Family meal with kid-friendly pufferfish karaage: Bogi-o Boguk

Today I suddenly craved pufferfish soup, so I went to Bogi-o Boguk in Cheongdam-dong haha.

Why I always check parking first when picking a restaurant in Gangnam

When choosing a restaurant around Gangnam, parking is something I check just as much as the food. Parking isn't easy in a lot of places in Gangnam, and sometimes you find a spot you like only to realize there's no parking, so if I'm driving, I check parking availability before deciding on a restaurant.

In that sense, Bogi-o Boguk was great for driving there. You can use valet parking right at the restaurant entrance, and it costs ₩3,000. No wandering around looking for a parking spot — you can just hand your car over right at the entrance. The valet staff was also friendly, so it's a good place to drive to.

You just head up to the 2nd floor of the building!

What's the store atmosphere like?

Walking inside, it was clean and spacious. Overall the space felt roomy and comfortable, good for a meal, and the tables were pretty comfortable too, so I thought it'd be fine to visit with family.

What we ordered: milbok and pufferfish karaage

Today we ordered milbok (a type of pufferfish) and pufferfish karaage.

Not just the main dishes but the side dishes that came with them were also tasty enough that you kept reaching for them alongside the soup. Sometimes only the main dish is good at a restaurant while the sides are just okay, but today even the sides were delicious.

Pufferfish karaage — can kids even eat this?

Surprisingly, the most fun menu item today was the pufferfish karaage. My child asked for this, and honestly at first I wondered if a kid would even eat fried pufferfish — but it turned out to be way tastier than expected.

When the pufferfish meat is properly deboned, you barely notice any bones, so it was fine for my child to eat. I wasn't sure a kid would like fried fish, but she actually ate it happily, so I was glad we ordered it. The easiest way to describe the taste is like seasoned fried chicken. The outside was crispy and the inside had that clean, mild flavor of pufferfish meat, giving it a different charm from regular fried fish.

The taste of the milbok pufferfish soup broth

I tried the pufferfish soup made with milbok. With pufferfish soup, the hot broth flavor really matters, and this broth was so clean and refreshing that it was delicious. It wasn't a strongly seasoned flavor, more like the characteristic clean, refreshing taste of pufferfish soup was well captured, so I kept scooping up spoonfuls of broth.

There was also more pufferfish meat than I expected, which was satisfying. It didn't feel like just drinking broth — you could eat plenty of pufferfish meat too. Eating the fish meat along with the warm broth made for a filling yet clean meal.

My husband, who loves pufferfish soup, enjoyed it too, and I especially liked the broth myself. If you're looking for a meal in Cheongdam-dong that's filling without being too heavy, pufferfish soup is a good choice.

Overall thoughts

I liked that the store was clean and spacious, making it good for a family visit. Dining out with a kid means paying attention not just to the food but also to the store atmosphere and parking, and on that front, it was an overall comfortable meal.

If you're looking for a clean, pleasant restaurant to visit with family in Cheongdam-dong, or a place you can drive to, Bogi-o Boguk is worth remembering. Today we had milbok pufferfish soup and pufferfish karaage, but next time I'd like to try other pufferfish dishes. I went looking for a place with parking in Gangnam, and the parking was easy, the food was good, and even my kid ate well, so we finished a happy family meal!