Goyang Japanese restaurant grilled mackerel lunch with kids: Min Cook

It was the weekend, so off we went for Japanese food for the first time in ages. I didn't used to like Japanese food, but lately it feels like nothing is as delicious as Japanese food~

Lunch near Hwajeong Station, Min Cook Misoyaki

Min Cook Misoyaki (민쿡 미소야끼) is a place where you can enjoy Japanese-style grilled fish and sushi together. The exterior is so pretty too :)

Open Monday through Saturday, 11:00–21:00, and regularly closed on Sundays.

The interior isn't large. But perhaps because it is such a popular spot, it turned out to be somewhere you have to wait to eat at. There is bar seating, plus two tables for two on the other side. It may not work for a large party, but up to four people can definitely enjoy a delicious meal here.

It has an open kitchen, so you can see exactly how the owner makes everything. An open kitchen really does feel reassuring—I love it :)

Side dishes and sweet egg porridge

The complimentary sides included salad, danmuji (pickled yellow radish), kimchi, and the like. Plus, one bowl of porridge per person~

It seemed to be egg porridge, and it was sweet and seriously delicious~ Our child loved it so much that Dad gave up his portion, haha. The complimentary porridge was so soft, nutty, and tasty for a child to eat—I loved it.

Premium salmon bowl piled high with thick-cut salmon

Premium sake-don (salmon rice bowl), ₩19,500. This was the salmon rice bowl I had decided I absolutely had to order before we even arrived. I'm a salmon maniac, so I ordered it without a second thought! Since it was the premium version, it came with even more salmon~

Look at that color. It really looks fresh, doesn't it? As expected, the salmon just melted in my mouth. This sake-don was so, so delicious, and it was seasoned perfectly too :)

The slices were nice and thick, so the texture was wonderful too. Min Cook Misoyaki's sake-don let me fully taste the salmon itself. The pattern looks just like Nemo, haha. Maybe it was well aged—it had a lovely chew and was full of umami.

A generous tuna sashimi rice bowl

Tuna sashimi rice bowl, ₩11,000. This was my husband's pick. Tuna is his favorite kind of sashimi, and the moment he saw there was a tuna sashimi rice bowl, he ordered it right away, haha. I thought it was the premium version—the portion was seriously huge. It even felt like more than the sake-don, haha. The bowl was big and there were lots of vegetables too. It was exactly the right menu item for my husband.

I took a bite piled high with tuna. The tuna was fresh, the vegetables were fresh, and they went incredibly well with the sauce. First of all, both sashimi rice bowls completely passed the test! They even added an egg, haha. Our child immediately asked for it, so I gave it to them, haha. With all the different ingredients together, it tasted even better~

Extra-large salted grilled mackerel, great for sharing with a child

Extra-large salted grilled mackerel, ₩11,000. I wanted to try the miso-grilled mackerel too, but I thought our child would eat better if we ordered something familiar, so we simply chose the salted version. It was half a mackerel, but there was plenty to share with our child. At home, when the outside is crispy, the inside is dry; and when the inside is moist, the outside somehow seems undercooked. But Min Cook Misoyaki grilled it just right :)

Crispy outside and moist inside is exactly the right description. The salted grilled mackerel was clean-tasting and nutty, with absolutely no fishiness~ The mackerel at home has nothing on this one~

It was truly perfect with rice. Our child ate it incredibly well too. They had originally asked for tonkatsu, but since we'd had it recently, we ordered the salted grilled mackerel instead—and apparently it was an excellent choice, haha. If you have a child with you, definitely order the salted grilled mackerel. They will gobble it up without stopping, haha. Oh, I think you can just order the regular rice. The standard portion of rice is already very generous, hahaha. If you're wondering where to have lunch, this place is totally a good choice.