After-work grilled octopus and sweet-and-sour pork set at Cafe Dongyi

Today after work my coworker and I planned to hit Costco together, but we figured if we went hungry we'd end up impulse-buying everything, so we decided to grab dinner first~

So we were like, what should we eat~? And while looking around, Cafe Dongyi turned out to be right on our route, so we ran straight there~ I'd been once before and remembered it being really good haha

Location and hours of Cafe Dongyi Chimsan Branch

• Address: 1F, Dormitory Building E, Samsung Changjo Campus, 51 Hoam-ro, Buk-gu, Daegu, South Korea
• Hours (Mon–Fri): 11:00–20:30 / break time 15:00–17:00 / last order 20:00
• Hours (Sat–Sun): 11:00–21:00 / break time 15:00–16:30 / last order 20:30

Weekday and weekend hours are different, so it's good to check before you go.

Parking and the restaurant's atmosphere

Cafe Dongyi is located inside the Samsung Changjo Campus. Just drive into the parking lot — you get 2 hours of free parking with a meal!

After parking and walking in a little, Cafe Dongyi appeared — a building with a gorgeous exterior, like a little shop tucked in the woods.

At the entrance there's cool heotgae tea (hangover tea) for waiting guests, plus a Table Waiting queue system. Weekends must get pretty busy here.

Cafe Dongyi is really the kind of place that gives you the feeling of a home-cooked meal laid out on the table.

The interior is decorated with a warm, cozy vibe. It feels a bit like a café too, and it'd be great for a quiet meal with family.

There's a tablet near the entrance for parking registration, so if you parked, make sure to register there before you leave~! They also have plenty of toothpicks and phone chargers on hand.

The restroom is inside too, which is convenient haha.

Free eggs, unlimited rice, and the self-service bar

This is Cafe Dongyi's biggest strength — the self-service bar.

Get this... the eggs are free!! Egg prices are so high these days,, ❤️ We didn't get greedy and each just made one fried egg. Haha.

Rice is unlimited refills too!!

And there's even gim (dried seaweed) and gim soy sauce!! Honestly you could eat a whole meal with just this. Boss, giving out this much... thank you so much 🥰

There's even barley candy prepared as a snack. Per-fect! Now shall we start the meal?

What we ordered and the prices

You can order easily through the tablet at your table. We ordered:

• Grandma's stir-fried jjukkumi (grilled octopus) set — ₩16,900
• Dongyi charcoal-grilled bulgogi set — ₩15,900 (currently discounted to ₩11,900)
• Mini sweet-and-sour pork sampler — ₩9,900

That's what we ordered. Quite a few menu items are on discount right now, so go visit soon~!

Dongyi charcoal-grilled bulgogi set

This is the Dongyi charcoal-grilled bulgogi set I ordered. It comes neatly laid out with rice, doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew), charcoal-grilled bulgogi, three side dishes, and omija tea.

Sweet with a smoky charcoal flavor 👍 It comes set on a charcoal stand, so it stayed warm the whole time I was eating!

Grandma's stir-fried jjukkumi set

This is the grandma's stir-fried jjukkumi set my coworker ordered.

Plump jjukkumi packed with smoky charcoal flavor, served right on the charcoal stand.

I dipped one in mayo sauce and tried it too — full of smoky flavor and spicy, seriously a rice thief (something so good it makes you eat more rice) 🤤

We wrapped rice in seaweed, dipped it, and dutifully finished off the fried eggs too.

Mini sweet-and-sour pork sampler

While we were eating, the sweet-and-sour pork came out pretty quickly. See that gorgeous color? Looks delicious just from the photo, right? Haha.

We cut it into bite-sized pieces and dipped it in the sauce. First off, no gamey smell at all — the meat was juicy and the batter was chewy, made with sweet rice! Very tasty, you have to try it~!

Apparently if you sign up for Dongyi's regular membership, their sweet-and-sour pork is free, so try this sampler first~! Had a great meal again today! Whenever you're stuck deciding what to eat, give Cafe Dongyi a visit 😄