Seolleung Station eel restaurant: grilled eel vs eel bowl, Manmok

Seolleung Station's Manmok: a 4th round with soju instead of whisky

Manmok near Seolleung Station is a Japanese eel restaurant with one free bottle of corkage. When was the last time I had eel this well handled, with side dishes to match? Corkage is one bottle free, and my one regret is that I forgot to bring a thick, rich whisky worthy of the eel... my one regret. Truly.

It's best to reserve if you want to use corkage at Manmok: 1 bottle for 4 people or fewer, up to 2 bottles for 5 or more.

I went in thinking, well, let's just have some soju instead, but after trying the eel at Manmok that day, I changed my mind completely.

In the end, after finishing the grilled eel, I ordered an eel bowl too. And the catch is that this was our 4th round! Haha. By the 4th round you're usually full and ready to call it a night, but I liked the eel so much I couldn't just walk past.

Manmok seating and menu

Manmok has spacious seating, plus plenty of tables for 4 or for 2.

I looked at the menu and it turned out to be the lunch menu. Manmok focuses on eel bowls at lunch, and on grilled eel and nabe at dinner. It's close to Exit 2 of Seolleung Station, so it's easy to get to when you're looking for a place to eat around Seolleung Station.

The dinner menu centers on nabe and grilled eel. Overall the Manmok menu is fairly simple, and I think that focus is why the quality comes out so good.

Manmok's side dishes: why the pickled sansho berries stood out

Manmok's side dishes run from chamnamul, white kimchi and radish salad to pickled shiitake, wasabi and pickled sansho (Korean pepper berries). The sides came out first and already things felt a bit unusual. The pickled sansho berries were crazy good. So this is how you pickle sansho and serve it.

Pop one pickled sansho berry in your mouth and sour, sweet and fragrant flavors all come up at once from inside that tiny berry. The distinctive sansho aroma spreads, and it's not just a sharp scent: it arrives together with the sweet-sour pickle, which is really fun. Wait, they serve this as a side dish? It made me feel that the level of ingredients used here is a little different.

Acorn jelly that feels like a dish of its own

Manmok also serves pickled ginger strips and a variety of accompaniments like radish salad, pickled onion and long-sliced pickled chili. And then there's acorn jelly (dotorimuk), which smells great too. The nutty flavor of the jelly comes together with the fresh aroma of chives and the textures of various vegetables, and it felt less like a side made to cut the richness of eel and more like a proper dish by itself. What good ingredients, cooked into really good food.

Tableware with even a hexagonal spoon

The tableware at Manmok caught my eye too. The spoon is hexagonal and quite elegant. It may seem minor, but seeing this kind of attention to even a spoon, I felt this is a place that takes the whole dining experience seriously, not just the food.

How was Manmok's charcoal-grilled eel?

The eel. Manmok's grilled eel lacked nothing: rich flavor, taste and texture were all there. The bones were trimmed so well that I barely noticed them, which made it easy to eat, and the deep aroma of the tare (sweet soy glaze) sauce was joined by the smokiness of charcoal.

The eel itself has a fatty, rich taste, and the charcoal aroma makes the flavor deeper still. The texture was good, with the outside and the soft inside, and the saltiness or sweetness of the sauce never covered up the taste of the eel.

I kept marveling as I ate, and the owner, who must have overheard our conversation, asked whether I work in a related business. Haha. No... I just love eating and have tried a lot of eel. Hahaha.

Even the chopsticks were interesting while eating eel. At first they felt springy and I wondered if they'd be awkward for picking up food, but once I used them they had just the right tension and held the food firmly. You can feel the care put into even small details like this.

How does Manmok's eel bowl differ in texture from the grilled eel?

The eel in Manmok's eel bowl is grilled, steamed and grilled again, so it's much softer than the grilled eel. I couldn't resist and ordered the eel bowl too. I had already eaten grilled eel and ordered eel again. But when I tried the eel in the bowl, the texture was completely different. Absurdly soft.

So I asked whether they cook it differently from regular grilled eel, and they said they grill the eel first, then steam it, then grill it again. Ahh. Grilling once is already work, and they steam it and grill it again? No wonder it's soft. What a lot they do with Japanese eel (japonica).

The charcoal aroma and rich flavor I got from the grilled eel were great, but the eel in the bowl had a really nice harmony of texture when eaten with rice. The softly falling-apart eel and rice go in together, and the sauce flavor connects naturally. With this, how could I not order the bowl even on a 4th round? Haha.

Chawanmushi and mushroom-scented soup

Manmok serves chawanmushi and clear soup with the meal, and these aren't just casual extras either. The chawanmushi was cooked silky and tender, and the soup had a very good aroma. The mushroom scent in the soup was especially impressive. I thought this was a place that's only good at eel, but after eating I felt that they put a lot of care into every accompanying dish.

Just put one sansho berry on the eel and the flavor changes completely. Pickled sansho berries. I'm definitely going to try copying this someday.

Seolleung Station's Manmok: what I remember most

What I remember most at Manmok was, in the end, the taste of the eel itself. The grilled eel had a deep soy aroma, charcoal smoke, rich flavor and firm texture, and the eel bowl, perhaps thanks to the steaming, had a much softer texture that went well with rice. Above all, it's not just eel and done: you could feel the thought put into the accompaniments to eat with the eel, like pickled sansho berries, acorn jelly, white kimchi and the various pickles.

The original plan was grilled eel with a glass of whisky, but I left the whisky at home, so I drank soju, and because of that I ate grilled eel and then an eel bowl too. In the end, forgetting the whisky may have worked out for the best. Haha.

If you want proper grilled eel or an eel bowl near Seolleung Station, I think Manmok is worth a visit. If you love eel in particular, comparing the texture of the grilled eel and the eel bowl would be quite fun.