Hwajeong sashimi bowl restaurant: salmon special 14,000 won, Min Cook

Fall really is the season where the horses get fat and so do I — everything looks so delicious that my appetite just keeps growing! Maybe that's why so many amazing restaurants keep catching my eye lately. This time too, I was just walking by when a place looked so good I had to go in!

Where is Min Cook Misoyaki near Hwajeong Station, and what are the hours?

Min Cook Misoyaki, a Hwajeong Station favorite, is located at 37 Hwasin-ro260beon-gil, Deogyang-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, on the first floor right across from Hwajeong E-mart. It's open daily from 10:00 to 21:00, with a break time from 15:00 to 16:00, and closed every Sunday. Parking at the E-mart and doing some shopping there too made it super convenient!

A grilled fish place that's tasty even when it cools down! Honestly, I never really grill fish at home, but grilled fish always tastes so much better eaten out, so I end up going out for it instead!

What is Min Cook Misoyaki like at weekday lunch?

The inside of Min Cook Misoyaki was so cozy, with a warm feel like a Japanese home with a bit of extra sentiment sprinkled on top. Such a pretty space! We visited during weekday lunch hours, and even then there were plenty of people sitting down to eat, plus a ton of delivery orders coming in. It clearly has a reputation as a go-to restaurant near Hwajeong Station, which made me even more excited!

What's on the menu at Min Cook Misoyaki?

Here's the menu and pricing at this Hwajeong Station favorite! There are miso-grilled and salt-grilled options, rice bowls, tonkatsu, and a variety of extra dishes. Just seeing miso-grilled and salt-grilled listed made it feel so different from the plain grilled fish you'd make at home — so much more appetizing! With black cod, mackerel, an assorted platter, salmon and more, it seemed like ordering any one of these with a bowl of plain white rice would be amazing!

Self-serve banchan bar: cabbage salad and egg porridge to start

The self-serve bar inside Min Cook Misoyaki had a nice, clean lineup of various side dishes.

A refreshingly dressed cabbage salad and a savory egg porridge! Eating these before the meal settled my stomach nicely. For any salad lover, a salad with dressing this good is basically true love!

There were also small side dishes on the table to help yourself to, and the crunchy ones paired so well with the meal! I really love that crunchy pickled radish, and putting a piece on top of the rice made every bite taste even better!

Handmade shrimp tempura

We ordered the handmade shrimp tempura first at Min Cook Misoyaki, and wow... it looked incredibly crispy just from the sight of it, I got so excited the moment I saw it! Looked delicious! A bite of that crackling-crisp shrimp tempura with a sip of beer would be perfect! It was fried so crisp and nutty that I devoured it happily.

How big is the 14,000 won raw salmon rice bowl special?

Then out came the raw salmon rice bowl. I love salmon so much that I ordered the special size, and true to its name, the amount of salmon was massive! The salmon had this gorgeous, glowing color, and it came piled with fresh vegetables and a generous amount of flying fish roe too! The bowl itself was huge, and I thought finishing this whole thing would make me incredibly full. It looked delicious from the very first glance!

And even better, this special-size raw salmon rice bowl is such a good price. Only ₩14,000! You get rice, a mountain of salmon, and plenty of vegetables — top-tier value for money!

They generously added spicy chogochujang (vinegared chili paste) sauce to the raw salmon bowl, and I mixed it all together and dug in! The raw salmon was so tender the more you chewed it — actually, it barely needed chewing at all, it just melted away smoothly, and that signature rich, fatty salmon flavor was incredible. Fall salmon really is a love story! There was also a big rolled omelet inside, which made the whole thing even more delicious, and I enjoyed every bite.

With plenty of chogochujang mixed in, the raw salmon bowl turned a vivid red. I mixed the rice in thoroughly and took big bites — so savory and delicious! The tender salmon, the popping flying fish roe, and the refreshing crunch of the vegetables all worked together perfectly!

Finishing with salt-grilled black cod

And to finish, savory grilled black cod! I ordered it salt-grilled, and I completely fell for how tender the black cod flesh was! It was grilled to a perfect golden-brown with smoky char flavor rising off it, and it made me realize just how delicious black cod can be. The soft, chewy texture had me finishing a whole bowl of rice without even noticing! The staff were kind too, and both the salmon bowl and the black cod were so good — go enjoy a delicious meal at Min Cook Misoyaki, a Hwajeong Station favorite I definitely want to visit again!