Korean restaurant with a slide kids' zone in Cheongju: Jeju Badang

Where to eat a full Korean meal with a child in Gagyeong-dong, Cheongju

Jeju Badang is a Jeju-style braised and grilled fish restaurant on the second floor of a commercial building in Gagyeong-dong, Cheongju. I visited while looking for somewhere to have a solid meal with my kid in the area.

Eating out with a child usually means struggling to find a menu that satisfies both adults and kids, but this place has everything from braised hairtail to grilled fish to pot rice, plus an unlimited self-serve bar, making it pretty much the ideal setup for a family meal. (And on top of that, a kids' room — ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Jeju Badang location and opening hours

• 🕖Hours: Daily 10:30–22:00 (break time 15:00–17:00, last order 20:30)
• 📍Location: Gagyeong-dong 627, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju, Chungbuk

It's located near Gagyeong Xi and Gagyeong IPARK apartments, making it a convenient spot for a meal out in Gagyeong-dong. It's also easy to reach from the surrounding apartment complexes, and since it's a large commercial building, there's a building parking lot so you don't have to worry about parking.

Jeju Badang, on the second floor of the commercial building.

Inside Jeju Badang: the slide kids' zone and high chairs

Since Jeju Badang specializes in braised and grilled fish, I expected the atmosphere of a typical Korean restaurant, but once inside, the space turned out to be bigger than expected and decorated cleanly with a Jeju feel.

The tables are spaced generously, and there's spacious partitioned seating too, so it seemed like a good fit not just for family meals but also for dining with parents or in larger groups. And then there's the kids' zone, which is always such a welcome sight when visiting with a child.

From a slide to blocks, toys, books and a TV, there's plenty to keep a kid entertained, so you can feed your kid and let them play here while the adults eat in peace 🥹

There are also several baby chairs ready to go, making it a good family dining spot for everyone from adults to young kids.

Jeju Badang menu and the two sets we ordered

True to its name, Jeju Badang's main menu is braised and grilled Jeju fish. Besides its signature boneless Jeju hairtail stew, there's also grilled Jeju hairtail, grilled Jeju king black tilefish, braised mackerel, grilled Atka mackerel and more — a wide range of fish.

📋What we ordered📋 (2 adults, 1 child)

• Boneless Jeju hairtail stew + pot rice ₩24,000
• Grilled half mackerel + pot rice ₩18,000

With the unlimited self-serve bar available, this much was more than enough!!! It comes as a full spread with seaweed soup, stir-fried pork and 6 basic side dishes, and you can get refills of the soup and pork if you want more.

Jeju Badang's unlimited self-serve bar: chicken three times over

The more surprising part is that the unlimited self-serve bar has even more variety you can help yourself to as much as you like.

From lettuce wraps to all kinds of kimchi, namul (seasoned vegetables), salad, japchae (glass noodle stir-fry) and there's even chewy chicken 👏👏👏👏 The chicken was so good I went back for it three times... hahahaha, I think I basically ate a whole chicken by myself 🤣

Boneless Jeju hairtail stew — is it really bone-free?

When the main dish arrived, I ate the boneless Jeju hairtail stew with so much enjoyment.

The whole time I was eating, I kept waiting for a bone to show up, wondering when one would finally appear — but not a single bone turned up, all the way to the last bite. You could just scoop it up with a spoon, which was so great.

It's spicy-sweet with real depth of savoriness, so when you mix the sauce into the pot rice and top it with a piece of boneless hairtail... you really can't stop eating it.

The radish cooked alongside was seasoned through and through too — a total rice thief. Personally, if you come here, I'd say the hairtail stew is a must-order.

Grilled half mackerel, ordered for our child

The grilled half mackerel, ordered for my kid, also had a generous amount of flesh!

The outside was grilled nicely golden and the inside was moist, so it was easy to pick out the meat and feed it to my kid with rice.

The adults can eat the spicy hairtail stew while the kid eats the plain grilled mackerel, so it's a perfect combo for a family meal with a child. Pour water into the pot and let it sit, and at the end you get savory scorched rice with more hairtail on top too 🐟🐟🐟

Finishing with plum tea from the self-serve bar rounds off a very filling meal.

Is Jeju Badang worth a family trip?

A satisfying Korean restaurant that's great to visit with a kid. With seaweed soup, stir-fried pork and close to 10 side dishes, by the time the main dish arrives it's so generous you might end up with side dishes you never even got to 🚨🚨

The boneless Jeju hairtail stew in particular — no bones at all, so you can just scoop it up with a spoon — has such delicious seasoning that it almost made me feel like I didn't need to go to Jeju Island. And above all, the self-serve bar chicken was an unexpected wildcard: a Gagyeong-dong, Cheongju spot where I went for hairtail stew and came home stuffed on chicken too!!! With even the scorched rice at the end being perfect, this is a place I'd very highly recommend for a family meal out.