Icheon kodari spot before camping: octopus braise for two, Seonghone

What kind of place is Seonghone Wang Kodari Dongtaetang in Seolseong, Icheon?

Seonghone Wang Kodari Dongtaetang, Icheon Seolseong Branch (성호네왕코다리동태탕 이천설성점) is a kodari (semi-dried pollock) and dongtaetang (pollock stew) specialist in Seolseong-myeon, Icheon. Icheon is a town you pass through on the way to Gangwon-do or the southern provinces, but did you know there's a kodari specialist here?

Many people think of kodari as the side dish their mom made at home, so they rarely order it out. Honestly, that's because it never tastes like the home version anywhere else ㅠㅠ But this place, which we stopped at on a trip, tasted exactly like my mom's cooking, and I was so surprised! I'll show you how it looked and tasted below!

Is parking easy at Seonghone Wang Kodari Dongtaetang?

There's plenty of parking in front of and beside the restaurant, so you can park without worry, and of course it's free! Easy parking is another plus.

Seen from the car, it looks like an old-fashioned shop, but after trying the kodari here I was completely won over. It tasted so much like the kodari my mom made when I was little that I thought, so this is the flavor people are looking for when they order kodari out!

A place that's clean the moment you walk in is usually a real good restaurant, and Seonghone gave exactly that feeling.

It has been on KBS, SBS and several other broadcasts. There must be a reason so many networks featured it. Seeing the flower octopus kodari braise I ate, the look of it was one they simply had to put on TV.

Are there lighter, cheaper menu items too?

It's not only expensive dishes! You can just have a warm bowl of dongtaetang or goni (pollock milt) soup, and even though these are regular restaurant dishes, the owner is so generous that the portions are huge. Even my husband, who eats a ton, waved the white flag (GG) later, saying he was too full to eat more.

Still, he said it was the best kodari he'd ever had and reminded him of his mother's kodari at home when he was a kid. Me too!

What free service dishes and side dishes come out?

Seonghone gives a volcano egg custard (gyeran-jjim) as free service, and it was fluffy, delicious and not burnt at all. I couldn't even guess how skilled the cook must be to put this much care into a dish like this. The quality of the food shocked me the moment I saw it.

The bean sprouts come out in a generous heap, right? The kimchi, seaweed and fish cake also had that old-fashioned home-cooked taste of my mom's meals, light and good. They were incomparable to what you'd get elsewhere, which put me in a great mood.

Free pollock milt jiri soup

We ordered the flower octopus kodari braise, and because octopus is pricey it costs ₩99,000. I looked up octopus prices, and an octopus this size would cost at least ₩50,000–60,000 at a market... so I wondered, doesn't that leave them almost no profit at ₩99,000?

Right then a pollock jiri (clear soup) came out, and we hadn't ordered it~ The owner said, "I bet we're the only place in the country that gives pollock jiri as free service~" with total confidence, haha. That's when I felt it: this owner runs a restaurant because handing food to customers makes them happy!

Usually the free service is a bowl of seaweed soup or bean sprout soup, but this was a pollock milt jiri that looked like a separate order... and the taste was just as upscale, a refreshing flavor that would make me want a glass of soju if we lived nearby.

A volcano egg custard that lives up to its name

This egg custard is the "free service" volcano egg custard I mentioned. The moment I saw it, I got why it's called a volcano. It's big enough that ordering a bowl of rice with it would make a full meal, so I was surprised twice!

Flower octopus kodari braise at ₩99,000: how big is it for two people?

The flower octopus kodari braise (₩99,000) at Seonghone is a lot for two, and counting the free dishes, it's enough for four people to eat full even with one rice each. They loaded us up with free sides first, then the braise arrived.

When I ordered, I figured the octopus would be fist-sized, but they brought one as big as a human head. An octopus this size really does cost ₩50,000–60,000! I think even ₩99,000 is a very fair price. And yet the two of us boldly ordered this... haha. I'm the curious type so I ordered it, but sure enough I couldn't finish even half and just watched my husband eat.

Is the octopus tough?

But wait! Could boiled octopus (sukhoe) really be this tender? I've never bought octopus to eat at home, and mostly had sukhoe from wedding hall or event buffets, where it was so chewy my back teeth ached and I gave up after a bit...??

But the flower octopus here is different! Not tough at all, and unbelievably it melted in my mouth like fish sashimi such as flounder. My husband and I were so amazed that octopus could be this soft that we kept eating.

I also put the bean sprouts we got at the start into the braise and mixed it up, and even the sprouts alone filled me up... The portion is huge and we also got the egg custard and jiri soup as free service, so we ordered one rice, but I barely touched it and my husband finished it all, haha. The kodari tasted like the textbook version of the kodari-jjim my mom made when I was little, so wow... the octopus is crazy and the kodari brings back childhood, a truly great restaurant!?

In those food-hunting comics, the dish that takes one bite and brings back childhood memories always gets the top score, right, haha. They close their eyes and imagine running through a field, haha. At Seonghone, one bite brought memories back to life, and it felt like the octopus might come back to life too, so I think it may be the best restaurant I've eaten at in my whole life.

That's why I'm recommending it so strongly! I don't normally make this much fuss. If you want kodari-jjim or octopus, please stop by Seonghone Wang Kodari Dongtaetang, Icheon Seolseong Branch, even if you have to travel to Icheon! Highly recommended

How were the kodari meat and the seasoning?

The kodari meat here is really tasty, and maybe they use top-grade kodari, because it had none of that dried taste kodari usually has, like eating raw pollock sashimi. And kodari meat is a rice thief, isn't it?

My husband picked out just the flesh and I popped it in my mouth. It wasn't salty, yet the seasoning was so well balanced... I barely ate any rice because I was full, yet I never once reached for water while eating. It tastes great and isn't salty, which I loved.

Wrapped in seaweed like this, childhood memories plus happiness rise up so strongly I lost my head, and chewing the soft octopus I thought, what? Already gone? Our next stop after this meal was camping, and maybe because we were treated so well at Seonghone Wang Kodari Dongtaetang, Icheon Seolseong Branch, the whole trip including the camping stayed with us as a really happy one.

What's on the menu at Seonghone Wang Kodari Dongtaetang?

The owner is full of flair and you can see how happy he is when giving out free service, so it's a truly genuine good restaurant! Really, haha. If you go and see the owner, you'll get the feeling right away. I think a place like this will stay in business for a very long time. Here's the menu.

• Octopus abalone haesintang (seafood hot pot)
• Flower octopus kodari braise
• Dongtaetang (pollock stew)
• Daegu head jiri (cod head clear soup)
• Volcano egg custard
• Radish-greens kodari braise
• Abalone seafood kodari braise
• King kodari braise set
• Hairtail braise set
• Fish cutlet
• Fried king prawns

We only found out they had fried king prawns after we'd enjoyed our meal. We wondered how good their other dishes must be and wanted to try them, but we'd eaten too much, so we missed out and plan to come back! If you're near Icheon, I recommend going and tasting it yourself!