigae, and the kimchi jjigae was really good.

First, the jjukkumi stir-fry spread. It comes on a 1-person brazier, so you can eat it warm until the very end 🔥

I paid ₩1,000 extra and switched to kimchi jjigae. The kimchi jjigae is so good, highly recommend ㅠㅠㅠ❤️ If two of you are eating, I recommend swapping one of them to kimchi jjigae‼️

Jjukkumi is pricey, but they pile it on generously‼️‼️ Usually even a ₩30,000 jjukkumi dish doesn't have much in it, so for the price this seems really decent 👍

The jjukkumi is plump, and the spicy-sweet, fire-grilled sauce soaks deep into it. The sauce isn't that spicy and is thick and rich, so so good 🙊🙊

It's also good dipped in the mayo-ish sauce? that comes with it. The jjukkumi is plump and chewy, great texture‼️ It's moderately spicy and went really well with rice. I recommend it when you've lost your appetite 💛

How was the Dong-i fire-grilled pork bulgogi tray for a kid?

The Dong-i fire-grilled pork bulgogi tray at Cafe Dong-i Sicheol is ₩9,900 and comes with seaweed soup, which made it good for feeding a child. The sweet sauce has a faint smoky char, and the meat isn't dry, so our child ate it well.

We ordered this one for our child 😉 It comes with seaweed soup, so it's good for kids. Great value...... 💛 This is only ₩9,900?! No wonder it's so popular.

The sweet sauce soaks well into the meat and there's a faint smoky char 🔥🔥 The sweet-and-salty sauce goes great with the crunchy, sweet cabbage‼️

Pile plenty of bulgogi on top of the rice and take a bite like this and it goes so well together.... 💛 The meat isn't dry, it's tender, and our child ate it really well.

I had a bite with the mumallaengi (dried radish strips) that came with it, and for me it was just right.

The signature fire-grilled jeyuk hanjeongsik tray

The fire-grilled jeyuk hanjeongsik tray is Cafe Dong-i's signature dish, said to be jeyuk bokkeum (spicy stir-fried pork) in a special sauce made with natural fruit and ingredients from the dawn market. It's stir-fried fast at 300 degrees, so the vegetables stay crunchy and the meat stays juicy, and the smoky flavor made it a real rice thief.

This is Cafe Dong-i's signature fire-grilled jeyuk tray! It's jeyuk bokkeum in a special sauce made with natural fruit and ingredients from the dawn market‼️ It's cooked fast at 300 degrees, so the vegetables stay crunchy and the jeyuk stays juicy 💛 The natural fruit gives it a gentle sweetness, and this deliciously spicy, smoky jeyuk was a total rice thief 🔥🔥

Pile it high on the rice and take a bite like this, and you'll polish off a whole bowl of rice in no time. The smoky flavor is really there, and the sauce is lightly scorched by the fire and a little chewy, you know that taste, right?! So so delicious...... 💛 The meat is tender too, so good....‼️

Finally, we finished with a seasonal drink as dessert. For a clean, good-value, healthy Korean meal, I recommend Cafe Dong-i Sicheol in Daegu 💛