Hwanggeum, Daegu Korean restaurant with hutgae tea: Cafe Dongyi

It's been sooo hot lately that just standing in front of the induction stove feels scary!! 🔥🔥🔥 Same here. So instead of cooking at home!! haha I went to find even better "home-style food" near my house. My regular spot •• 🤍 a Suseong-gu favorite!! Highly recommend. Shall we go together~

Cafe Dongyi Branch 1 — a restaurant where the rice is free?

Cafe Dongyi Branch 1 is a home-style Korean restaurant that has operated in the same spot on the ground floor of SK Leaders View in Dusan-dong, Suseong-gu, Daegu for 13 years. A restaurant where the rice is free? Yes~~ really!! haha The five-grain rice is unlimited.

It's a Suseongmot, Deuran-gil favorite‼️ (If you're like me and once mistook Cafe Dongyi for an actual café when it first opened!! I bet some of you have done that too haha)

Location, hours, and parking info

• 📍Location: 95 Dongdaegu-ro, Suseong SK Leaders View, Suseong-gu, Daegu (113 Dusan-dong, Suseong-gu, Daegu)
• 📍Hours: Mon–Sun 11:00–21:00 (break time 15:00–16:30 / last order 14:00, 20:00)
• 📍Reservations, takeout, wifi, separate restrooms, baby chairs available
• 🚗Parking (free): Free 2 hours at the Homeplus parking lot beneath the SK Leaders View building 💛

I parked for free for 2 hours in this huge underground lot beneath the SK Leaders View building! 🚘 then headed up to the first floor.

Coming up to the first floor, right along the main Dongdaegu-ro street (along the Line 3 elevated track), right next to Coffee Myungga, there it is~ the home-style Korean restaurant that has welcomed over a million visitors, Cafe Dongyi 🤍

Hutgae tea at the entrance, first moment that got me

This is Cafe Dongyi Branch 1 🤍 Since it's a brand store run by a head chef with 15 years of experience in Korean cooking, there's always a wait during meal times•• so they keep cool hutgae tea (raisin tree tea) ready at the entrance 🌟

But the first thing that got me, even before going inside, was this!! Even people just passing by can have a cup ㅠㅠ😭 And I'll introduce the second thing that got me at the very end.

Inside there's an open kitchen on the first floor. There are 2 tables, and you can also head up to a fun, attic-like second floor.

The second floor was already full of customers so I felt bad taking photos and didn't get any of the table seating there 😅

Unlimited five-grain rice, fried egg, and seaweed self-bar

Cafe Dongyi Branch 1 has an "unlimited refill" self-bar where you can freely enjoy five-grain rice, fried egg, and seaweed!! Amazing!!⚡️🫶🏿

Even the eggs looked freshly pulled from the fridge, with little water droplets on them and nice and cold! Oh! There's also barley candy•• every time we come, we each eat one as an appetizer before the meal haha then eat••• today's was crispy~ delicious as always.

What we ordered today

• Solo-brazier grilled pork (jeyuk) set meal
• Grandma's octopus stir-fry set meal
• Mini tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) added on
• Default doenjang jjigae swapped for kimchi jjigae (₩1,000 extra)

Ta-da~ have you ever gotten home-style food this lavish? 😍 You'd have a hard time making this at home•• haha Just come~~~~ to Cafe Dongyi Branch 1 near Hwanggeum Station! SK Leaders View residents~ Trump World Suseong residents~ Hwanggeum Castle Gold Park residents~ Hwanggeum Hillstate residents~~ Daegu citizens riding Line 3~~ anyone visiting Daegu and curious about Daegu home cooking~~ come! "Cafe Dongyi"

Solo-brazier grilled pork set meal

The "grilled pork set meal" comes with doenjang jjigae! The pork tastes exactly like the red-sauce meat my mom used to make ❤️🔥 (we actually call our family's grilled pork "red meat" haha) It has real fire flavor, seriously delicious. Let me show you the kitchen fire show 🔥🔥🔥🔥

And thanks to the brazier underneath, you get to eat "warm grilled pork" throughout the whole meal 🫶🏿

The side dishes: diced radish kimchi, stir-fried fish cake, pickled gungchae, and cool omija tea 💗 At Cafe Dongyi, every side dish and sauce is made in-house, plated with care! Nothing feels thrown together ‼️

Grandma's octopus stir-fry set meal

The "grandma's octopus stir-fry set meal" features chunky octopus coated in a spicy sauce, tender and bouncy~ showing off that great fire flavor.

A ₩1,000 tip: swap doenjang jjigae for kimchi jjigae

For the octopus set, we swapped the doenjang jjigae for kimchi jjigae. That turned out to be such a great choice!! We got to try both doenjang jjigae and kimchi jjigae ㅋ so definitely••• swap one out!!

Spoon the kimchi jjigae right over the rice and even the Gimpo geumssal rice tastes extra sweet~~ pure honey 🍯 basically••

Mini tangsuyuk (taste-test sweet and sour pork)

Let me introduce the "mini tangsuyuk" we also added. The sauce isn't too sweet, and the balance between crispy and chewy is so good!! The meat seemed well brined so the seasoning was spot on••❤️🔥 the cut of meat was chewy yet tender, and the thickness wasn't too thin — just right ⚡️

It's called a "taste-test" tangsuyuk but the portion was pretty generous, and we still had to squeeze in more unlimited five-grain rice haha, so we were busy~~

We were busy eating•• and the counter was busy too, with waiting customers in the hall, the ding-ding of delivery orders coming in, and riders stopping by to pick up takeout! This is truly the place holding down home-cooked meals in Suseong-gu 🤍

For dessert, one more round of cool omija tea and barley candy each!! haha

Finished the whole meal;;;;

Second moment that got me: peanut caramels for the riders

On the way out, just enter your license plate at the counter!! Free 2-hour parking!! Oh right, let me introduce the second moment that got me, the one I mentioned earlier!!

See that note saying "Thank you for waiting, driver, please take as many as you like"? Right next to it, peanut caramels! 🌟 I'm someone who gets deeply moved by that kind of thoughtfulness ㅠ this place is really something!!👍

Cafe Dongyi Branch 1, the kind of place that makes you want to come back again and again 🤍 I've introduced Cafe Dongyi near Hwanggeum Station, a Suseong-gu favorite, a Suseongmot favorite, a Dusan-dong favorite 🫶🏿 As a regular in the neighborhood•• well, I might go again tomorrow! Who knows 😅 hahaha

Oh, and sign up for the Dongyi membership and get a free tangsuyuk coupon too!