Kid-friendly Korean restaurant in Wolseong-dong, Daegu: Geumdeungeo

On the way home from a trip, I really couldn't face cooking dinner, so we decided to eat Korean food before heading in and stopped by Geumdeungeo, a well-known hanjeongsik (Korean set-meal) restaurant in Wolseong-dong, Daegu.

Where is Geumdeungeo Dalseo Branch, and what are its hours?

• 📌Location: 3F, Jincheon Mat Town, 39 Jincheon-ro 16-gil, Dalseo-gu, Daegu
• ⏰Hours: Daily 11:00-21:30
• Break time: 15:00-17:00 / Last order 20:40
• 🚗Parking: Available within Jincheon Mat Town

Turns out the owner is a big baseball fan — the restaurant is full of baseball memorabilia. I know nothing about baseball, so whenever I ask my husband while watching TV he just sighs at me hahaha T_T

Side dishes and soup sold separately at Geumdeungeo

Geumdeungeo also sells banchan (side dishes) separately, and there were quite a lot of varieties. Looked like it's mostly kimchi types here!

Not just banchan — there were plenty of soup options too. That big, flat beef jeon is totally my style. I thought the 'geum' in Geumdeungeo meant gold like in a gold bar, but it's actually short for nuruk salt (geum) plus mackerel (deungeo).

But the gold-and-mackerel interior decor hahahahaha

Is anyone here actually good at this... my husband always claims it's some ambiguous 0.02-second difference, but my reflexes are so slow I'm always out of range hahaha T_T

Lap blankets and a kids' dish sterilizer

Nice touch — they keep lap blankets on hand for guests in case it gets chilly even indoors.

I especially liked that kids' dishware gets sterilized separately. Having kids' dishes at all is already nice, but sterilizing them too — can't ask for more than that.

There are also fully enclosed private room tables, so families can eat in complete privacy.

With 40-plus seats, the wait shouldn't be too long either.

We sat at table 14. The decor around the tables was pretty too.

Electric blinds at every table at Geumdeungeo

What surprised me was the electric blinds at every table. You don't even need to go into a private room — just lower the blinds at your own table and eat in peace. Very convenient. In fact, when I visited, most tables had their blinds down while eating.

Any banchan running low could be topped up from the self-serve bar, and it stayed warm the whole time. The japchae (stir-fried glass noodles) at this Wolseong-dong, Daegu restaurant was tasty too, yum yum.

Side dishes delivered by a serving robot. Seems like there's nowhere without a serving robot these days.

Eggplant tangsuyuk (sweet-and-sour eggplant) worth a refill

Funny thing, they serve rice cake as a side dish. And I genuinely despise eggplant, to the point where I think it should never be allowed on a table — my whole family feels the same, so our fridge at home never has eggplant in it. But that day I actually got a refill. Why is eggplant tangsuyuk (sweet and sour dish) so good?? Hahahahahaha

Barley corvina pot rice set and Geumdeungeo pot rice set

My husband ordered the barley corvina hot-pot-rice set, I ordered the Geumdeungeo hot-pot-rice set, and our kid had the Geumdeungeo hot-pot-rice kids' set. The staff told us the only difference between sets is whether you get hot-pot rice or a regular bowl of rice.

The standard doenjang (soybean paste) soup that comes with every set. Loaded with what looked like spinach or amaranth greens!

Deboning corvina is a hassle, so the staff took care of it for us. Such a relief not having to do it ourselves.

It wasn't 100% bone-free, but with most of it already handled, it was still so much easier.

Free drinks and coffee corner after the meal

On the way out, you can finish up with sikhye (sweet rice punch), maesil (green plum) drinks, maesil tea, or lemonade. The coffee machine even has separate beans depending on your taste — Starbucks and Hands Coffee, sorted separately.

With so many reviews already out there, I went in with high expectations, and Geumdeungeo Dalseo lived up to them. What I liked most was being able to eat privately, and the banchan were solid too.