Seonleung eel restaurant lunch with Ebisu draft beer for two: Manmok

Anyone else get periodic cravings for hitsumabushi (grilled eel rice bowl)? Not just me, right? I went and had Kanto-style hitsumabushi at Manmok, a well-known spot near Seonleung Station and Daechi-dong. Manmok uses only freshwater eel from Gochang, one of Korea's best eel-producing regions, and grills it plainly using the Kanto-style method.

Manmok's location, hours, parking and reservations

Manmok is at 9 Seolleung-ro 82-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 1st floor. It's a 4-minute walk from exit 2 of Seonleung Station.

• ⏰ Hours: Daily 11:00–22:00 / break time 15:00–17:00
• 🚘 Parking: 2 spots available in front of the restaurant. For a bigger lot nearby, there's WeWork Seonleung Branch 3!
• 📞 Reservations: Naver Reservations, group bookings available (up to 50 people)

Manmok's exterior and its vertical hanja sign

I was rushing over, eager to dig into an eel rice bowl, and the clean vertical sign reading '饅木' in hanja really stood out.

Up close, the wood-toned exterior with 'Manmok' written on it already felt like a good-restaurant kind of sign. Personally, I love a wood interior 🪵🤎 — cozy yet clean-feeling.

Inside Manmok at lunchtime

Sorry... I'm swapping in Instagram photos for the interior shots... 😬 Once inside, since it's a popular spot during lunch hour, there were a lot of office workers. No matter how I angled the camera, faces kept showing up, so I decided not to push my luck taking photos..!

It really does look like the photo. Since it opened not long ago, everything is clean and the interior is pretty.

Since we'd made a reservation, we were seated right away without waiting.

The upscale wood interior with soft lighting and privately partitioned seats seemed great for important meetings or even a blind date. With stone and solid wood used together, it has a calm yet upscale feel.

The table setting was also clean and pretty. Well, pretty is everything...🤍

Manmok's menu: eel rice bowl only, just pick a size

You know a place with a single menu item is usually a good one, right? Manmok has one dish — eel rice bowl — and you just choose the size: half / whole / one-and-a-half.

✅ Drinks menu — Ebisu draft beer, highballs (Suntory, Balvenie, Hibiki). There's also soju, beer, zero-alcohol beer, zero-sugar cola, and more.

☑️ What we ordered — my husband got the whole eel rice bowl! I got the half. And we ordered two glasses of Ebisu draft beer.

Kanto-style vs Kansai-style eel rice bowls

Eel rice bowls are broadly divided into Kanto-style, Kansai-style, and Nagoya-style, and Manmok sticks to the Kanto-style method among these, focusing on bringing out the eel's natural texture and clean flavor.

📝 Kanto-style vs Kansai-style (I got curious and looked this up) / Kanto-style eel rice bowl (Tokyo) ➡️ The eel isn't steamed — it's grilled straight over charcoal, so the outside is crispy and the inside is chewy / Kansai-style eel rice bowl (Kyoto, Osaka) ➡️ Grilled once, then steamed, then basted with sauce and grilled again, for a softer, milder flavor

Ebisu draft beer with the whole eel rice bowl

The Ebisu draft beer came out first. That foam... I've been waiting for you. How do people survive summer without draft beer 🍻

The whole eel rice bowl arrived first, glistening and giving off a savory, salty aroma — it clearly looked delicious 🤤 The eel was soft and clean-tasting, and the seasoning wasn't heavy, so it wasn't salty or greasy.

The clear matsutake mushroom soup that came with it was light and clean, pairing well with the eel rice bowl without feeling heavy.

How much eel comes in Manmok's half portion?

Mine was the half eel rice bowl! Two pieces were stacked so they weren't visible, but there were 10 large pieces of eel in total. That day it came out in the whole-portion bowl instead of a dedicated half-size bowl, so it might have looked smaller than it was, but for women who normally eat light to moderate portions, the half size is plenty! With the half portion plus a draft beer, I was satisfied and full — just right.

Chawanmushi, sansho pepper and the side dishes

The chawanmushi (Japanese steamed egg custard) with shrimp that came as a side dish was soft and savory — I finished it right away before the meal 🤤

Pickled sansho pepper and sansho powder came alongside too, and adding a little on top of the eel gave it a different, extra aromatic touch. The salad, pickled radish, pickled ginger, and wasabi were all great for cleansing the palate in between bites — the basic side dishes were clean and good.

The Ebisu draft beer was cold and smooth and paired really well with the eel — I'd recommend this combo for a daytime beer 🍻

Dessert at Manmok: matcha or black tea ice cream bar

For dessert, there's a Japanese-style ice cream bar. You can choose between matcha and black tea flavor, so we picked one of each. The matcha was bittersweet and great for a palate cleanser, while the black tea was sweet and refreshing, making you want more (?) — both were delicious 🍨

What occasions suit Manmok best?

With its quiet, upscale atmosphere, it's a great space for hosting someone on a first meeting, but also comfortable enough for a casual meal with close friends. It's definitely the kind of flavor your parents would enjoy too, and if I ever need to host an important guest, I think I'd book here again. For anyone looking for a great eel rice bowl restaurant near Seonleung, I confidently recommend this place.