Sangam-dong eel restaurant in Seoul with abalone-eel hot pot rice

With the weather lately, my wife's been running low on energy, so I went looking for a proper stamina meal for once. She usually prefers seafood over meat, so the menu naturally narrowed down to eel.

She happened to have plans near DMC, so I went on a search frenzy and found Ryeok Minmul Jangeogui Jeonmunjeom (력 민물장어구이전문점), a freshwater eel specialist that kept coming up under "Sangam-dong eel restaurant" for its standout quality. Long story short: my picky-eating wife showered me with compliments, and I walked away with the "good husband" title. This place deserves the thanks. 😊

Where is Ryeok, and what are its hours and parking?

Ryeok Minmul Jangeogui Jeonmunjeom is at 37 Seongam-ro 15-gil, 1F, Mapo-gu, Seoul. It's about a 3-minute walk from Exit 9 or 8 of Digital Media City Station (AREX).

• Address: 37 Seongam-ro 15-gil, 1F, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Hours: 11:00 – 23:00
• Break time: 14:00–16:00
• Closed: Every Sunday
• Parking: Public parking lot right next to the restaurant is recommended

What is Ryeok like at noon on a weekend? A wide hall with a Superman statue at the door

The area near DMC Station in Sangam-dong is mostly an office district, so weekends are actually a bit calmer and more relaxed than weekdays. We visited around noon on a weekend — when we walked in, only two tables including ours were seated, but by the time we left, the spacious hall was packed and looked like it wouldn't have room for one more table.

The big letters spelling out "Ryeok" were easy to spot even from down the alley. A sturdy Superman statue greets you at the entrance, and a wall sign confirming it was featured on SBS's Live Today as one of the "Top 3 eel rice bowl restaurants in Sangam-dong" got my expectations up before we even walked in.

The interior has about 10 spacious tables. There's plenty of room between seats, so you don't feel crowded by the next table at all — a great layout for company dinners or group gatherings too.

On one wall, I noticed a wall packed with autographs from well-known celebrities. Even I, who isn't great with faces, immediately recognized the signatures of actors Ryu Seung-ryong and Jo Yeo-jeong, which confirmed: "this place is legit."

Do Ryeok's lunch and dinner menus differ?

Ryeok Minmul Jangeogui Jeonmunjeom has different signature menus for lunch and dinner. Lunch centers on neat rice bowl dishes, while dinner is all about full-on grilled eel. (If you want grilled eel at lunch, calling the restaurant 30 minutes ahead makes it possible!)

Since we came for lunch, we focused on the rice bowl menu. For my wife's real energy recharge, we ordered the "hitsumabushi" (special eel rice bowl), made Nagoya-style, and I ordered the abalone-eel hot pot rice to enjoy some seafood flavor alongside.

The special eel rice bowl (hitsumabushi) with mustard-leaf pickles: my wife's top pick

My wife's hitsumabushi finally arrived first. I couldn't help but be amazed at the sheer visual — a big bowl piled so thick with eel that you couldn't even see the rice underneath. A cute little wild ginseng root sitting on top of the eel made it feel like the perfect choice for a restorative meal.

Alongside the rice bowl, the tray came with a fresh mini salad my wife loves, a warm chawanmushi (steamed egg) to gently ease into the meal, and green tea for enjoying it ochazuke-style — all neatly arranged as one set.

Following the kindly provided "how to enjoy it" instructions, we used the paddle to split the rice bowl into four portions and tried it a few different ways.

First, to taste the eel on its own, I scooped up just a bite — there was absolutely no muddy or fishy smell typical of freshwater eel, no annoying bones, and it was soft enough to melt in your mouth. The soy sauce glaze looked dark enough that I worried it'd be salty, but everything was seasoned mildly — I thought, this is something you could bring your parents to and they'd genuinely love it.

But the real highlight was the mustard-leaf pickle! We mixed the minced pickled mustard leaf side dish into the rice with a little wasabi on top, and its gentle tang and saltiness cut right through the eel's richness, taking the whole dish up a notch. My wife fell completely for this combo — she ended up taking my portion of the mustard-leaf pickle too and mixing it all into her own bowl. Haha. The ochazuke style was great too, but for us, the clear winner was the mustard-leaf pickle mix-in.

What does Ryeok's abalone-eel hot pot rice taste like?

Next up, my abalone-eel hot pot rice. The moment I lifted the heavy lid, a rich buttery, seafood aroma burst out. Normally with hot pot rice, the proper way is to scoop out the contents and pour in hot water to make a crispy scorched rice crust — but I got so caught up in the sight of it that I dove in and started eating right away, only remembering the proper method a bit later. 🤣

The chunky abalone had a great chewy texture, and the rich flavor of the abalone innards had soaked deeply into the rice — it felt like eating a high-quality abalone dish for the first time in a while. The eel, which seemed almost butter-grilled, was impressively tender too. The whole time I ate, I kept imagining, "is this what it'd taste like if I flew to Nagoya, Japan, the birthplace of eel rice bowls?"

The special soy sauce that came with the hot pot rice was excellent too — not overly salty, with a deep, sweet umami that felt like traditional Japanese sauce. Drizzling a bit onto the rice, then topping it with eel and fresh wasabi like sushi, made for a flavor that was refined without being overpowering, perfectly balanced. After the meal, we finished off with the cute little yogurt that came on the tray for a clean, satisfying close.

Final verdict: who should eat at Ryeok in Sangam-dong?

After much deliberation, we ended up at Ryeok Minmul Jangeogui Jeonmunjeom in Sangam-dong to help my wife recover her energy — and the eel that melted in the mouth, the mild-yet-deeply-savory sauce, and the spacious, comfortable dining room all exceeded expectations. Getting showered with compliments from my wife thanks to great food made for a very satisfying weekend date, and I got to feel proud as a husband.

Highly recommend to anyone looking for a refined, upscale restorative meal, anyone near Sangam-dong considering a place to treat their parents or host a gathering, or anyone at work searching for a solid company dinner spot!