Banwoldang Korean restaurant sharing octopus set meals: Cafe Dongi

My friend and I went to Daegu, and after wandering around Dongseong-ro for ages, we got seriously hungry haha. While figuring out what to eat, I found Cafe Dongi, a Korean restaurant near Banwoldang, so we decided to check it out :)

From the name you'd think it's a café, but it turns out to be a totally hearty home-style rice place >_< It's close to Banwoldang Station too, so it was perfect to drop by while out and about on Dongseong-ro!

Where is Cafe Dongi Dongseong-ro Main Branch, and what are its hours?

Cafe Dongi Dongseong-ro Main Branch is located on the 2nd floor of 58-9 Dongseong-ro 3-gil, Jung-gu, Daegu, South Korea. Weekdays it's open 11:00-20:30 (break time 15:00-16:30, last order 14:00 and 19:30), and weekends 11:00-21:00 (break time 15:00-16:30, last order 14:00 and 20:00).

Finding the entrance from the street

The building is split across several floors, and the sign spelled it out clearly: Cafe Dongi's Dongseong-ro branch is on the 2nd floor, and the chain's headquarters is on the 3rd. Just take the elevator up to the 2nd floor!

Inside Cafe Dongi: booth seating and baby chairs

Inside Cafe Dongi Dongseong-ro Main Branch, the center has booth-style seating, and there's a separate waiting area plus baby chairs. It felt like a comfortable layout for families with kids or couples alike.

I was surprised at how spacious the interior was! The center is booth-style seating, so it looked like a cozy spot for families or couples to eat together haha.

There's also a waiting area where you can sit comfortably if there's a line — nice touch!

There are also several baby chairs on hand, so it's great for families visiting with kids haha.

What's on the self-serve bar at Cafe Dongi?

Cafe Dongi's self-serve bar sits in the middle of the restaurant, and you can freely help yourself to fried eggs, seaweed, barley gangjeong (crunchy barley snack), and rice. Everyone can portion out as much as they want.

And there's a self-serve bar set up in the center with fried eggs, seaweed, barley gangjeong, rice, and more... you can just grab whatever you want 😘 It was great being able to portion out exactly as much as we each needed.

What two of us ordered, and the five-grain rice

We ordered the signature grandma's stir-fried octopus set meal, the Dongi bulgogi set meal, and kimchi jeon haha.

For reference, this Korean restaurant near Banwoldang uses a single-variety rice grown in Gimpo, blended in a golden ratio with black barley, oats, red rice, sorghum, and millet for the five-grain rice☺️ Even the rice gets special care~

Ta-da~ a robot brings the food over 🤖 It delivered it on a portable stove so we could eat it piping hot haha.

How do the octopus and Dongi bulgogi set meals taste?

The grandma's stir-fried octopus set meal had a spicy-sweet sauce soaked into chewy octopus that was seriously addictive with rice, and the Dongi bulgogi set meal came with bulgogi piled generously on top of cabbage, sizzled right on a grill at the table. Side dishes, doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) in a stone pot, and sujeonggwa (cinnamon punch) to finish came along too.

Wow.. isn't this generous?❤️ Just looking at it already made me feel full haha.

Side dishes that go well with Korean food, plus sujeonggwa to finish! Doenjang jjigae is a must with Korean food >_<

We grabbed fried eggs, barley gangjeong, and seaweed from the self-serve bar and set them up on the side!

First up, the grandma's stir-fried octopus set meal! The color alone was already mouth-watering😋

The spicy-sweet sauce soaked so well into the chewy octopus that my chopsticks kept going back for more with rice >_< Total rice thief!!

The Dongi bulgogi set meal had savory bulgogi piled generously on top of cabbage~! The sound of it sizzling on the grill alone got the mouth watering haha.

After one bite, the meat was tender and the cabbage was crisp — they went really well together haha. It seemed like a dish even young kids could easily enjoy~

The fried egg we cooked ourselves had a slightly soft yolk, and mixing it over rice made it insanely savory👍

The kimchi jeon we ordered as a side was crispy outside and moist inside, and dipping it in soy sauce made it a perfect little extra treat 😁

Who should eat at Cafe Dongi Dongseong-ro Main Branch?

It's a rice restaurant where the rice is free — that's already great! With the self-serve bar you can fry your own eggs and enjoy unlimited five-grain rice and barley gangjeong, so it felt much more generous than expected haha.

The main dishes we ordered, the stir-fried octopus and bulgogi, weren't overly seasoned and tasted just like home cooking, so they were easy to eat without feeling heavy, and with the stone-pot doenjang jjigae added in, it really felt like a full, satisfying meal☺️

It's also a quick walk from Banwoldang Station, so accessibility is great, and since it's a chain, you can get a similar spread at other locations too, which feels like a big plus haha. This seems like a place that would be satisfying whenever you want to grab a hearty meal with a friend while out on Dongseong-ro, or enjoy a generous spread with a group!