Korean pub in Cheomdan, Gwangju for Friday drinks and yukhoe: Misikga

I really wanted a refreshing drink on a Friday evening, so I went to the Misikga Imokase (미식가 이모카세) Cheomdan Direct Store, which is super popular right now! Of all the imokase places I've been to, this was by far the best. Here's a detailed review for anyone curious about the course!

Misikga Imokase Cheomdan Direct Store: hours and parking

Misikga Imokase Cheomdan is open daily from 16:00 to 24:00, with last order at 22:30. The address is 17-3 Cheomdanjungang-ro 152beon-gil, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, 1st floor. Alley parking is available, and the Boseok Sauna (보석사우나) parking lot is free for 2 hours.

I went to the Cheomdan Direct Store, but the Sangmu main branch is the same restaurant, so just pick whichever is closer to you!

🚗 You can park right in front of the restaurant like this, and parking in the surrounding alleys was easy too. The Boseok Sauna lot is also free for 2 hours!

2-person course price and the first table

✔ I ordered the 2-person imokase (₩35,000 each). Misikga Imokase serves a course of 17 dishes in total!

First, the table fills up with hanwoo cow yukhoe (raw seasoned beef), soybean-powder raw fish slices, braised butterfish, grilled yellow croaker, holiday japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), acorn jelly salad, pollack hangover soup, and aged kimchi pancake 😮 (the dish names are the restaurant's official names!)

This is the pollack hangover soup! Before boiling it looks kind of bland, but once it boils you get an incredibly rich dried pollack broth.

Soybean-powder raw fish and holiday japchae

Every dish was good quality, but the soybean-powder raw fish really stood out. I don't usually go for seafood that much, but the soybean powder goes so well with it, and wrapped in a perilla leaf it was amazing.

The holiday japchae is packed with meat just like its name says, and it was the best japchae I've had at a restaurant lately. The braised butterfish was strangely sweet, like sweet potato.

How are the spicy octopus and signature samhap bossam?

Just as you're finishing the first table, the spicy octopus 🐙 comes out. The owner also runs Duam-dong Sin Jjukkumi, and it seems like the recipe came straight over: the sauce has a distinctive savory depth and a nicely spicy kick.

Next is the signature samhap bossam (boiled pork, fermented skate and kimchi combo)! I've run into a lot of bossam with a gamey smell at imokase places, so I didn't expect much... T_T But the samhap bossam here had no gamey smell at all and was so, so good.

I don't even like fermented skate, but it was really fresh and good, so I ended up eating more than I expected! And the mustard leaf kimchi and aged kimchi were ridiculously refreshing. This is exactly the homemade touch I wanted from an imokase place.

Slurpable perilla oil fried egg and scallion yukjeon

The perilla oil fried egg is, as the name says, a soft fried egg that just slurps right down!

Dipping it in the octopus broth was perfect.

The scallion yukjeon (beef pancake) that came next wasn't greasy at all, just clean and mild. It's one of those can't-go-wrong dishes, haha

Hangover ramen and spicy octopus cheese fried rice

Late in the Misikga Imokase course, you get hangover ramen in a tin pot and spicy octopus cheese fried rice. By this point I was seriously getting full, haha. But you keep eating because each dish tastes better than the last, and they bring progressively stronger flavors.

How was I supposed to resist this spicy hangover ramen boiled in a tin pot?

Spicy octopus cheese fried rice! Nothing goes to waste: they take the leftover octopus from earlier and fry the rice with it. The rice is thick and the portion is really big, so honestly I thought they could cut it down a bit;;

They even scrape up all the crispy rice stuck to the bottom,,

Dessert at Misikga Imokase: fruit, injeolmi pumpkin rice cake and bingsu

Finally, dessert time. We got melon, cherry tomatoes, dragon fruit, banana and pineapple, and they said the fruit changes with the season. They also gave us the trendy Changeok injeolmi pumpkin rice cake (rice cake with roasted soybean powder)!!

The very last dishes were Saewookkang (shrimp crackers) as drinking snacks and injeolmi bingsu (shaved ice). Even when you're stuffed, they give you snacks and bingsu so you can keep enjoying your drinks to the end.

But this bingsu was just so... good. I was about to burst T_T My boyfriend doesn't like sweet things and never touches dessert, so I planned to eat it all myself, but this time he snatched most of it. Hehe.

That's the whole Misikga Imokase menu! The portions are really, truly huge, so it's a bit much for two people. I think it's best to come with a group of good eaters!!

Inside Misikga Imokase Cheomdan Direct Store and the group rooms

The Cheomdan Direct Store is very spacious and cozy, with wood-tone interiors. The tables are big and roomy, so everything stayed tidy even as dishes kept arriving.

With 5 group rooms, there's no better place in Cheomdan for a company dinner or a big family gathering 👍 The chairs were cushy for sitting a long time, and the restroom, which matters most to me, is inside the restaurant and kept very clean.

Is this Cheomdan imokase dinner worth recommending?

Misikga Imokase doesn't just fill the table with drinking snacks; every single dish has real homemade flavor, and I was so, so satisfied. If you like Korean food or are looking for a Cheomdan imokase dinner spot with great drinking food, I absolutely recommend it 🩵