Lunch eel buffet in Seongsu with teriyaki and ginger: Songnim Bok

Unlimited eel restaurant in Seongsu, a great Seongsu spot to eat.

I recently went for lunch to Songnim Bok Jangeo Unlimited Freshwater Eel Seongsu Branch in Seongsu.

Songnim Bok Jangeo Unlimited Freshwater Eel Seongsu Branch

This is a place where you grill freshwater eel yourself over charcoal, and even though it's all-you-can-eat, the eel quality was quite good. On top of the eel, you can also enjoy unlimited pork belly and chicken neck, so it was a good place to visit when you want to eat a generous variety of meats.

Where is Songnim Bok Jangeo in Seongsu, and is there parking?

Songnim Bok Jangeo Seongsu Branch, a specialty unlimited eel restaurant, is located in Seongsu-dong. It's a 15-minute walk from Seongsu Station, which is a bit of a distance, but walking there while checking out the streets around Seongsu made it feel more manageable than expected. There's no dedicated parking lot for the restaurant, so if you're driving, I'd recommend using a nearby public parking lot.

On the exterior there's a large photo of the YouTuber Yasengma and the words "Songnim Bok Jangeo Freshwater Eel," so once you get close by, it wasn't hard to find.

Inside Songnim Bok Jangeo: charcoal grills and seating

A clean, comfortable atmosphere for a meal. Each table has a charcoal brazier installed so you can grill the eel and meat yourself — it had that neighborhood barbecue restaurant feel, a clean space where you can sit comfortably and grill eel.

Songnim Bok Jangeo menu and lunch prices

Unlimited freshwater eel, plus side meal items. The Songnim freshwater eel unlimited refill was ₩29,900 per person for adults, with a ₩3,000 table setting fee charged separately. Besides eel, there were simple meal items to pair with it like eel soup, galbitang, yukgaejang, makguksu (buckwheat noodles), and ramyeon, and takeout freshwater eel was also available.

What comes with the basic table setting

A variety of side dishes that pair well with eel. Along with lettuce wraps, kimchi, pickled vegetables, julienned ginger and various sauces come out. Since the eel itself is on the fatty side, pairing it with pickles or lettuce wraps between bites cleaned the palate nicely and matched well.

Self-serve bar: unlimited eel, pork belly and chicken neck

Freshwater eel, pork belly and chicken neck are each laid out separately at the self-serve bar, so you can grab as much as you want and grill it yourself. At unlimited refill restaurants it can sometimes feel awkward to keep calling over staff for more orders, but with this self-serve setup it was actually more comfortable, and if side dishes ran low you could just grab more from the bar too, making the whole meal easy to manage.

How the charcoal-grilled freshwater eel tastes

Crispy skin, tender flesh inside. They grill it golden brown on both sides, then cut it into bite-sized pieces and grill the sides too, so the outside came out golden and the inside stayed moist. The heat was quite strong, so it cooked faster than expected.

Grilling the skin thoroughly kept a slightly crispy texture, which I liked, while the flesh stayed tender and on the thicker side. There was zero fishy taste, just clean flavor, plus the added charcoal smokiness made it even better.

The best way to eat the eel: teriyaki sauce with shredded ginger

Pairing it with ginger and sauce makes it even cleaner. Well-grilled eel is delicious on its own, but personally, the combo of teriyaki sauce with a bit of julienned ginger was the tastiest. The slightly sweet sauce and the sharp ginger cut through the eel's richness, so I could keep eating it and it still felt relatively clean!

It's nice to put the eel and sauce over rice for a bite, and also good to wrap rice, eel and garlic together in lettuce. When you get a little tired of eating eel, pairing it with pickled perilla leaves or pickled onion helped.

Grilling the pork belly and chicken neck

A good lineup to alternate with between rounds of eel. I liked that it wasn't just eel on unlimited refill — you could also eat pork belly and chicken neck. At first, since it's an eel restaurant after all, I didn't have high expectations for the pork belly or chicken neck, but both turned out tastier than expected.

The pork belly, grilled golden over charcoal, had that savory taste you'd get at a regular Korean BBQ place, a different flavor from the eel, so it was good to alternate between the two.

The chicken neck was appealingly tender with a slightly chewy texture. Grilled over charcoal, it picked up smokiness and savoriness, and I kept reaching for more. Alternating between pork belly and chicken neck felt less repetitive than sticking to just one menu item.

Is Songnim Bok Jangeo in Seongsu worth it?

A generous Seongsu eel spot, from eel to meat. What I liked most about Songnim Bok Jangeo Unlimited Freshwater Eel Seongsu Branch was being able to grab as much freshwater eel as you want and grill it right there over charcoal. The eel had no fishy taste, savory, clean and tender, and the crispy texture of the eel skin was also great.

Being able to eat pork belly and chicken neck on unlimited refill too meant you didn't get sick of any one thing and could enjoy a variety, and it was also convenient not having to worry about grabbing as much as you want at the self-serve bar. If you want to eat freshwater eel to your heart's content in Seongsu without worrying about the bill, or you're looking for a place to enjoy eel and meat together, this is worth a visit :)