Yonghyeon-dong tuna restaurant with an 8-year-old: Donggyeong Sukseong

If you love tuna, you've probably dreamed of eating properly aged tuna to your heart's content~ Not long ago I went to Donggyeong Sukseong Chamchi (동경숙성참치), a Yonghyeon-dong place famous for its tuna, with my husband and son :) I eat tuna pretty often, and I was so, so happy with the fresh aged tuna, the variety of special cuts, and the course dishes served alongside that I had to recommend it in a post 😉

What's the atmosphere like at Donggyeong Sukseong Chamchi in Yonghyeon-dong?

Donggyeong Sukseong Chamchi is a tuna restaurant that's well known by word of mouth in Yonghyeon-dong. It's spacious and comfortable with a clean look, so it's perfect for good tuna and a drink, haha! It was hygienically kept from the entrance, and the tables and tableware were tidy and clean, so I felt great the whole meal :)

What to order at Donggyeong Sukseong Chamchi: the Royal course, ₩38,000

There are lots of menu options, but the all-you-can-eat is the best deal and the best pick 😃 We ordered the 'Royal' course for 2, made up of 30% belly, 30% head meat and 40% inner meat. The Royal is ₩38,000.

There's also a honmaguro (bluefin tuna) set, and set meals in large, medium and small sizes :) If you don't need a huge amount and just want a set of the tasty stuff, the set meals seem like a good fit!

With an 8-year-old: add grilled tuna and rice

We went with our 8-year-old and wanted to feed him a proper dinner, so we ordered a grilled tuna side dish separately, plus steamed rice, haha.

What dishes come with the Royal course?

The Royal course comes with a really wide range of dishes, like a sweet-and-sour octopus, shrimp and cucumber dish, black sesame porridge, and mapjeup (grated yam juice)~ The black sesame porridge is so good when you take a spoonful in between bites of tuna sashimi, hahaha.

And since it's before drinking, I guess, they bring out yam juice by default! This yam juice is seriously tasty, a real treat, haha!

Honey-drizzled samdo (fried ginseng-style bites) came out too, so health comes first, haha. Then a slightly spicy udon and even cheese like mochi drizzled with sweet syrup! Every dish was not too much, good quality and delicious, so I honestly felt rich 😆

The fried ginkgo nuts are a real treat too. Nutty and so good, hahaha.

The first plate of tuna, and feeding our son dinner

Finally, the first plate arrived +_+ The moment it came out I couldn't help exclaiming, haha. Bright pink-red tuna was piled up so appetizingly, and you could feel the freshness just by looking :)

Before long the grilled tuna and rice came out, and I wrapped rice and fish in seaweed for my son, and he ate it really well, haha. If you're visiting with a kid like us, feeding them this way might work well, lol.

Even while we were still eating, other dishes kept coming, lol. Corn cheese can't be left out, of course 😁

Aged tuna flavor and crispy seaweed

Look at the color of this tuna. It's so oily, dripping~~ Isn't that bright pink-red gorgeous? 😍 Donggyeong Sukseong Chamchi ages its tuna with a special method, so the umami comes alive, and the texture was so soft it melted in my mouth, and rich too 🧡

I'm the type who always wraps tuna in seaweed, and the seaweed here was so, so crispy and delicious!! A place where even the seaweed is good, lol. When the crispy seaweed crunches apart and you feel the tuna sashimi inside, so soft in your mouth, it's so, so good ❣

Ice-slushed soju earned my husband's approval

That day I drank Cheongha (sake) and my husband drank soju~ The soju temperature here is amazing too. Look at the slush ice on it. My husband believes drinks should be as cold as possible, and the moment he saw this soju bottle he said, "Well, this place has won," lolololol. Which means it totally passed 😆

Then while we were still eating tuna, shrimp sushi came out~? The dishes just keep coming and coming, lol. Which I love! They gave us 3 pieces of shrimp sushi so our son could eat too, haha. Kind staff and great service 👍

Which special cuts can you eat at Donggyeong Sukseong Chamchi?

Besides belly, you can try special cuts that are hard to find at ordinary tuna places: gamasal (collar), baekkopsal (navel meat), cheek, jaw, and even tuna lips. They brought the next cuts before we'd even finished the first plate, and comparing the different texture and flavor of each cut was fun too, haha.

I think this was the navel meat. Totally chewy, nutty and so good +_+

And this is the tuna lip, supposedly a lump of collagen! Lol. Really chewy, no smell at all, and so tasty~

I love that you can eat these really tasty cuts all-you-can-eat to your heart's content. You can truly taste the natural flavor of tuna in each cut!

Third plate: bluefin tuna, served at a temperature that doesn't hurt your teeth

And third, bluefin tuna too! The tuna here isn't over-frozen, so even right when it comes out, there's none of the teeth-aching cold you get at cheap tuna places. It's served at just the right temperature, and I loved that 👏🏻

It's neither too frozen nor too cold, just pleasantly chilled, so you can taste more of the tuna's flavor, and the texture is much softer and richer 🥰 And probably thanks to the good aging technique, there's not even 1, not even 0.1 of a fishy taste, so I kept thinking it's really high quality, haha. If you like tuna, please go!

Crispy shrimp tempura and sweet potato tempura

And wow, they fry well here too, lol. The shrimp tempura tasted homemade and so good, and the thinly sliced fried sweet potato was so, so crispy and delicious 🖤

Do you have to feel awkward about the all-you-can-eat refills?

Even though it's all-you-can-eat, there's no need to feel awkward at all, and the owner keeps bringing tuna sashimi on their own before you've even finished, lol. While we were on the third plate, more came out, lolol. Grilled tuna, braised tuna, even tuna spicy stew!! I got so, so full. So happy 🖤

While we were eating tuna, they gave us even more tuna..lol. My husband eats a lot and eats well, so we got this far, but people with an average appetite might really burst!! But the tuna itself is so good that it stayed delicious no matter how much we ate 😍 So it was comfortable and nice!

So we ordered another bottle of soju 🙊

Finishing with albap

We finished with albap (rice with fish roe), fluffy and a little salty! Albap might not seem like much, but the seasoning was just right and it was so good, a nice way to end, haha. If you're looking for a place in Incheon that does aged tuna properly, I recommend Donggyeong Sukseong Chamchi in Yonghyeon-dong, where every course dish was great!! If you're really looking for a tuna restaurant in Yonghyeon-dong, please go, haha.