Bongdam grilled fish set with staff-deboned bori-gulbi: Hwadamga

Here's a grilled fish restaurant in Bongdam that's perfect for bringing your parents or having a cozy family meal of neat, well-made Korean food ✨✨ A friend recently recommended Hwadamga, saying its fish set menus are seriously satisfying, so I went for a weekend dinner.

Maybe because it was peak weekend dinner time, the restaurant was pretty full — and clearly most of the guests were there with family.

Hwadamga / 58 Nangnaegi-gil, Bongdam-eup, Hyohaeng-gu, Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea / 11:00 – 22:00 (daily) / Groups, takeout, reservations, parking

What are parking and seating like at Hwadamga?

Hwadamga has a big open lot right in front of the restaurant, so I could park comfortably without any worry about parking spots.

The interior was bigger than I expected, so there was no cramped feeling at all. What I loved most was that each table area was clearly sectioned off, so we could talk and eat comfortably without being bothered by noise or glances from other tables ✨.

Ordering the mackerel set (16,000 won) and bori-gulbi set (27,000 won)

Once we sat down and looked over the menu ☺️, since Hwadamga is known as a grilled fish spot in Bongdam, we ordered the two signature sets — the mackerel set (₩16,000) and the bori-gulbi set (₩27,000).

After ordering, we went to the self-serve corner in the middle of the restaurant to grab some side dishes,

and there were so many delicious-looking, neatly arranged side dishes.

The meat patties, japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), and namul (seasoned vegetables) were all perfectly seasoned~

There was also a generous spread of fresh lettuce wraps for guests ordering meat menus, so we decided to come back next time for the Korean beef! (Meat is only available in the evenings.)

They also had seaweed soup, which I love, so I grabbed a bowl!

After laying out the side dishes I'd brought and tasting a bit of everything, the barley rice arrived ✨ A bubbling, savory doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) came out first — full of vegetables and easy to spoon up ☺️

Staff debone the bori-gulbi at your table

Next, the grilled fish, golden-browned from the wood-fired oven, came out one by one! Honestly, bori-gulbi can be a bit of a hassle to eat because of the bones, right?

But at this Bongdam hanjeongsik (Korean set-menu) restaurant, a staff member put on vinyl gloves and carefully deboned the fish by hand for us — I was genuinely touched 😭.

Having it prepared so easy to eat made me think this would be a great place to bring my parents or treat someone special! 👍

The bori-gulbi set and its chilled green tea water

The bori-gulbi set at Hwadamga comes with cool green tea water served alongside,

and pouring rice into the cool green tea water and topping it with a piece of well-prepared bori-gulbi made for a salty yet clean flavor — I finished a whole bowl of rice in no time~

Inside the wood-fired mackerel set

The mackerel also had a lot of flesh and was quite large, so there was plenty to eat!

Clearly, being grilled in a wood-fired oven instead of a regular pan made a difference — the outside was golden and crisp, while the inside had the fat rendered out, leaving it moist yet clean-tasting. Excellent 👍

Fish really is best grilled over a wood fire 🥹

Finishing up at Hwadamga's dessert corner

The older I get, the more I gravitate toward healthy Korean food, and eating my fill of neat dishes with no artificial-seasoning taste left me in a great mood and able to eat with total ease.

After the meal, there was even a dessert corner set up. Along with hot coffee, there were sweet-tart peach and mango drinks too, so I finished off the meal with a clean, refreshing sip.

Is Hwadamga in Bongdam worth a visit?

From the spacious dedicated parking lot to the privately sectioned seating and the high-quality wood-fired grilled fish sets — this was a Bongdam hanjeongsik meal that filled the table and left us satisfied.

If you're looking for a place for a family gathering, group meeting, or to treat someone special to a meal, I'd highly recommend visiting Hwadamga, a grilled fish spot in Bongdam!