Charcoal eel lunch for two in Cheongju: 1.5 kg at Samhwa Susan

Why we chose Samhwa Susan for eel in Cheongju

Samhwa Susan (삼화수산) is a grilled eel restaurant in Nami-myeon, Seowon-gu, Cheongju, and I went at lunchtime with my husband. I like eel, so I'd been searching for an eel place in Cheongju, and I was happy with it: the portions were generous and there were lots of different ways to eat the eel!

Is parking easy at Samhwa Susan?

Samhwa Susan has plenty of parking. Eel restaurants tend to get families and big groups, so parking matters,

and there was quite a lot of space! It looked like you could park 17 cars or more.

Inside Samhwa Susan: dining room and self-serve corner

Step inside Samhwa Susan and you'll see a fairly large space with lots of tables.

We came at lunchtime and it was really full of customers.

There's also a self-serve corner at the back. On one side on the right, the eels were packed in, wriggling away, ta-da!

Samhwa Susan eel prices: how many kg for two people?

The table charge at Samhwa Susan is ₩4,000 per person, and eel is ₩50,000 per kg. After the first 1 kg, you can add 0.5 kg at a time, which makes it easy to adjust the amount when there are just two of you.

But we thought 1 kg might not be enough, so we ordered 1.5 kg right from the start! So the eel came to ₩75,000!

Side dishes and clam soup at Samhwa Susan

The side dishes at Samhwa Susan come in a really wide variety!

The clam soup (바지락국) was full of savory depth and piping hot, the kind that feels like it cures a hangover even if you haven't been drinking?

Before the table was fully set, I tried to order sushi rice, and they told us sushi rice comes first as one of the basic side dishes!

Was 1.5 kg of eel too much for two?

Our 1.5 kg of eel was ready in no time!! The moment it arrived, my husband and I both panicked... it looked like so much..

Part of me wondered if I'd been greedy and should have just ordered 1 kg, but since we'd ordered it we decided to finish it all, and I honestly thought my stomach would burst, haha (T_T)

Charcoal-grilled eel cooked by staff, with ice to control the heat

At Samhwa Susan the staff grill the eel for you, and they did it so carefully, which I loved!!

They control the heat with ice, so nothing burned and there wasn't a trace of charcoal soot. It was grilled perfectly!

The ventilation is also seriously good. It sucked up all the smoke, so the smell didn't cling to our clothes too badly, which was nice.

Once it's all grilled, they set it out for you like this.

What the eel tastes like with teriyaki sauce

First I dunked a piece in the teriyaki sauce. Sweet teriyaki with the rich, nutty flavor of the eel, ahh~~ so delicious. The eel meat was plump, with no fishy taste at all and no small bones, so I really enjoyed it.

Staff cut the eel in half without being asked

What made me feel how attentive the staff were: my husband likes to take big bites in one go, but the pieces were a bit big for me, so I'd been biting mine in half. Then the staff cut the eel on my side in half too. I was so caught up chatting with my husband that I only noticed this a good while later.

I was really impressed by how carefully they looked after us without being intrusive or making us uncomfortable!!

Eating grilled eel on sushi rice

I put eel dipped generously in teriyaki sauce on top of the sushi rice and yum!

Eating it this way was seriously so good. The tang of the rice blends with the rich, oily savoriness of the eel, so it tastes even better, I think? If you keep eating eel, the oiliness can get a bit much, but with rice I felt confident I could go on forever... and as I kept eating like this

before I knew it I'd polished off a whole bowl of rice by myself... My husband handed me the eel tail for a energy boost, and I turned that into sushi too and munched away.

The seasoned chives (buchu-muchim) were delicious and so was the aged kimchi, so wrapping them in a ssam (leaf wrap) was great too~~~

When we were about halfway through, they grilled the rest of the eel for us.

Next time: start with 1 kg for two

Ugh, so full, I vowed that next time I'd order just 1 kg... but it was so tasty that we finished it all anyway. Still, since Samhwa Susan lets you add 0.5 kg at a time, there's no need to order a huge amount up front. You could eat first and add more if it's not enough.

We went because we wanted to eat our fill of eel together for the first time in a while, and we really did leave stuffed... If you're looking for a proper grilled eel place in Cheongju, I'd recommend giving it a try! We'll go to Samhwa Susan whenever we crave eel from now on. I really loved it.