What is one thing you must do if you visit Korea? Korean BBQ, of course!
When we asked our friends (who come here a lot) where to eat, they quickly mentioned various BBQ places, like Born and Bred for Hanwoo beef Korean barbecue, and Geumdwaeji Sikdang (which they just called "Gold Pig", (the literal translation), for pork Korean barbecue.
Imagine, sitting at a grill and watching grill experts prepare various cuts of pork for you in all these different ways. (I'm starting to salivate just looking at this photo.)
This place is super, super popular. Often lauded as one of the top 3 pork restaurants in Seoul, it holds a Michelin bib gourmand, is on the World's 50 Best Discovery list, and takes no reservations. The restaurant serves various premium grade cuts of YBD pig, a hybrid breed that crosses Yorkshire, Berkshire, and Duroc pigs.
The lines get longer and longer as the day goes on, so it's best to arrive early to put your name down. There is a machine right outside the door where you can register, collect a number, and come back once your number is called. You can follow the progress of the line on your mobile phone.
We went about an hour before opening to collect a number so that we could make the first seating.
There's not THAT much to do in the surrounding neighborhood, but we wandered around, walked into some random shops to pass the time. Thankfully, the weather was nice!
And then it was time for PORK!
Each table comes with its own "fume hood", grill, and plenty of space for food!
It's a bit overwhelming, but also SO MUCH FUN. It's nice that they have chefs who come by and cook the meat for you, since I definitely didn't have much experience in this.
Lovely pork belly slices, leeks, and garlic!
The meat is super juicy, flavorful, and just soooo satisfying.
The side dishes are great as well, and we definitely enjoyed the kimchi and various other pickled vegetables.
The grilled leek was insanely soft.
The chef taught us to wrap the pork inside the leek.
Yum!
Make Your Own Lettuce Wraps
And we could also make lettuce wraps!
I loved mixing the Korean shiso perilla leaf with the lettuce, which added such a nice, floral flavor.
Korean oyster mushrooms for some veg!
Spicy Ramen
Near the end, the chef asked if we were ready for noodles, and of course we said YES! The broth looks very spicy but it was actually OK.
The noodles had a nice "Q" texture, and this was great as well, though I was getting full at this point.
A Very Porky Dessert
But our friends had told us we HAD to get the dessert, which is ALSO made of pork. Yep, it's a huge pork skin that is slowly cooked for a long time until it becomes chewy, sort of like mochi.
It definitely takes patience to make this!
I was definitely glad the experts were cooking this for us. It's hard to deal with fatty things, which can flame up sometimes too.
When the pieces were finally done, the chef explained that we should dip the pork skins into the sweet soy sauce and kinako powder (soy bean powder.
This really sort of reminds me of Japanese savory mochi, which can be served either with a sweet soy sauce or kinako powder.
This was pretty tasty and I ate a lot of pieces!
Yes, There are Bibs
Haha, it's a good thing they give us bibs, because eating Korean BBQ is not exactly the most elegant of experiences. There's quite a bit of smoke, eating with your hands, getting hot suace splashed all over you (those noodles can be slipper). Perhaps not the best for a first date or business meeting if you need to be serious. But it's super fun for an outing with good friends or your other half.
All in all, I loved this place
All in all, I highly, highly recommend this place. It certainly is in the running for one of my favorite meals from our Seoul trip. The food is fantastic; the environment is casual and fun; and I love how local it feels. There's no question why this place is sooooo popular, and they don't need to take reservations at all. The people are willing to wait in line, and they will come.
Geumdwaeji Sikdang (Gold Pig)
149 Dasan-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul
