Goseong Korean BBQ with pollock naengmyeon: Yongchon Gogi-jip

Our lodging made this a Sokcho trip, but Goseong is not far away either, so it feels nice not to draw a boundary and just pop into whichever good restaurants or cafés we want to visit!

Yongchon Gogi-jip (용촌고기집) is in Goseong near Sokcho, so I recommend it as a Korean BBQ spot to stop by during a Sokcho trip.

Entering this Goseong Korean BBQ restaurant after break time

It is a two-story building, though the restaurant operates on the first floor. Their break time runs until 5:00 PM, and there were guests waiting for it to end. We arrived right at 5, so they started letting people in!

The restaurant was really clean, and it has private rooms as well. If you are traveling with a large family or gathering with a group, it seems wise to reserve ahead and secure a table.

Lots of people visiting with children were there too, and since this is known for pork ribs, I think kids would enjoy it as well!

Yongchon Gogi-jip menu and our order

Menu

• Mains: hand-butterflied pork ribs 250g ₩18,000; fresh pork belly 200g ₩18,000
• Meals: fresh-meat kimchi stew ₩10,000; dried-radish-leaf doenjang stew ₩10,000; pollock sashimi naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles) in water or spicy mixed style ₩10,000
• Desserts: doenjang sulbap (soybean-paste rice soup) ₩8,000; doenjang stew ₩3,000; steamed egg ₩4,000; pollock sashimi naengmyeon in water or spicy mixed style ₩6,000
• Alcohol and drinks: soju or beer ₩4,000; Cheongha ₩5,000; soft drinks ₩2,000

The fresh ribs looked good too, but pork belly and fresh meat can be delicious anywhere with good-quality meat, so we decided to try the hand-butterflied pork ribs :) When we ordered Zero Cola, they served a 500ml bottle rather than a can.

The charcoal went on first, and they were warming the grill a little. Since break time had just ended, guests suddenly poured in, so they looked incredibly busy. It is a Korean BBQ restaurant, after all, and there are lots of customer requests too..

Fresh wraps and side dishes

All kinds of side dishes and ssam (leaf wraps). Everything was truly fresh, and every single side dish was tasty. I even packed vegetable juice because I was worried I would not eat many vegetables on the trip, but this ended up being the day I ate more vegetables than ever.

They served finely shredded cabbage in a soy-based sauce individually, so you can pile meat on top and eat it.

500g of pork ribs. They say they use only top-grade Korean pork.

Dessert doenjang stew. Perhaps because it was made with their own homemade doenjang (fermented soybean paste), it tasted so clean, with plenty of potatoes and assorted vegetables.

Steamed egg served on the house!

Such a generous spread. We ordered a bowl of rice too, but they said it was still cooking, so we decided to start with the meat!

How the hand-butterflied pork ribs tasted

The meat grilled up beautifully. These ribs were much tastier than the ones we had at a famous place for my aunt's birthday last time. My husband said so too..!

Keeping the cooked meat around the edge and grilling continuously so we would not run out of meat.. haha

The flames suddenly flared up in the middle and the grill got scorched. They changed the grill from time to time too, so we could cook everything well without burning it.

I do not usually eat ssam much, but the wraps tasted remarkably sweet at Yongchon Gogi-jip. Not only the wraps, but the seasoned scallions, pickled onions, and all the other side dishes were delicious too 😋

Finishing with pollock sashimi naengmyeon

We had nearly finished the meat while the rice was cooking, so we ordered one dessert naengmyeon first.

As a dessert portion, it was about half a serving, but because it was pollock sashimi naengmyeon, it did not taste plain even without meat!

Eating the pork ribs, pollock sashimi, and naengmyeon together like a samhap (three-part combination) made another kind of samhap. We were full without eating the rice, so we told them the rice was okay! Even just making wraps without rice, we ate so deliciously and well :)

It already seemed to be famous as a Goseong dining spot—there were guests waiting by the time we left.

It was also a place where you could finish with coffee on the way out.

Yongchon Gogi-jip allows waitlist registration through Tableing.