Fish restaurant in Manuigol, Incheon: mackerel, samchi & black rice

Lunch at a Manuigol fish restaurant after the Incheon Grand Park foliage

Sorae-san Hwadeok Saengseon Gui (소래산화덕생선구이) is a clay-oven grilled fish restaurant in Manuigol, at the entrance to Incheon Grand Park. Before autumn was over, I went to see the foliage at Incheon Grand Park, and for lunch I had grilled fish here. It was a weekday and the place is huge, but it was still packed with customers.

How do you park at Sorae-san Hwadeok Saengseon Gui?

The sign is big, so you can spot the restaurant right away on the left at the start of Manuigol. There is parking in front of the restaurant, but if it is full you can use the public car park or even park along the road. It was a weekday, yet so crowded I wondered if it was the weekend. Do these people not work on weekdays? So jealous! Haha. I ate happily and then went off to work.

The pretty autumn sky and the foliage can't all fit in a photo, so go see for yourself~ It's so beautiful ♡

Business information

• Address: 5 Manuigol-ro 189beon-gil, Namdong-gu, Incheon, 1st floor
• Hours: daily 10:00–22:00 (last order 21:00)
• Parking available

A fish restaurant that also serves eel: how are the seats divided?

At Sorae-san Hwadeok Saengseon Gui you can have premium freshwater eel as well as clay-oven grilled fish. I thought I was walking into a grilled fish place, but everyone was eating eel, so I walked back out, then checked the sign and went in again. Yes, you can get premium freshwater eel here too. There were lots of eel customers and lots of grilled fish customers, and the room felt split left and right with the self-serve bar in the middle. I don't think anyone told us where to sit, but we naturally ended up in the grilled fish section.

Side dishes and the menu

The basic side dishes here are each really good. I kept reaching for the young radish kimchi (yeolmu-kimchi), the mustard leaf kimchi (gat-kimchi) and the green onion kimchi (pa-kimchi) in particular. The photo I took is of the eel menu, so keep that in mind~

This is the grilled fish menu. There's a nice variety of fish. The interior is spacious, so I highly recommend it for group gatherings, and it works fine for a family meal or a date.

What's in the self-serve bar?

The self-serve bar is well put together. There is one that anyone can use, plus an additional one for all-you-can-eat customers.

• Self-serve bar with tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), fish cake and ramyeon
• Side dish self-serve bar
• Separate self-serve bar for all-you-can-eat customers

The restroom is inside, and there are plenty of baby chairs too.

They have a "Happiness for ₩10,000" deal: 3 bottles of soju for ₩10,000. We don't really drink, but it's good value for those who do.

Tteokbokki and fish cake from the self-serve corner! The tteokbokki uses rice cakes, which I liked even more. Cheap fish cake can ruin your appetite, but this one was plump and good quality. We ate them while waiting for the grilled fish. *Warning! Don't eat too much, so you keep room for the fish and the pot rice.

How do the clay-oven mackerel and samchi taste?

My husband ordered 1 grilled mackerel and 1 grilled samchi (Spanish mackerel). Wow 😍 the clay-oven fish came out!!! The mackerel was golden brown, its own oil dripping down, so appetizing. It's hard to get this look and taste at home, which is why we keep going out for grilled fish lately. Fresh off the grill, it's so good!

This one is the grilled samchi. I had hardly ever eaten samchi, but thanks to my husband ordering it I got to try it. It's clean-tasting and delicious in a different way from mackerel.

It must taste even better because it's grilled in a 500°C yellow-clay oven.

Black-rice pot rice, nurungji tea and cheonggukjang soup

The rice here is black-rice multigrain pot rice with various beans and even sweet potato. The rice~ the rice~ is lovely. For me, a place with good rice is the best. After you scoop out the rice, pour hot water into the pot and it becomes nurungji sungnyung (scorched rice tea). Eating the rice with the cheonggukjang soup (fermented soybean soup) was sooo good.

They bring a separate bowl of cheonggukjang soup for each person. The fish pieces in it are moist. I checked that the nurungji tea was coming along and not overflowing,

and then it was back to tasting the fish again. The mackerel!

The samchi is moist and clean-tasting too~ Grilled fish is good for your health, but the taste is the best part!

I dipped it in the wasabi sauce. Because the fish is grilled in the clay oven, even the skin was delicious, so I ate everything but the bones.

Dessert corner and wrap-up

Sorae-san Hwadeok Saengseon Gui has its country-of-origin board and liability insurance posted. Many celebrities have visited, too. Next to those signs there's a dessert corner, so don't forget to finish with omija tea (five-flavor berry tea) or plum tea.

A great Namdong, Incheon restaurant to stop by after a trip to Incheon Grand Park and Sorae Mountain! The fish, grilled in a 500°C yellow-clay oven, is crisp outside and juicy inside, with no fishy smell, clean and nutty enough for all ages. The self-serve bar, with freshly cooked nutritious pot rice, rich soybean stew, tteokbokki and fish cake, is generous and great value. The restaurant is spacious and pleasant, so I warmly recommend it for a filling meal for an Incheon family outing or if you're looking for a Manuigol favorite.