Daegu mackerel restaurant for a table of three: Geumdeungeo Deulanguil

[ Includes items paid for with my own money ]

It's been raining since morning, and on a weekend like this I'd rather have someone cook a nice meal for me than fuss around in the kitchen myself, haha. Well, I love grilled fish too, so I took my fish-loving family to Geumdeungeo, a well-known spot near Suseong Lake. Let me tell you about the light, savory, wood-fired grilled mackerel we had ^^

Where is Geumdeungeo Deulanguil Main Branch, and what are the hours?

Geumdeungeo Deulanguil Main Branch 📍57 Deulan-ro, 2nd floor, Suseong-gu, Daegu (320-6 Sang-dong, Suseong-gu, Daegu) ⏰Daily 11:00 - 21:20 Break time 15:30 - 17:00 🅿️Parking available

Located at the intersection near Dusan-dong Community Service Center, Geumdeungeo is a popular restaurant on Deulanguil. It's an easy 10-minute drive from Suseong Lake, so it's also a great option if you're looking for a Korean set-meal restaurant (hanjeongsik) near the lake ^^

Parking at Geumdeungeo: tower parking, 90 minutes free

Free parking for the first 1 hour and 30 minutes while you're eating! Only tower parking is available, but there's a parking tower with three entrances, so we parked without any worry and headed up to the restaurant.

Nuruk salt-cured mackerel and the name Geumdeungeo

Mackerel cured with nuruk (fermented grain starter) salt, then wood-fired! This is what I can genuinely recommend about Geumdeungeo — it's a popular Deulanguil spot known for its wood-fired grilled mackerel.

'Geum' (gold) from salt plus 'deungeo' (mackerel) makes 'Geumdeungeo.' Their curing method using nuruk salt is even patented, apparently. Leave it to a Deulanguil hanjeongsik specialist to have such a distinctive curing method 👏👏

Inside Geumdeungeo Deulanguil: rooms, atmosphere and how to order

High ceilings, a spacious and comfortable space, and a good-sized room in the back that can also be used as a private room — this is a Deulanguil restaurant I can genuinely recommend for a family meal in Daegu or a Daegu gathering spot.

You order at the counter first and then get seated; once your turn comes up, staff guide you to your table ^^

Side dishes and how to simmer the chard doenjang soup at the table

Neat, tidy basic side dishes ^^ Once the chard (geunde) doenjang (soybean paste) soup starts boiling, turn it down to 3 and let it simmer for as long as the hourglass takes.

The homemade banchan self-serve bar

What's special about this Deulanguil restaurant! You can freely help yourself to a self-serve bar of side dishes made in-house. Even just looking at how neatly each one is arranged, you can tell the taste is a given, and hygiene isn't something to worry about either.

Geumdeungeo menu prices in Suseong, Daegu

Wood-fired grilled mackerel ₩19,000 Kids' menu ₩10,000 Spicy stir-fried pork ₩20,000

The chard doenjang soup has a little chili powder in it but isn't spicy at all, so it was great for the kids too,

Sesame lotus root salad, seasoned doraji (bellflower root), and seasoned miyeok-cho (seaweed with vinegar) — each side dish wasn't overpowering, with just the right seasoning and tartness that paired well with the grilled mackerel ^^ Since they're homemade at the restaurant, even the basic side dishes felt genuinely refined 🤗

Wood-fired grilled mackerel: one whole fish per person

[ Wood-fired grilled mackerel ] Fresh off the wood-fired oven, the mackerel's glossy shine alone was enough to get our appetites going haha. Since we ordered one per person, we got three whole mackerel for our table of three.

Thanks to the patented curing method using nuruk fermentation, the inside was moist and grilled with absolutely no fishy smell. Best of all, even eaten plain it wasn't bland — the nuruk-cured seasoning that comes with it isn't salty, just full of savory depth, so it was light and delicious. Honestly, this is a taste I could eat every single day!!

Spicy stir-fried pork: how three diners order it

[ Spicy stir-fried pork (jeyuk-bokkeum) ] We were told that for a party of three, you can order two servings of wood-fired mackerel and one serving of spicy pork, so we ordered the pork too to try both. It had a mild, gently spicy kick that even a spice-shy eater like me could handle without any trouble, and the skin part was especially chewy — I'm usually not a fan of mushy fat or skin, but the chewy texture here won me over, skin and all ^~^ Both the grilled mackerel and the spicy pork passed with flying colors!

Buying side dishes to take home, plus dessert at Geumdeungeo

After eating our fill, you can even buy side dishes to take home from the corner near Geumdeungeo's entrance on your way out!

To finish off, we grabbed an iced Americano or apricot juice in an ice cup ♡ Even having ice cups ready for us on the way out — what a nice touch!!