Ansan eel buffet lunch with dad and salt-grilled tails: Songnim Bok

Today was lunch date day with my dad! I wanted to treat him to something good, and after some thinking I landed on his all-time favorite — eel — so we headed to Songnim Bok, where you can eat as much of it as you want ☺️

Where is Songnim Bok Jangeo Ansan City Hall Direct Store, and when is it open?

• ⏰ Daily 11:20–22:00 / last order 21:00
• 🏠 33 Danggok-ro, Danwon-gu, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, Units 201, 202
• A must-visit eel all-you-can-eat spot in Gojan-dong!

There are a lot of good restaurants in this commercial building that I've visited before, but I had no idea there was an eel place here too!! Can't believe I only just found out 🤦‍♀️ At ₩29,900 per person for unlimited eel, it's great value too.

Inside Songnim Bok Jangeo: seating and atmosphere

The inside is really clean and spacious,

the tables are spaced generously apart too, so it looked like a good spot for a work dinner or family meal out in Gojan-dong. Since there's a self-serve bar, customers naturally walk back and forth, but the partitions in between gave a nice sense of separation.

There were also spacious seats further inside, so that's where we sat.

Menu, how to order, and the complimentary bokbunja (raspberry wine)

The menu wasn't just eel — there was a whole range of meal dishes too, at reasonable prices, so it seems fine to come here for a light lunch too. And when you get sick of the richness of eel, ramyeon (instant noodles) sounds perfect!!! (I was so eel-focused I didn't even notice they had ramyeon...)

They briefly went over the house rules too~ I had my own dedicated chef on hand so I was fine haha (sorry, Dad)

We ordered the all-you-can-eat set for two right away, and as soon as we sat down, they brought out bokbunja (Korean black raspberry wine) — on the house!!! Eel and that pairing, no words needed... but Dad had to drive, so I ended up drinking it mostly by myself ^^ (sorry again, Dad)

Round one: eel with pork belly and chicken neck on the charcoal

Right after ordering, they set up the first round for us.

Side dishes that go well with eel — ginger, perilla leaves, kimchi and more — came out with it.

At Songnim Bok it's not just the eel that's all-you-can-eat — pork belly and chicken neck are unlimited too.

They dropped the charcoal in right away, so we started grilling everything at once.

I quickly unfolded the eel to grill it faster, and the size was seriously hefty! Not what you'd expect from an all-you-can-eat place at all... and that's where my expectations started climbing even more lol

My dad, diligently grilling away haha

The pork belly and chicken neck finished cooking first, so we tried a piece each. Honestly, since it's all-you-can-eat and eel is the main attraction, I didn't expect much from the meat quality — but it was way better than expected! The chicken neck had a nice chewy texture with no gamey smell, and the pork belly was juicy! There was a light dusting of herbs on it too, so it was good even without dipping it in anything🥹

The eel was tastiest when the skin got grilled nice and crispy. Doesn't it look delicious sizzling away like that?

How does the self-serve bar work at Songnim Bok Jangeo?

After polishing off round one pretty quickly haha, we went to the self-serve bar to grab more eel.

All the refill items were fully stocked, and you just help yourself whenever you're running low, no need to place a separate order — super convenient.

There was one more self-serve bar too. This one had wrap vegetables and various sauces, in addition to the side dishes we'd already seen.

And get this — you could even fry your own eggs there? Truly a place where you can just grab whatever you're craving without holding back…🥹🥹

I loaded up a whole plate like this haha. Round two, here we go!

Why the eel gets bigger with every refill

But when I brought the eel back, didn't it look even bigger than the first round somehow? lol I was genuinely surprised at how thick and hefty it was. This was the first all-you-can-eat place I've been to where the quality actually gets better the more you refill.

We ate the well-grilled eel wrapped with onion and pickled perilla leaves, and also piled it onto wrap vegetables with various toppings. But no matter how we ate it, it was delicious... eel really does make you happier the more you eat.

Third refill: how to salt-grill the eel tail meat

Before we knew it, we were on our third refill haha

You couldn't really tell which part it was while it was folded up, but once unfolded, this batch was mostly tail meat. Still, since the eel itself was so big overall, even the tail section had plenty of meat. This time I wanted to try it salt-grilled, so I sprinkled salt on the eel and grilled it. But sprinkling just a little barely gave any flavor at all?? If you're planning to salt-grill, I'd recommend going generous — enough that you think 'isn't this too much?' — or just dipping it straight into salt lol

In between bites I kept sipping the bokbunja wine, and before I knew it I'd cleared half the bottle lol. It's sweet, so it goes down easy without feeling like a burden. I wanted to make a bokbunja soju cocktail but... it was lunchtime so I held back — myself, that is.

The charcoal seemed to be dying down a bit as we ate, so we asked the staff for more and kept grilling away enthusiastically.

Three to four eels between two people: was the Ansan eel buffet worth it?

And so, we cleared our plates again today... thinking back on how much the two of us ate, it felt like about 3–4 whole eels.

We left the table completely satisfied. Certified Ansan City Hall must-visit... even though it's all-you-can-eat, both the eel and the meat were excellent quality, and most of all, seeing my dad enjoy it so much made me happy too — such a great lunch!

They also sell eel for takeout, so if you want to eat eel at home, keep that in mind!

Another successful lunch date 🫶🏻 Now, driver, please get us home safely lol