Early-dinner Hamdeok black pork BBQ before a flight: Jeju Samchun

Where is Jeju Samchun, the Hamdeok Beach black pork restaurant?

Jeju Samchun (제주삼춘) is a black pork BBQ restaurant on Sinbuk-ro in Jocheon-eup, Jeju, less than a 5-minute walk from Hamdeok Beach. It's open every day from 12:00 to 23:00, takes Naver reservations and has baby chairs.

On our last Jeju trip, Jeju Samchun was the black pork place near Hamdeok Beach that suited my taste best.

It's under a 5-minute walk from Hamdeok Beach, so it was easy to find. I also loved the Jeju-style stone walls and the clean interior of this Jocheon black pork spot.

There are chairs set aside beside the restaurant, so you can wait comfortably if there's a line. They've laid gravel, which gives it a countryside-house feel, and it really felt like a place you'd travel to find.

Is it good for an early dinner before a flight?

Our flight home was a late one, so we came to Jeju Samchun for an early dinner. The atmosphere is nice, and it was a tidy way to eat dinner and then head to the airport.

We ordered comfortably from the table, then waited for the black pork, which they say is aged at low temperature for 300 hours and smoked over grapevine wood.

The four of us ordered the Jocha Set plus the popular Samchun kimchi stew. If you ask whether we'd pick soybean paste stew or kimchi stew, we all choose kimchi. We're serious about kimchi stew.

What side dishes and sauces come at Jeju Samchun?

The side dishes include lettuce and other wraps, scallion salad, cucumber salad, myeongran-jeot (salted pollack roe), white kimchi, seaweed and ssam-mu (pickled radish wraps). Everything is neat and tidy enough that you feel looked after, so it would be fine for bringing older relatives. All of it paired well with the meat.

There's also a variety of breadcrumbs, galchi-sokjeot (salted cutlassfish guts) and a spicy sauce, so we had fun trying different pairings with the meat.

Each personal plate came with salt, ssamjang (seasoned soybean paste) and shiitake sauce, and the shiitake sauce... it's seriously amazing! The salt brings out the natural flavor of the black pork.

I also took a photo of their fridge where the meat is aging at low temperature. Aged meat feels more tender to me, so I tend to prefer aged pork restaurants.

Jocha Set, 500g: trying both neck and pork belly

The Jocha Set (조카 세트) is 500g of neck and pork belly. It came with a cute little Dolhareubang (Jeju stone grandfather statue). My partner loves pork belly and I love neck, so ordering the set meant we could taste both.

A staff member grills the meat for you, so you can eat very comfortably. Eating out at a BBQ place with kids is usually hard, but with this grilling service we got to enjoy a relaxed dinner for the first time in a while.

Is the Samchun kimchi stew a must-order?

Samchun kimchi stew is Jeju Samchun's signature side dish, so I recommend ordering it. The well-fermented kimchi is simmered with rich broth until it's as soft as braised kimchi and tears apart in long strands.

It was packed with meat, and the spicy broth and hot Cheongyang chili made it the kind of side that makes adults call for soju. (For the record, my husband and I finished a bowl of rice with the stew.)

The cucumber salad, freshly tossed in spicy seasoning, suited my husband and me so well that we got a refill. My husband normally picks the cucumber out of his gimbap (seaweed rice roll), but he said it was delicious and ate it all himself, haha.

When and how should you eat the black pork neck?

Jeju Samchun's neck is at peak tenderness when it's about 80% cooked, so that's the moment to taste it. I wrapped it neatly in lettuce too. The thinly pickled ssam-mu isn't very sour, so with the meat it added a nice savory depth.

Steamed egg, a great side for kids' rice

We also ordered the steamed egg. It's made to order, so it's soft and moist, and it's mixed with anchovy broth so the seasoning is just right, which makes it perfect as a rice side for kids.

The roe, seaweed and shiitake sauce combo

Wrap a piece of well-grilled black pork with Jeju Samchun's special myeongran-jeot and some nutty raw seaweed, and you get the cool taste of the sea together with the clean flavor of the meat. I also ate it with the shiitake sauce, and that combination suited my taste too.

I had it with the zesty scallion salad too, and tried the meat on its own, just as it is. The roe was a combination I never expected, but my chopsticks kept going back to it. And grilled white kimchi with pork belly? Need I say more...

The pork jowl was a treat

They also grilled the pork jowl (mokdeolmi-sal), a cut you only get a little of from each pig. It was crunchy and tender at the same time, a real treat.

Atmosphere at Jeju Samchun and whether we'd return

If you sit toward the back inside, you can get an open-air yajang (outdoor drinking spot) feel. The interior was pretty and it's a good place to go with a child, so we plan to come back on our next Jeju trip :)