Am finally back to continue sharing my food adventure in Korea which I traveled exactly 1 year ago (in July 2017) with my crossfitters. I still have quite a bit of backlog for my Korea trip. Gasp. So besides Gyeongju, the other day trip my crossfitters and I headed from Busan was to Tongyeong; A coastal city in South Gyeongsang province that’s famous for fresh seafood, picturesque seascapes and quaint fishing village charm. So it comes with no surprise that I chose a restaurant which had great offerings for seafood when I was doing my research for our lunch venue in Tongyeong. Keke.

  

Unlike the other restaurants which we went because of Korean food show ‘Baek Jong Won’s Top 3 Chef King’, 장안해물탕 appeared on Korean variety show ‘2D1N’. Another favourite K-variety show of mine. Keke. And although the restaurant appeared on a non-food television program, our Busan guide was amazed by our selection of restaurants (again). “It’s another amazing restaurant”, he exclaimed a few times. Keke.

And from the menu, we ordered:-

1) Banchan, Complimentary (above)

  

2) 회덮밥, ‎₩12,000 (above) – We headed into the restaurant first when our guide went to park the van. And armed with pictures saved from Naver, we tried ordering by showing the staff our saved pictures. But unknown to us, we were ordering 멍게비빔밥 (bimbimbap with sea squirt). So when our guide joined us shortly, he highlighted that it contained sea squirt. An ingredient we knew we weren’t too good with. So our guide helped us to change our order to 회덮밥 which was bibimbap served with lots of vegetable and fish sashimi. Yeah. And I really enjoyed this dish a lot. A must try.

3) 활어물회, ‎₩15,000 (above) – Unlike item 2 which was a rice dish, this was a noodle dish. And the ice melted to become a sour tangy broth. Pretty interesting. And it’s only as I work on this review that I realised one could also order the other flavour (전복해울물회) which included abalone in addition to seafood. Ahhh… Wasted.

  

4) 철판해물탕, ‎₩80,000 (big) (above) – Hotpot of various seafood including octopus, squid, crab, abalone, mussels, various clams (including scallops) and vegetables. And as though it was to show customers that only the freshest ingredients were used, most of our seafood were alive prior to being cooked boiled in front of us. Yes, we watched our abalones squirming. Not for the faint-hearted.

5) 라면사리, ‎₩1000 (above) – And it’s only natural we ordered ramyeon to add into our hotpot (item 4). Keke.

Did we enjoy our lunch? Definitely! And the staff were really friendly too. Seeing that we were tourists (cause our guide left us on our own to enjoy our meal after helping us with our orders), the staff helped us with our hotpot by telling us which seafood should be eaten first and how the shellfish should be cooked longer. My only regret is that we forgot to order the seasonal sashimi platter (생선회 (막썰이회)). Sob! And do note that the restaurant only has low tables. So yes, one need to be prepared to sit on the floor. Ie, no chair.