Hongdae BBQ patio with a camping zone and 9,900-won tacos: Locos BBQ

Since I'm from the countryside, whenever I come play in Seoul I tend to seek out new restaurants that aren't easy to find back home — and honestly, today's restaurant serves a menu that's rare even in Seoul itself... so how could I resist?? I made a reservation right away and went for lunch!

The two of us basically can't survive without meat lol, meat lovers ♥, and I thought this restaurant's menu was just perfectly optimized for us. Even people who dislike meat because of gamey smell? I don't think you'd catch even a hint of it here. Why? Because the meat is smoked over oak for 14 hours!! Here's today's restaurant review-★

Locos BBQ Sangsu Branch: location, hours and parking

📍Location: 25 Dokmak-ro 14-gil, 1st floor, Mapo-gu, Seoul (near Sangsu Station) 📍Hours: 11:30 - 22:00 (weekends: until 22:30) / Closed every Monday 📍Restroom: unisex, inside the store 📍Parking: X. Use a nearby public lot Takeout, delivery, and venue rental all available

There's no parking supported by the restaurant, nor is the building set up so you can park around it. (It's a standalone building, but no lot.) There's a nearby public parking lot the restaurant recommends, which I'll attach here too!

What the exterior and first-floor camping zone feel like

Let me show you the exterior first! Honestly, around Sangsu Station, Hapjeong, and Hongdae you tend to see more emotive standalone café buildings than restaurant ones — but even though this is a restaurant near a station, from far away you can immediately tell, it's Locos BBQ lol. The building is huge and really clean. White and gleaming!!!!

Wow... this entire spacious building is all Locos BBQ. Maybe that's why venue rental is also available!

But more than anything, I was so, so, so envious of that camping zone on the 1st floor lol. Sitting there at night or on a cool afternoon with a beer and barbecue — isn't that basically paradise...

Locos BBQ is a restaurant built around premium meats slow-smoked over a long time! So you can taste things you'd normally only see on TV — pulled pork, brisket, pork belly, spare ribs — via a variety of barbecue platters!

Second-floor indoor seating and group tables at Locos BBQ

The owner is up on the 2nd floor, so you can just head straight up! The 1st floor runs as the outdoor terrace + camping zone, and the 2nd floor is the indoor dining space.

Isn't the restaurant really spacious?! The ceiling height felt very tall, and the tables were spaced far apart, making it really comfortable to use.

I sat by the window. I could see people passing right below haha.

There's a small dividing wall about halfway through, and once you cross past it there's another space — with group tables where more people can eat together! I recorded a video of the overall vibe and seating, hope it's helpful!

And then... such a fascinating space!!!! I went to check out the restroom, wondering what it would look like, and a totally surprising secret spot appeared! Following the stairs down to the 1st floor like this leads to the restroom, and right next to the restroom is the place you saw earlier!

It connects straight to the outdoor terrace + camping ground! Such a unique layout, right?? Haha. Looking at it again, the camping ground is decorated so beautifully. This owner is truly serious about barbecue...

Self-serve bar and the free house-made nachos

Back at the table, the owner told us that utensils, wet wipes, and water are self-serve at the self bar. So I went to check it out: water, house-made nachos, disposable gloves, forks and knives, wet wipes, napkins, and small plates were all there.

You could take as many small plates as you needed, so after ordering food we grabbed them at our leisure.

Wow... these nachos (given free) were so good I think I went back for more like four times lol. I already love nachos, but the owner fries them in-house and even nails the seasoning! It had that movie-theater popcorn salt-flavor vibe, which is totally my taste ♥ (I'm someone who only eats original salted popcorn~)

Honestly, this flavor would crush every store-bought nacho out there... godly.

What we ordered and what it cost: 9,900-won tacos, 49,000-won sampler

Here's the menu! You order via the individual tablet on the table. Actually, I'd been craving tacos and was looking for a taco place in Hongdae when I found this place! So I ordered the tacos I was curious about along with the sampler. They also sell a lunch special just to sample during lunch hours, so this seems like a great spot to come to if you want BBQ meat at lunchtime.

🌮Tacos: ₩9,900 🍖Locos BBQ 2-person sampler: ₩49,000 🍻1+1 Stella draft beer: ₩9,000 ※I visited at noon for lunch : )

Turns out Stella draft is on a 1+1 promotion for September only~! Meaning it's all mine, hahaha 😂😂 Plus there's a free beer with outdoor terrace seating, and if you come after 8pm your first beer is only ₩990! It pairs so well with draft beer, so it's worth considering : )

Aah... the beer came out right after ordering!💛 Being Stella draft, it was even smoother and crisper — and since I'd just come from a busy morning of escape rooms lol, I was so thirsty, and drinking it cold made me so happy haha.

What comes in the Locos BBQ 2-person sampler

Right after, the sampler I ordered arrived! It's a 2-person set made up of pulled pork, brisket, pork belly, and spare ribs. On top of that, sides like grilled corn, smashed potatoes, pickles, jalapeños, tortillas, dinner rolls, coleslaw, baked beans, and salad all came along too, plenty to go with the meat!

[A breakdown by cut!] 🥩Pulled pork: pork shoulder smoked over oak for 14 hours 🥓Pork belly: whole pork belly smoked over oak for 7 hours 🍖Spare ribs: pork front ribs smoked for 6 hours with a special sauce 🥩Brisket: fat-free flat-cut brisket smoked over oak for 14 hours

Wow... so hearty, so satisfying!!! All the meats are smoked in-house by the owner, so basically figure they're smoked anywhere from 6 to 14 hours.

With the tortillas and dinner rolls that came alongside, the idea is to first taste the meats on their own a little, then build your own combo in the bread like a burger or taco!

Hehe, I was curious about the tacos too so I ordered them — unlike the sampler, the tacos have a lot of tomato and lettuce on top, so they taste super fresh and really wake up your palate. Wow, this I recommend!!

Starting with the spare ribs: taste and sauce pairings

Now let's really dig into the sampler, shall we? The owner recommended trying the spare ribs first while they're warm. Spare ribs are the ones at the very front that look like baby back ribs.

Wow... I picked one up and the size, lol, was seriously huge and substantial! Since it's been cooked over fire for 6 hours of smoking, it wasn't dry at all — the meat slid right off the bone, moist and tender.

There were sauces set right next to each table to go with the meat, and personally I found that soaking the bottom of a dinner roll generously with Tabasco sauce, then putting meat on top, was sooooooooo good!!! My partner preferred the sweet BBQ sauce and mostly ate the meat with that instead.

Be sure to add salad along with the meat between the dinner rolls too!!! So crisp, genuinely so tasty...;;;; And when you split the smashed potato fries in half and add those too? I just about passed out;;; ah, I want to eat this again...

This is the taco I ordered as the base!

After finishing the taco, I personally made my own taco using the tortilla haha. Cutting up the grilled corn with a knife and adding it in gave a fun popping texture and was delicious!

This is the grilled corn! Sweet, and as someone who loves corn, an absolute best snack haha

: ) 😊 So stuffed (kind of made a face out of the bones haha)

Around 20,000 won per person: is Locos BBQ worth it?

Honestly, as I noted above, meats like pulled pork, brisket, pork belly, and spare ribs are dishes that take a basic 6 to 14 hours of smoking, so that's a lot of care and time going in ✌🏻 Probably because of that — and because they're genuinely difficult to make — there aren't that many restaurants doing this, and I know a few have even appeared on food shows ✨

Thinking of it per person, ₩20,000-something is incredible value considering the effort that goes into making this food!! (Even after eating it, that's exactly what I thought.) It's a menu that's genuinely hard to find elsewhere, so if you're someone who loves meat, I'd truly, strongly, strongly recommend it ♥