Gwangsan eel restaurant lunch special: Yuil Jangeo

Location and parking at Yuil Jangeo in Pyeong-dong, Gwangju

Today, I went to Yuil Jangeo, a great eel spot in Gwangju, for a little nourishing meal for the first time in ages! The weather had turned nice and cool, and I had really been craving eel haha. So I made a little outing of it and headed to Yuil Jangeo in Pyeong-dong.

It is at 365-11 Bokryong-dong, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, and it is open from 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM. There is a large parking lot behind the restaurant.

It is in the Pyeong-dong area, and maybe because it was the weekend, it was absolutely packed! There was even a wait. For reference, you can use parking spaces from the front of the restaurant all the way to the back, so there is plenty of room. Haha, no need to worry about parking!!

The tables and how you choose your eel

There are 13 generously spaced tables. Even though the restaurant is huge, it is so well maintained that it felt really pleasant and comfortable.

When you go out for eel, you are usually used to looking at a menu and ordering, but this place was a little different!!! You pick out the eel you want to eat directly from the counter and pay for it, then grill the par-cooked eel at your table! So fascinating!! Hahaha.

Picking the eel was fun in itself, and there was aged eel too, so it was interesting just to look at. Waiting to see how the eel I chose would arrive was secretly pretty fun too hahaha.

The lunch special and one whole eel

We ordered the lunch special and one whole eel. The side dishes came out like this, and there is also a self-serve bar, so you can help yourself to more if you run short. Haha.

By the way, the baechu kimchi (napa cabbage kimchi) was seriously so good. Haha, I refilled it four times. Hahahahaha, kimchi monster over here...

How much longer should par-cooked eel be grilled?

First, let’s grill the eel! Since it is already par-cooked, you only need to grill it a little longer until golden brown, but the nutty smell that rose up as it cooked was honestly insane... 🥹 Waiting for it to finish was so hard.ㅠ Hahahahaha.

Eel really is best eaten right away while it is warm, haha. Maybe because it had been so long since I last had it, it tasted even better.

The eel set available from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM

And the lunch special can only be ordered from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM! It comes as an eel set with sauced grilled eel, eel soup, and side dishes. Isn’t that a pretty excellent spread for ₩15,000?!??? Since the price was low, I thought the portion of sauced eel would be tiny, but wow, it came out really, truly generous.

You get to have eel and eel soup too, so I think it is the perfect kind of meal to fill you up at lunch, haha.

The sauced grilled eel seasoning that stays on your mind

Also, the seasoning on the sauced grilled eel was really, really, really delicious;; It is a sweet teriyaki-style sauce, but somehow it tastes different from the usual sauce on seasoned eel;;; This was seriously amazing...

It was sweet and went incredibly well with the eel—one of those flavors where the sauce itself keeps coming to mind...? Usually, when I eat sauced eel, I do not like it when the sauce is so strong that it buries the eel, but here the eel’s nutty flavor and the sauce worked so, so well together 🥹

The eel soup that came with it was delicious too. It was my first time trying eel soup, and it was so nutty and just right! Mixed with rice, it was absolutely the best. Haha, one spoonful of soup followed by a piece of sauced grilled eel—there could not be a more filling lunch hahaha.

So much food.... the best....!!! We are big eaters, so we had both the special and the eel, but if you have a smaller appetite, I recommend choosing just one of the two!!! Even for us big eaters, it was a bit much. Haha.

Grilled until golden, it was so nutty and clean-tasting that I kept reaching for more.

Overall, Yuil Jangeo in Gwangju was a great place for a filling meal: choosing your own eel was fun, and there is also a lunch special built around an eel set during lunchtime! The sauce on the grilled eel especially still stays with me... I need to come back for it. Hahaha.