Bongdam set lunch with self-serve bar gochujang bibimbap: Hwadamga

I went on a weekend drive out to a café near Bongdam near Ansan to get some laptop work done, and for lunch I was craving something clean and light — so I stopped by Hwadamga, a Bongdam spot known for grilled fish.

Where Hwadamga is in Bongdam, and its opening hours

Hwadamga, that grilled fish spot in Bongdam, is near the Bongdam Xi Lagenne Apartments — turn right about 100m past the road running along Wau Middle School and Wau High School. It's not far from Omokcheon Station or Hwaseong Yunggeollleung either!

• ⏰ Hours: Daily 11:00–22:00
• Break time 15:00–17:00
• Last order 21:30

Set-menu lunch, stone-plate grill at dinner: inside Hwadamga

Hwadamga runs as a Korean set-meal restaurant for lunch and switches to a meat-and-seafood stone-plate grill place at dinner. The interior was super clean and upscale-feeling! Plus it's divided up with partitions, so it's great for company dinners, gatherings, or family meals where you want some privacy.

There are also private rooms like this one, so it'd be worth booking ahead. The whole place felt spotlessly managed — not a trace of grease anywhere — so it seemed like a good spot for a parent's birthday or other special occasion.

Hwadamga's menu and prices

Ordering is done via tablet. At lunch Hwadamga focuses on set meals, and at dinner it's all about Korean beef, pork, and seafood!

Hwadamga's wood-fired lunch sets from 16,000 won

• Wood-fired mackerel set ₩16,000
• Wood-fired dried croaker set ₩27,000
• Stir-fried pork set ₩16,000
• Herbal boiled pork set ₩17,000
• Wood-fired hairtail set ₩21,000
• Wood-fired atka mackerel set ₩20,000
• Kids' pork cutlet ₩10,000

Hwadamga's evening stone-plate grill menu

• Hwadamga beef sirloin stone-plate set ₩50,000
• Beef sirloin ₩41,000
• Hwadamga pork stone-plate set ₩30,000
• Pre-grilled pork belly (180g) ₩18,000
• Pre-grilled diced pork shoulder (180g) ₩18,000
• Diced pork jowl (200g) ₩22,000
• Green onion skirt steak (180g) ₩20,000

Side dishes to order at Hwadamga

• Potato pancake ₩15,000
• Kimchi stew ₩10,000
• Beef soybean paste stew ₩5,000
• Steamed egg ₩5,000
• Stone-plate jjajangmyeon ₩5,000
• Cold noodles, water-based ₩7,000
• Cold noodles, spicy ₩7,000

Wood-fired mackerel set ₩16,000, stir-fried pork set ₩16,000. Genuinely the table was groaning under the food!

What's on Hwadamga's self-serve side bar?

Hwadamga runs a self-serve bar right in the middle of the restaurant — you get around four basic sides brought to you, and

it's a system where you grab whatever sides you want from the self-serve bar. The bar itself was really clean too.

This is everything we brought back from the self-serve bar~~ from salad that's great as an appetizer, to all kinds of namul (seasoned vegetable) side dishes, kimchi, tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patties), and japchae (glass noodle stir-fry) — Hwadamga has so many Korean side dishes that both kids and adults would love, it looked like a great spot for a family meal out, haha.

Hwadamga's flame-grilled pork set with barley rice

Ordering a set comes with basic barley rice, though you can upgrade to sujanghyangmi hotpot rice for ₩2,000.

That smoky pork stir-fry! Since Hwadamga is fundamentally a Korean pork barbecue place, the meat has a great lean-to-fat ratio, so it came out tender and paired perfectly with the sweet-spicy sauce!!

The soybean paste stew that comes standard was also savory and paired really well,

How does Hwadamga's wood-fired mackerel set taste?

The grilled mackerel is also cooked over a wood fire — crispy outside, moist inside! Really light and tender, so it'd make a great side dish for kids' meals too. The mackerel was also a solid, generous size.

Mixing gochujang bibimbap with self-serve bar sides

Gochujang (red chili paste) and sesame oil come standard, so depending on your taste you can turn it into a doenjang or gochujang bibimbap and it works perfectly! Every single side dish was delicious, and even the bibimbap turned out great, so I ended up eating way too much, haha.

Dessert at Hwadamga: coffee, omija tea and mango juice

Coffee, or omija (schisandra berry tea), and mango juice for dessert — perfect finish. Hwadamga, that grilled fish spot in Bongdam, serves clean, light Korean food you can eat without any guilt, so it'd be especially great to bring your parents there.