Homemade doenjang sulbap and steamed egg at Dongtan BBQ: Gogigaondang

Lately my husband and I have been having so much fun hunting for new BBQ spots in Dongtan. This time we really hit the jackpot. It's Gogigaondang Dongtan Branch (고기가온당 동탄본점) in Bansong-dong!

We reserved ahead, and the moment we walked in, a staff member said, "You're Soo, right?" and led us straight to a table that was already neatly set up. That was shock number one. Then they grilled the meat for us — shock number two. Then the taste hit — shock number three. It was basically a flood of tears that day, haha.

We ordered ogyeopsal (pork belly), homemade doenjang sulbap (rice cooked with soybean paste), and gyeranjjim (steamed egg).

Gogigaondang Dongtan Branch: location, parking and why to reserve

Gogigaondang sits near Gaenari Park in Bansong-dong, Dongtan. There's parking right in front, and the interior is spacious enough that it seemed like a good spot for family dinners or work gatherings.

Most of all, since we reserved ahead, our table was already neatly prepared when we arrived. It sounds like such a small thing, but it genuinely made me happy.

Handmade banchan at Gogigaondang, down to the soybean paste

The moment we looked at the table, the side dishes caught our eye. Myeongi-namul (mountain garlic leaves), pickles, kimchi, ssamjang — such a variety, and apparently most of it is homemade.

Wait a second. Myeongi-namul and pickles, sure, but they even make their own soybean paste? That's when I started to sense this place was no joke.

What pork does Gogigaondang use for its ogyeopsal?

I asked the owner which meat was tastiest these days, and ended up getting a full rundown on their pork.

Gogigaondang uses herb-fed pork, and they told us they specifically source from farms with well-managed raising environments and facilities. Listening to them, it didn't feel like they just bring in meat and sell it — it felt like they have real standards for choosing good meat. Wow, these people are serious about their pork.

They put the thick-cut ogyeopsal on the cauldron lid, and the sizzle alone was already a win. On top of that, the staff grilled it for us themselves. All I had to do was wait and eat!

The outside was golden brown, the inside juicy, the fat savory, and the skin part chewy — my husband and I locked eyes after the very first bite.

"This is good, right?"

And after that, the conversation basically repeated itself. "Wow, this is good." "This is seriously good." "No really, this is so good." We just cycled through those three lines the whole meal.

If it were just the meat, I wouldn't be making this much of a fuss.

House-made kimchi grilled on the cauldron lid

The side dishes were seriously crazy good. Especially the kimchi! You know how Koreans can just tell — the second you see it, whether it's factory-made or homemade kimchi. This had the look of proper, carefully made kimjang kimchi.

Grilled on the cauldron lid in the pork fat, the slightly cooked kimchi's tang met the savory ogyeopsal and it was game over. It was delicious wrapped in myeongi-namul, dipped in the homemade ssamjang, or paired with the pickles too.

The side dishes weren't sharply seasoned — instead, eaten together with the meat, they seemed to bring out each other's flavors, so my hand kept reaching over. After tasting it, I immediately understood why the owner makes even the banchan by hand.

Homemade doenjang sulbap and steamed egg: the real surprise

There's one menu item I quietly pay attention to whenever I go to a BBQ place: sulbap (rice cooked in the pot after grilling).

For me, one bite of the sulbap tells me whether a place is truly good. The moment I had a spoonful of Gogigaondang's homemade doenjang sulbap, I silently shouted: mi-mi (delicious, delicious)! The doenjang's savory depth was rich but never too salty or sharp, and eaten together with the rice, my spoon just kept going back for more.

In the end I couldn't help but ask the owner, quietly.

"By any chance... do you sell this soybean paste?"

The answer: no luck. They said they don't sell it separately yet, but if production increases, they might sell it someday. But how am I supposed to wait until then? Sob.

The gyeranjjim was also fluffy and mild, great for cleansing the palate in between bites. A bite of ogyeopsal, a bite of kimchi, a spoonful of sulbap, a bite of gyeranjjim — before we knew it, the table was completely empty.

Would we go back to Gogigaondang Dongtan Branch?

Gogigaondang is a place where my husband and I kept saying, "we finally found our spot," the whole time we ate — the first time in a while. We were moved by the carefully prepared table when we walked in after reserving, moved by the staff grilling the meat for us, moved by the taste of the ogyeopsal, and moved all over again by the homemade banchan and sulbap!

Hearing the story behind their standards for choosing good meat, and how they make their own kimchi and even their own doenjang, made it clear why so much care goes into every single dish. If you're looking for a cauldron-lid BBQ place in Dongtan or a good restaurant in Bansong-dong, Gogigaondang is somewhere we'd love to go back to. We spent the whole meal just repeating "this is good, this is really good" and walked out happy. Next time we want to try other cuts of meat, and sneak in another question about whether they've started selling that soybean paste.