Ansan eel buffet open all afternoon with eel-only refills: Songnim Bok

I heard there was a freshwater eel all-you-can-eat place in Ansan, so I went to check it out. It's been such a hot summer, this seemed like the perfect thing to recharge with.

Where is Songnim Bok's Ansan City Hall branch, and when is it open?

Songnim Bok Jangeo Freshwater Eel All-You-Can-Eat Ansan City Hall Direct Store is located at 33 Danggok-ro, Units 201 & 202, Danwon-gu, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do. It's open daily from 11:20 to 22:00, and parking is available.

Even though it uses charcoal grills, the place was clean. There are more seats further inside!

These days most restaurants have a break time, which makes it hard to eat at odd hours, but Songnim Bok's Ansan City Hall branch runs with no break time at all, which was such a relief. I went in that awkward window after lunch and had a great meal.

How much is the eel all-you-can-eat at Songnim Bok?

• Adult buffet ₩29,900
• Child buffet (elementary school) ₩14,000
• Table fee ₩3,000
• Eel soup ₩10,000
• Yukgaejang ₩10,000
• Galbitang ₩10,000
• Buckwheat makguksu ₩9,000
• Spicy ramyeon ₩5,000
• Rice ₩1,000
• Eel takeout ₩35,000 per kg (includes 2 sauces)

For ₩29,900 per adult plus a ₩3,000 table fee, that's ₩32,900 per person for all-you-can-eat freshwater eel, pork belly, and chicken thigh. They also sell eel for takeout.

The buffet time limit is 2 hours. There's even a guide on the wall showing how to grill the eel.

The basic table setting and the free bokbunja wine

At first they set up the side dishes and meat for you. Eel, pork belly, and chicken thigh all come out in small portions as a base. Lettuce, perilla leaves, garlic, and anything not included in the basic sides are at the self-serve corner.

And they gave us this bokbunja wine (Korean black raspberry wine) as a service!! Eel plus bokbunja — feels like total recovery food.

How to grill the eel yourself at Songnim Bok

They gave us the charcoal right away so we started with the eel. You grill it skin-side first. The staff kindly explained how, so it wasn't hard to grill it ourselves. The charcoal was strong too, so the eel cooked quickly.

After cooking both sides, we trimmed the fin and cut the eel to cook the sides evenly too.

As it cooked, the eel had a nice thickness and looked so delicious.

We grilled it until golden brown and tried it. I was worried the all-you-can-eat eel might be too soft or dry, but it was firm and springy just the right amount — really tasty!

For an all-you-can-eat place, this quality was totally solid.

We paired it with the bokbunja wine they gave us as a service, and it went really well with the eel 👍

Pork belly and chicken neck meat on the same grill

We also grilled a bit of pork belly and chicken thigh.

They were nice to have a bite of between rounds of eel.

There's an option for meat lovers too, so it seems good for adding extra depending on your taste!

How refills work at the self-serve corner

The self-serve corner is in the middle of the restaurant.

You can grab extra eel, pork belly, chicken thigh, and side dishes all from here.

Since the eel was the best part for us, we only brought back more eel. The refill eel was arranged really cleanly, and it tasted exactly the same as what came out first.

Being able to eat as much eel as we wanted was such a good feeling.

Was Songnim Bok worth it as malbok stamina food?

Eel is pretty expensive these days, so being able to eat all-you-can-eat for around ₩30,000 per person feels like great value!

It also said at the entrance that they use live eel prepped fresh from the market every day instead of frozen eel, which made it more trustworthy. Malbok (the last of Korea's three hottest summer days) is coming up soon, so if you're wondering what to eat, having eel and bokbunja at Songnim Bok seems like a great choice.