Suseong Korean restaurant with take-home banchan: Geumdeungeo

Geumdeungeo Deulanguil Main Branch (금등어 들안길 본점)

I really love grilled fish, but it is hard to make often at home. Between the smell, grease, and cleanup, I usually eat out whenever I am craving it. I had been wanting grilled fish with my mom for the first time in a while, so after searching, we visited Geumdeungeo Deulanguil Main Branch, a popular spot in Suseong. My family tends to like Korean food. I think we prefer places like this because a meal feels neat, easy to digest, and wholesome.

Where is Geumdeungeo Deulanguil Main Branch, and how is parking?

Parking is available on the building's first floor, using the mechanical parking system. Please note that the entrance and exit are separate. There is also a parking attendant.

A comfortable interior and private rooms for family dining

Geumdeungeo Deulanguil Main Branch is on the second floor of a building on Deulangil's main street. The building is sizable, and when I arrived, I realized I had passed it many times before. Easy parking is essential for a family meal, and the parking here is well set up, so I think it would be a nice choice for anyone looking for a family dining spot in Suseong. Take the elevator to the second floor and the restaurant is right there. The interior was more spacious and pleasant than I expected. There were definitely lots of families and larger groups having gatherings. Grilled fish is probably something people of all ages enjoy without much division in taste. There were various table arrangements, with partitions between tables, so we could dine comfortably. I came with family too, and it was a relaxed place for a meal. There were plenty of tables, so it also seemed like a good option for a future family gathering. Along with group seating, there were separate private rooms for a more private meal. Geumdeungeo Deulanguil Main Branch also has high chairs, which should be convenient for families visiting with young children.

The menu and house-made banchan self-serve bar

Here is the menu. It was simpler than I expected, and I liked it even more because I prefer restaurants that specialize in a focused selection.

One thing I found a little unusual at Geumdeungeo Deulanguil Main Branch was this self-serve bar. At Korean restaurants, I usually have to ask a staff member when I need more banchan (Korean side dishes), but here there was a bar where you could help yourself. It was convenient to take more of whichever banchan I wanted without feeling awkward. They said the banchan are made in-house, and I liked how neatly everything was arranged.

Wood-fired grilled mackerel and spicy stir-fried pork together

We ordered two servings of wood-fired grilled mackerel and one serving of spicy stir-fried pork. You order first at the entrance before going in, and I loved that the food came out right away. The main dish matters to me, of course, but at a Korean restaurant I also pay close attention to the complimentary banchan. At Geumdeungeo, a generous spread of varied, neatly presented sides came with the meal, making us feel well looked after. They said all the banchan were handmade, and the selection was a little different from other places; overall, none of it was overly strong and it was all so delicious. My mom tried them one by one and liked how clean and well prepared they were, which made me even happier. I could understand why this is called a great restaurant in Suseong just from the banchan. My number-one side dish was scallion kimchi. My mom said all the vegetable dishes, including black-sesame lotus-root salad, were delicious. My husband chose bellflower-root gochujang salad and scallion kimchi. The doenjang-jjigae (soybean-paste stew) was placed on an induction burner. We were told to turn over the hourglass once it started boiling, then eat it after about three minutes. I liked that such a precise instruction made it feel as though they were confident in the flavor. We also ordered spicy stir-fried pork as a main dish, and it was my husband's favorite item that day. He said everything was tasty, but this dish especially suited his palate. Ordered alongside the grilled mackerel, its savory-sweet heat made a great pairing with the mild fish. They really are the best kind of dishes in a Korean set meal. It was not aggressively spicy—just the kind of flavor that goes well with rice. If you visit with several people, I recommend ordering more than one dish and sharing them. The grilled mackerel was the biggest reason we came that day, and it looked so appetizing after being cooked in the wood-fired oven. A thoughtful detail was that every table had two induction burners: one for the soybean-paste soup and one to keep the grilled fish warm. Little touches like that make food taste even better, I think, and I loved it. As you would expect from a grilled-mackerel specialist, the outside was crisp while the inside was moist and wonderfully tender.

There was a screen showing Geumdeungeo videos that could be seen from anywhere you sat. It explained that the mackerel is aged using Geumdeungeo's patented nuruk-salt method, then grilled in a hot wood-fired oven. Even if it may look similar to fish at other restaurants, it was nice to see that the process behind the flavor is different. The grilled mackerel itself tasted lightly seasoned, and it paired very well with the nuruk salt served alongside it.

Dessert after the meal and take-home banchan

Geumdeungeo Deulanguil Main Branch has dessert available, too. It was nice to be able to finish with a simple dessert after the meal. If you come for a family meal with a baby or bring older family members, I think it would make for an easy, comfortable ending. After a filling meal of spicy stir-fried pork, grilled mackerel, and all the house-made banchan, having dessert in the same place made it feel like a truly complete meal. Geumdeungeo Deulanguil Main Branch also sells grilled mackerel and banchan separately. The banchan were clean-tasting overall and had a handmade quality different from what you find at an ordinary side-dish shop, so I think people who enjoy them will buy plenty. We even talked over the meal about which banchan was good, and when I saw they were available to purchase separately, I thought they would be nice to bring home for rice.

A Korean meal in Suseong with my mom and husband

At Geumdeungeo Deulanguil Main Branch, which I visited with my mom and husband, we had an even more comfortable and delicious meal than I expected. I normally love grilled fish, but it is not something I make much at home; with all these different banchan, it felt like enjoying a proper Korean meal for the first time in a while. I liked that, from the menu to the dining atmosphere, it was easy to enjoy comfortably with my mom and unlikely to divide opinions. If you are looking for somewhere to eat with your parents or a good Suseong restaurant where a group can dine comfortably, I recommend visiting at least once.