Daemyeong-dong Korean restaurant: kids' bulgogi sets, Cafe Dongi

The weather is so hot these days, isn't it... The kids are on vacation and snacking a lot, so I'd love to cook them proper home meals, but I'm scared to stand in front of the stove. So I went looking for a Korean set-meal place that tastes like home cooking and found Cafe Dongi, which I'd wanted to try. I'd seen it on Instagram a few times and drooled every single time. I finally made it to this Daemyeong-dong Korean restaurant! Let's start the review.

Location and hours of Cafe Dongi Daemyeong Station Branch

Cafe Dongi (카페동이) Daemyeong Station Branch, 122 Daemyeongbokgae-ro 4-gil, Nam-gu, Daegu, 1st floor. Open daily 11:00-21:00 (break time 15:00-16:30), last order at 14:30 and 20:30. High chairs available, and two cars can park in front.

Cafe Dongi is a chain, and the reason I picked the Daemyeong Station branch is... parking right in front. Taste matters, but when it's hot and there's no parking or it's far away, I lose my appetite. The alley leading here looked like it had parking too, and if the front is full, they kindly guide you to parking if you call. The interior is so clean and modern that if you didn't know, you'd mistake it for a café. There's a group table in the middle that seats up to 14, they say. (Reservation inquiries welcome.)

For hygiene in the hot weather, there's a sink, and there are high chairs to make things easier with little ones.

What our family of four ordered, and the Dongi membership tangsuyuk

At Cafe Dongi Daemyeong Station Branch, our family of four ordered 1 char-grilled jeyuk (spicy stir-fried pork) set, 1 grandma's jjukkumi (webfoot octopus) stir-fry set, 2 little explorer bulgogi sets and 1 sample-size tangsuyuk (sweet and sour fried pork). I spotted it on the menu too late and couldn't do it, but if you sign up for the Dongi membership, they give you tangsuyuk for free. Highly, highly recommended.

Self-serve fried eggs and dessert snacks

Cafe Dongi is generous too: the dessert snacks are free, and you can make as many fried eggs as you like.

Then let me give it a try.

You spray oil on the pan and crack the eggs in. There are disposable gloves too, so it's hygienic. There are 4 of us, so I'll make 5 eggs. (No logic, I know.) There's salt too, so I sprinkled some on.

They came out really nicely fried. I'll put them on a plate and head back to our table.

Char-grilled jeyuk set and grandma's jjukkumi set

The jeyuk set came out neat and tidy.

Doesn't it look so appetizing? I ordered the jjukkumi, but I begged to swap because I wanted to try the jeyuk too.

Three rice side dishes came along too. Eating them with the meat keeps your mouth feeling fresh.

The grandma's jjukkumi set I ordered also came out neatly. The basics like the side dishes and doenjang (soybean paste) stew are the same; only the main differs.

My husband kept eyeing my jjukkumi. It looks so tempting, haha, we almost couldn't share a table.. In the end we swapped little bits with each other.

How was the sample tangsuyuk?

The sample-size tangsuyuk came out too.

Wow.... the meat is so thick. It's a bit like glutinous-rice tangsuyuk. The meat has a great chew and the batter was springy. The kicker is the sauce with lemon in it. It's so refreshing that I kept reaching for more.

The little explorer bulgogi set the kids ate

This is the little explorer bulgogi set the kids ordered. The price is low, so it's easy to order one for each child. Even my 3-year-old loves having a portion of her own. The seasoning is mild and it's made up only of things kids like, so they ate it happily.

This is the lemonade we got for a Naver receipt review. It wasn't just lemonade powder; it had lots of lemon pulp. It was so refreshing that I kept thinking about it even while eating.

My second child, who loves eggs, ate well with egg and meat. Chews carefully, and when I feed the soup too, gulp gulp, it takes it all in. Like a baby bird.

The doenjang stew comes out bubbling, with plenty of solid ingredients. The broth is deep and clean, so you keep going back for more.

I'm a dip-it-in-sauce person, but today I coated it in sauce like a pour-it-on person. The meat is thick but tender and juicy, great for feeding kids, and the refreshing sauce cuts the greasiness.

Jjukkumi and jeyuk: tasty ways to eat them

You know jjukkumi goes well with seaweed and mayonnaise, right? Put jjukkumi and tangy gungchae jangajji (pickled stem lettuce) on seasoned radish laver and wrap it up. How delicious do you think that is?

I also put it on top of rice. The jjukkumi is plump and bouncy, and the flavor of the ingredient itself comes through. It's not overpowering like home cooking, just clean and mild.

The jeyuk is much more tender than I expected. The combination of meat full of fire flavor with crunchy onion and cabbage is so good. It makes a potentially heavy dish feel light.

Eat the jeyuk with the gungchae pickles too and you get the perfect sweet-salty-sweet-salty. The soft and crunchy textures work together too. A total rice thief.

My husband cleaned his plate first.

My eldest son put rice into the soup and ate even more.

Omija tea for dessert and our verdict on the family meal

The omija (five-flavor berry) tea they gave us for dessert is sweet and sour and leaves your mouth feeling clean.

The kids enjoyed the juice that came with the meal as their dessert. Getting everything from the meal to dessert in one go was satisfying. Overall it was a neat, well-balanced table, and a satisfying family meal out with the kids. With the fried eggs and side dishes, it felt like we'd been treated to a generous spread. It's good for visiting with kids or your parents, and I think a group gathering would leave everyone happy too.