Yangju galbi restaurant, Friday night dinner for two: Manpo Garden

Hi everyone~ Today I'm sharing a Yangju galbi spot I rushed to right after moving, because I was CRAVING meat. I'd passed by this glowing restaurant in the car so many times haha, always curious, and I desperately needed a meat transfusion... so off I went!! Yay yay yay =33

Manpo Garden hours, parking and what 7pm on a Friday looks like

Manpo Garden is open daily 11:00–22:00, and there's on-site parking. Just type it into your navigation and come on over~

The day I visited it was packed packed packed!! Looked like lots of families, so I'd recommend reserving ahead~

Parking is fairly spacious, but maybe because it was Friday evening peak time (7pm), we were literally the last car that fit!

The signature dish: charcoal-grilled handmade marinated pork galbi

Manpo Garden's specialty is galbi grilled over charcoal! Handmade seasoned galbi, plus free handmade Hamhung naengmyeon — what?! There's also hanwoo (Korean beef), and apparently they only use hanwoo certified by the livestock cooperative 😋

Right next door there's a Yangju livestock co-op meat shop, so I browsed the meat while I waited haha. The quality looked amazing and the prices were decent too — with Chuseok coming up, I thought about getting some as a gift!

Inside Manpo Garden: the room and the seating

The place is huge but still packed! Nice and cool with generous table spacing!! Perfect for company dinners or family gatherings. Every table, whatever the age group, had at least 4 people sitting~

We came as a party of two, and they cleared out a quieter, better spot for us at another table, even though we could've sat anywhere!! Really appreciated that 😢 Also, for a BBQ place, there was no heavy meat smell and not much smoke either!! Felt clean and comfortable, which I loved even more.

More meat-browsing while waiting~ haha. The gift sets included not just cuts but galbitang (rib soup) too, nice!! Now I'm curious about the galbitang too!!

As soon as we sat down, the banchan appeared right away! I'll write more below, but I was shocked at the quality haha. Order via the kiosk~

Are Manpo Garden's private rooms good for group dinners?

There were quite a few private rooms, and peeking inside, the tables were wide enough that a large group wouldn't be a problem! It can get loud out in the hall, so if conversation matters, booking a room ahead might be a good idea~

We ordered 4 servings of handmade Hanju pork galbi, rice, handmade Hamhung naengmyeon (free), and chadol doenjang stew~ The fact that the naengmyeon is free... I'm someone who always skips rice but always orders naengmyeon with BBQ, so I was thrilled..♡ Two of us ate ourselves stuffed stuffed stuffed!

What's on the Manpo Garden menu

Manpo Garden's menu board has quite a variety! Not just handmade Hanju galbi but pork belly, pork shoulder, gabrisal (pork skirt), hangjeongsal (pork jowl), Hanju charcoal bulgogi, hanwoo sirloin, tenderloin, and bucheotsal (flat iron)!

The lunch special is unbelievable — pork galbi + naengmyeon + doenjang sulbap (rice with doenjang broth), whoa. With naengmyeon, yukhoe bibimbap, galbitang, and ppyeogaejang (bone soup) too, there's more than enough on the meal menu — I want to come back for lunch next time!

The banchan include yukhoe and yukjeon

They gave us a mountain of onions from the start, which I loved haha~ made into pickled onion~

Yukhoe came out as a banchan!!? I'd been debating whether to order yukhoe separately, but yay! Salad and yukjeon with a dressed sauce too~ Really tasty and just seasoned right, perfect for warming up the stomach haha.

Eating galbi nonstop can get tiring, but there were so many side dishes to go with the meat that it never got old — just kept disappearing!! Especially that spicy doenjang chili relish? The chili was super refreshing and not too spicy, so I kept picking at it haha.

Not sure what kind of namul it was, but it had a bitter, fragrant aroma that was totally my type~

Grilling 4 servings of pork galbi with chadol doenjang stew

The meat finally arrived~!! Sizzling~ It'd been so long since I had galbi, I was nervous with excitement;

Part of the small joy of eating galbi is grabbing the bone and gnawing at it right ㅎ0ㅎ am I the only one who loves that? I like that part, so they made sure to put it up front for me.

Right as it was cooking, the chadol doenjang stew arrived with perfect timing! It was a slightly cheonggukjang-style (fermented soybean) doenjang stew, so it had a deep savory flavor, and there was so much chadol in it, so tasty!

Since the sauce burns easily, they changed the grill plate often too, and quickly without me having to ask~! Some places give you the side-eye about that; those I never go back to.

Ate it the classic galbi way~ Never used to eat onions my whole life, but now that I'm a bit older, onions taste good haha.

Free Hamhung naengmyeon: cold-broth or bibim style

The complimentary naengmyeon lets you choose mul-naengmyeon (water) or bibim (mixed)! I went bibim, and the noodles were super thin, with a spicy-sweet sauce, and I ate it all mixed in with the meat~

Please squint past the slightly charred bits.. haha. What's great about this galbi's marinade is that if it's too sweet, the first few bites are delicious but then it gets tiring. Manpo Garden's isn't too sweet, so it never got old! Just right! I could eat the galbi alone without getting tired of it!

Now it's time to grab the bones and gnaw~ There were 5-6 pieces across the 4 servings, and I think we finished them all haha. Even when I like meat, if it's chewy I can't eat it, but this was super tender and came right off the bone — just grab and strip it clean.

Golden brown, clearly stuffed to the brim, and I thought I wouldn't think about galbi for a while... but looking at these photos, I want it again.

Dessert at Manpo Garden: iced coffee, affogato and soft-serve on a rice cracker

Next to the register there are ice cups — grab one and they'll pour coffee over it, iced coffee~! But then...

There's soft-serve too, so topping the coffee with it makes an affogato~! But then...

There's also ppeongtwigi (puffed rice cracker), so putting soft-serve on top of that makes a 'ppeongscream'~ hahaha. Even dessert is perfect at Manpo Garden.. There's clearly a reason so many babies are here. Both grandparents and little kids would be happy coming here haha.