Yangjae Station eel grill: self-serve bar tips at Jangsuchon

What is Jangsuchon Pungcheon Eel near Yangjae Station like?

Jangsuchon Pungcheon Eel (장수촌풍천장어) is a salt-grilled eel restaurant near Yangjae Station, at 6 Dogok-ro 4-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. It sits right on the main road, so it's easy to find. I've been out and about so much lately that my stamina was dragging, so I went for a proper health boost after a long while!

• Address: 6 Dogok-ro 4-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
• Hours: Mon–Sat 11:00–22:00 / break time 14:30–16:30
• Closed every Sunday
• Parking: 2–3 cars in front of the restaurant

It's a Jangsuchon Pungcheon Eel direct-sale shop, and it turns out it's a chain? We rushed over to the Yangjae branch near our home.

The moment we sat down, they handed us eel juice, haha. Eel juice is said to be full of amino acids, which is good for immunity.

Jangsuchon Pungcheon Eel menu and prices

The salt-grilled eel at Jangsuchon Pungcheon Eel is ₩59,000 for 1kg, and there's a separate table setting fee of ₩3,000 per person. The closing dish, jangchu-tang, is an extra ₩3,000, and soju is ₩5,000.

• Salt-grilled eel 1kg ₩59,000
• Table setting fee ₩3,000 per person
• Extra jangchu-tang ₩3,000
• Soju ₩5,000

Do you have to grill the eel yourself?

At Jangsuchon Pungcheon Eel, the owner grills all the eel for you from start to finish, haha. There are even instructions on how to grill eel, but you don't need to read them. You just wait, and eat when it's done. So easy!

The purple salt made from Gochang black raspberries (bokbunja) is apparently only found at Jangsuchon Pungcheon Eel. They sprinkle this salt on the eel as they grill it.

Here comes the eel!! It's 1kg, but after trimming, the eel is about 500–600g. A fair bit of the eel gets trimmed away, it seems? First time I knew that..

While the skin side cooks lightly first, they shower the flesh side with black raspberry salt. The eel is seriously huge.. They tell you to sit back a bit because the salt can splatter.

Please grill it golden and delicious, boss ☺️

Why to check the self-serve bar at Jangsuchon Pungcheon Eel first

At Jangsuchon Pungcheon Eel, they set out only the basic side dishes at first, and after that you fetch refills from the self-serve bar. The bar has more sides than the basic set, so my tip is to go check it out right from the start.

Sides are out, so cheers ❤️ The basic sides are clean and nice! The self-serve bar has tons of stuff, like angelica (danggwi), perilla leaves, Cheongyang chili peppers and spicy sauce.

Finish the basic sides, then refill at the self-serve bar!

The eel sauce is pickled with plenty of ginger. The bittersweet ginger aroma goes really well with the eel.

How does the charcoal salt-grilled eel taste?

The owner kept a close eye on the eel the whole time, so I could wait and drink without worrying about it burning. They flip it more times than I expected! Good ingredients matter, of course, but eel really takes grilling skill.

Cheers ❤️

It's slowly turning a delicious color, haha

They put the fully cooked pieces in front of us first. Eel grilled over charcoal picks up a smoky flavor and tastes twice as good.

For the first piece I skipped the ginger and just dipped it in the sauce to taste the pure charcoal eel, and wow, it just melts in your mouth ㅠㅠ

Wrap the eel in perilla leaves, not lettuce

For the second piece I wrapped it in a perilla leaf, and ate it with ginger and garlic too.

I'd heard the eel comes to about 600g once trimmed and cooked, so I thought it would be plenty, but it melts in your mouth and was gone quickly, haha. If you're big eaters, you'd probably need to order two eels??

I tried it with lettuce too, but the lettuce seemed to slightly bury the eel's flavor, so I'd skip the lettuce.

The eel tails are pretty big too, haha. There were two tails, so we each ate one.

Spicy sauce from the self-serve bar, plus free mushrooms and rice cakes

This is the spicy sauce from the self-serve bar. They gave us mushrooms and rice cakes as a freebie, and dipping them in it was a perfect match!! Mushrooms with spicy sauce? I wondered, but once I dipped them, they were amazingly good 👍 Of course they also gave us black raspberry salt oil dip (gireumjang). The oil dip is the classic truth, haha;;

Is the jangchu-tang (eel and loach soup) worth ordering?

Jangchu-tang at Jangsuchon Pungcheon Eel is an extra order to close the meal, and it's a mere ₩3,000. Jangchu-tang apparently means eel + chueo-tang (loach soup)!!

Anyway, delicious!! Packed with dried radish greens (ugeoji), and the broth is rich, spicy and nutty, which was perfect as a drinking snack ㅠㅠ I went back and forth on whether to order it, but I'm glad I did!!

I got a proper health boost for the first time in a while. The owners were so kind and the food was the best. If you're looking for a company dinner spot or a charcoal eel place near Yangjae Station, I recommend Jangsuchon Pungcheon Eel.