Daegu pork BBQ restaurant with welcome water and bag covers: Hubaldae

These days most people go looking for BBQ places that grill the meat for you, right? It's easy, and the meat gets cooked well. But this place goes one step further: you don't have to lift a finger! If you just want to sit back and enjoy your meat, this post is for you~!

Where is Hubaldae Dongdaegu Station Branch and when is it open?

Today's restaurant is Hubaldae Dongdaegu Station Branch (후발대 동대구역점), also famous as a favorite of Samsung Lions baseball players. It's within a 10-minute walk of Shinsegae Department Store at Dongdaegu Station, right in front of the Sincheon 4-dong community center.

Many Samsung Lions players have visited, including Kim Ji-chan, Choi Ji-gwang, Lee Seung-hyeon and Shin Yu-ho. The Lions are near the top of the standings lately, so I guess the players eat meat here and get fired up, haha.

Hours are daily from 17:00 to 00:30 the next day. Since it's open every day, it's a good option on public holidays too.

Bag covers, welcome water and soju pouring: service at Hubaldae

Hubaldae Dongdaegu Station Branch is different from other BBQ places from the moment you walk in. The staff greet you so brightly and happily, and there's a box beside the seat for bags and clothes. When you put your bag in, they say, "We'll cover it because of the grease," and cover it with a cloth.

They also say, "It's hot out, so let us pour you some cold water," and serve welcome water. Getting this kind of hospitality at a BBQ place made me so happy. It felt like being treated as a real guest..? There are lots more moments like this coming up, so I'll tell you about them.

Hubaldae menu: pork neck, pork belly and what we ordered

The menu is simple: domestic 1+ grade fresh pork neck and fresh pork belly, plus two offal-type items, grilled Korean beef daechang (large intestine) and grilled New Zealand yang (beef tripe), so 4 meats in all. Sides are naengmyeon (cold noodles), special ramen and special fried rice. We ordered 2 fresh pork neck, 2 fresh pork belly, a kudzu naengmyeon and soju.

Banchan (side dishes) at Hubaldae

Now for the side dishes. There's Hubaldae's signature honey butter, which the staff grill for you, plus myeongi-namul (pickled wild garlic-like greens), chili peppers, sundae (Korean blood sausage), mushrooms, wasabi and garlic.

There's also a cold kimchi soup, and the other signature: basil and angelica (danggwi)! It's quite unique here, because you grill the basil and angelica and eat them.

Another nice touch: they cut the myeongi-namul up for you so it's easy to eat! And when you order soju, they say, "We'll open the soju for you," and open it for you too,,, so sweet.

They even chop up the kimchi-jagul (sizzled kimchi) for you, and that completes the side dishes. You wrap these up with the meat later.

Here are the 2 portions of fresh pork neck and 2 of fresh pork belly. The thickness and color of the meat are so pretty, aren't they ㅠㅠ

They grill the meat over charcoal for you. The cut thickness is exactly the size I like!

3 ways to eat pork at Hubaldae: basil, angelica and honey potato wraps

There are 3 ways to enjoy Hubaldae.

• Light and clean: seasoned kimchi + fresh wasabi + meat
• Not greasy: myeongi-namul + angelica + fresh wasabi + meat
• The signature honey potato wrap: honey potato + myeongi-namul + seasoned kimchi + fresh wasabi + meat

First, the meat itself was delicious, and I followed the recommendations and tried it in lots of different ways. The honey potato isn't very sweet, just gently sweet, and the basil is the kicker! Grilling the basil makes the aroma really come out, and it was my first time eating it with pork belly, but it went together well.

• Honey butter + basil + seasoned kimchi + fresh wasabi + meat wrap
• Angelica + special sauce + meat

Eating it a different way each time felt like I was eating a whole range of different dishes, and every combination was delicious haha

Kudzu beef-bone pear naengmyeon to finish, and air freshener on the way out

Here comes the icy kudzu beef-bone pear naengmyeon (cold noodles). True to the name, it's piled with pear, and the noodles were kudzu noodles. I was a tiny bit disappointed there was no vinegar or mustard, but I still enjoyed it a lot haha

When you finish your meal and head out, a staff member comes out to spray air freshener on you. We turned round and round while they sprayed us,, I've never seen a place that does absolutely everything like this.

With such attention to detail, delicious meat and unique side dishes, there's no reason not to come to Hubaldae, right?? If you want to taste the signatures you can only get here, like basil, angelica and honey potato, and feel the touching service, come to Hubaldae Dongdaegu Station Branch~!~!