Balsan Korean restaurant after Seoul Botanic Park: mackerel, Mikodam

A Korean set meal near Balsan Station with no break time after Seoul Botanic Park

Mikodam Magok-Balsan Branch (미꼬담 마곡발산점) is a place near Balsan Station where you can have a neat Korean set meal with no break time. I'd spent a full day with plants alongside a friend I hadn't seen in a while: Seoul Botanic Park, the Flower Flow plant café, and even a plant one-day class. The timing was awkward, so we'd skipped lunch and had to eat a combined lunch and dinner. So we went to Mikodam Magok-Balsan Branch, which has no break time and serves a tidy, tasty set meal.

I strongly recommend Mikodam Magok-Balsan Branch if you want a good Korean meal to go with Seoul Botanic Park or a plant café like Flower Flow. The seaweed soup, the seasoned cockles, the jeon (pan-fried battered slices) and the grilled mackerel were each so good.

The plump Norwegian mackerel was really the highlight.

Mikodam Magok-Balsan Branch location and opening hours

Mikodam Magok-Balsan Branch is at 42 Gangseo-ro 54-gil, Unit 2 on the 1st floor, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, and is open daily from 11:00 to 22:00.

We've arrived at Mikodam Magok-Balsan Branch. It's open every day from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., so you can drop in whenever, which is nice.

You can tell they use good ingredients: Wando seaweed, Yeosu cockles, Sindongjin rice, Norwegian mackerel and so on.

The seating is varied too, with tables for 2, 4, 6 and more, so it works for family, friends, couples or a company dinner. After eating, I kept thinking how great it would be to bring my parents here.

Mikodam Magok-Balsan Branch menu and prices

Mikodam Magok-Balsan Branch has sets for 2, 3 and 4 people, and we chose the (Full Table) set for two (₩46,000).

Personally, I think the sets are great value and really recommend them. You get to try a bit of everything good on the Mikodam Magok-Balsan Branch menu.

There are à la carte dishes too: four kinds of seaweed soup, namely abalone and clam (₩21,000), beef (₩17,000), flounder and clam (₩17,000) and clam (₩15,000), plus cockle bibim (rice mixed with toppings) with seasoned soy sauce (₩18,000) and cockle bibim with sweet-and-sour dressing (₩18,000). Of course, if you order a set, you can taste them all.

They also had beef jeon, yellow crab in soy sauce and LA galbi (marinated short ribs, ₩37,000). The jeon and the soy-marinated crab are included in the sets too, so you can choose them there. The value and the portions are really generous.

Soft drinks (Coca-Cola, Chilsung Cider, Pepsi Zero Cola and Fanta Orange) are all ₩2,000, and we added one Pepsi Zero Cola (₩2,000).

For alcohol, Chum Churum, Chamisul Fresh, Chamisul Original, Jinro and Saero soju were all ₩5,000. Terra beer was ₩5,000 too. The drink prices are great as well.

They also had plum tea, sikhye (sweet rice drink) and instant coffee that parents would love,

and even gangnaengi (puffed corn snack). It was my first time seeing it at a restaurant, and it was really good. My friend said it was really good too. I think parents would love it.

What comes with the ₩46,000 set for two?

The set for two at Mikodam Magok-Balsan Branch came with side dishes, cockles in seasoned soy sauce, beef seaweed soup, grilled mackerel and beef jeon, a full table.

Here comes the Mikodam Magok-Balsan Branch set for two (₩46,000).

Together with these neat and varied side dishes,

the cockles in seasoned soy sauce came out first.

Then came the beef seaweed soup my friend loves, and the grilled mackerel. With the jeon, the whole table was full and generous. At first I wondered if we could finish it all, but it was so good that we ate everything and even ordered extra grilled mackerel.

The grilled mackerel, beef seaweed soup and jeon were all really generous.

Beef seaweed soup

The beef seaweed soup at Mikodam Magok-Balsan Branch came out really piping hot, and I think it'll be even more tempting as winter gets colder.

The beef was pleasantly chewy and the texture was so good that I was surprised. Some places serve seaweed soup with dry or tough beef, but I was really surprised at the first spoonful here.

Cockles in seasoned soy sauce

I spooned the cockles in seasoned soy sauce over rice and mixed it up. There was absolutely no fishy cockle smell, and it was so fresh and delicious. Honestly the best cockles I've had recently.

Grilled Norwegian mackerel and beef jeon

The mackerel came out hot and moist, and being Norwegian mackerel, it was really thick and delicious.

The jeon was delicious too. I thought, so this is what a feast of flavors is.

They gave us seaweed (gim) too, so we dipped it in soy sauce, and also topped it with a piece of grilled mackerel and some seasoned cockles. Any way we ate it, it was so good.

Side dish refills and a ₩5,000 extra grilled mackerel

At Mikodam Magok-Balsan Branch, side dish refills are basically allowed except for rice (₩1,000) and extra grilled mackerel (₩5,000). Later we added japchae (glass noodle stir-fry) and grilled mackerel (₩5,000).

It's really nice that refills are possible like this.

Even as a refill, the japchae came out just as neat, and it tasted really good.

And one whole Norwegian mackerel, just like the one in the set, came out nice and big. Getting a grilled mackerel refill for just ₩5,000 is really great value.

It came freshly grilled and hot, and I could even see the oil sizzling. I really enjoyed it.

I really recommend Mikodam Magok-Balsan Branch if you're in Gangseo-gu for Seoul Botanic Park or big plant cafés like Flower Flow, have plans around Magok Station or Balsan Station, or are looking for a place to take your parents.