Late dinner after a baseball game in Gwangsan, Gwangju: Misikga

Misikga Imokase Cheomdan Direct Store, a Korean restaurant and hanjeongsik (Korean table d'hote) dinner spot in Cheomdan, Gwangju.

We stopped by after watching a baseball game for a late dinner at this Gwangju favorite, Misikga Imokase Cheomdan Direct Store. Jeolla-do food is a must-eat delicacy, so after some menu deliberation we went for the course that comes out dish after dish — this Cheomdan hanjeongsik dinner spot. There's also a Misikga Imokase main branch in Sangmu district, so we picked between the two and went with the closer Cheomdan location haha.

Location, hours, and parking

17-3 Cheomdanjungang-ro 152beon-gil, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, South Korea, 1st floor

• Mon–Sat 16:00–24:00
• Last order 22:30
• Closed every Sunday
• Parking available

Misikga Imokase Cheomdan Direct Store has a parking lot right in front, so it's easy to drive there. By public transit, it's a 4-minute walk from the Cheomdan 1-dong Community Center stop. It's also near Cheomdan Hospital and Ssangam Park.

You're surprised right from the entrance by a menu of a whopping 17 dishes haha. Being able to try so many different hanjeongsik dishes at once makes this a great choice for dinner, work dinners, or group gatherings.

Interior and group rooms

The interior, made up of a large hall and rooms, was quite spacious. There were 28 tables total across about 330㎡, plus 5 group rooms.

One of the group rooms can fit up to 30 people, making it perfect for gatherings.

The traditional Korean restaurant interior was really striking!

Menu and pricing

The menu is just one thing: imokase haha. It starts from 2 people, priced at ₩35,000 per person for 2, and ₩30,000 per person for 3 or more. Bossam (boiled pork wrap), skate, yukjeon (beef pancake), sashimi, and octopus were all available as add-on orders!

Drinks and alcohol are self-serve, so you just grab what you want and the staff counts the bottles when you leave to calculate the bill!

The 17-dish imokase review

The basic course lineup

• Samhap bossam (boiled pork, skate/oyster, aged kimchi)
• Yukjeon (pan-fried beef) with scallion salad
• Raw Korean beef (hanwoo) tartare
• Raw fish salad with soybean powder
• Fresh octopus (from their own octopus restaurant, currently running in Duam-dong)
• Braised pomfret
• Grilled fish
• Generous japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), holiday style
• Summer valley acorn jelly salad
• Refreshing pollock hangover soup
• Sizzling perilla oil fried egg
• Aged kimchi pancake
• Hangover ramyeon
• Fresh octopus cheese fried rice
• Fruit
• Changeok injeolmi pumpkin rice cake
• Injeolmi snow ice

With a child along, we were three people, so we ordered the 3-person set. It's also cheaper per person from 3 people up, and there were plenty of dishes the child could eat, so no worries there! A set of utensils in warm water came out first.

Dishes came out one by one during the meal — at first we waited to eat until everything arrived, but since the food kept coming endlessly, we ended up just digging in early haha.

We'd made a reservation, but since we came right before order cutoff, the food came out really quickly.

Pollock hangover soup

Bubbling pollock hangover soup. Since we'd had a pretty half-hearted dinner at the ballpark, the hot, clean broth was great for settling our stomachs!!

Just because the 17-dish course is affordable doesn't mean they skimp — full of fresh ingredients like bean sprouts, dried pollock, and tofu!!

Samhap bossam

Generous samhap bossam. We got to try skate samhap, made with boiled pork, skate, and aged kimchi.

The combination of boiled pork, skate, and aged kimchi haha. The skate wasn't fully fermented, so it wasn't too intense even for a first-timer, but there was still that nose-tingling fermented kick^^;;;

I went a little easy on the skate and paired my wrap with the raw fish salad instead haha.

Holiday japchae

Glossy, shiny japchae. Well-seasoned with that glossy shine, just like the japchae you'd eat during a holiday.

Raw Korean beef tartare

The hanwoo (Korean beef) tartare was so good!!!!! It wasn't seasoned with soy sauce but with a red seasoning instead — not spicy, just a bit of heat that brought out the fresh flavor of the raw beef.

Braised pomfret and grilled fish

Braised pomfret and grilled fish are dishes you rarely make at home, but at Imokase they serve two kinds of fish dishes haha. The braised one especially wasn't too heavily seasoned but had great umami — I really enjoyed it!!

Acorn jelly salad and kimchi pancake

Acorn jelly salad! The chewy jelly, fresh vegetables, and seasoning combo made me think of makgeolli (rice wine). (Misikga Imokase actually has makgeolli too haha.)

Kimchi pancake made with well-aged kimchi~!! No hanjeongsik feels complete without kimchi pancake, and Imokase has it too! Thin and crispy, with a good bite from the well-fermented kimchi.

Yukjeon with scallion salad

Beef yukjeon! Since yukjeon is pan-fried fresh to order, it came out later in the meal — thinly sliced beef coated lightly in egg wash and pan-fried for extra savoriness.

It was bigger than it looked, so we cut it into bite-sized pieces and ate it with the scallion salad — so nutty and savory haha.

Perilla leaf raw fish salad

The perilla leaf raw fish salad was also amazing — I already love this kind of mixed raw fish dish, and tossing it with perilla leaves, soybean powder, and other toppings made it the ultimate drinking snack!

Perilla oil fried egg

A perilla-oil fried egg for each person! The moment it arrives, your nose immediately knows it was fried in perilla oil^^

Stir-fried octopus and cheese fried rice

The stir-fried octopus was also a total hit~! Plump octopus loaded up in a spicy sauce. They apparently run a dedicated octopus restaurant too, so getting to taste that specialty at Imokase felt like two birds with one stone haha.

Once you've eaten enough, they make fried rice too~~~ The octopus fried rice loaded with seaweed flakes and cheese is delicious enough to be zero calories!!!^^

The hangover ramyeon we never got to cook

As for the hangover ramyeon.... they bring out ramyeon noodles ready to boil right away, but we were already way too full to cook it ㅠ It comes prepped so all you need to do is drop in the noodles and boil.

Dessert: injeolmi snow ice and fruit

The injeolmi (rice cake) snow ice that comes after the meal! Since it's for 3 people, the portion is huge haha. They don't skimp here either — it comes as a generous injeolmi milk snow ice, and we spent a long time eating it!

A variety of fruit and pumpkin injeolmi rice cake came together too! With so many kinds of fruit, even dragon fruit, you could feel the care put into the fruit plate.

Even though we were full, the pumpkin injeolmi kept going down haha. They even gave us shrimp crackers... by the end we were so full it was tough, but happy haha.

Overall thoughts

Whether it's a family gathering, work dinner, or group meeting, this is a place where you can eat comfortably without worrying about menu choices, and the 17-dish hanjeongsik-style course with dessert is a lineup that should satisfy anyone. With such variety and great taste, it was a comfortable and enjoyable meal. That's my review of Misikga Imokase Cheomdan Direct Store~