Myeongdong Korean BBQ dinner wait, wine salt mushrooms: Yuktongnyeong

A few days ago I was in Myeongdong for a Dior beauty class, and it felt like a waste not to make a proper trip out of it, so I met up with Mochi-gun and went to Yuktongnyeong Myeongdong Main Branch, a Myeongdong favorite, and had some seriously good pork belly — supposedly one of Seoul's top 3! Haha.

A Myeongdong Korean BBQ spot where you don't have to grill

Yuktongnyeong Myeongdong Main Branch is a Myeongdong barbecue restaurant where the staff grill all the meat for you. Myeongdong is a place foreign friends visiting Korea almost always stop by, and they always want to try good Korean pork belly — but the thing is, I can't grill meat myself, haha. I only ever eat it, never flip it, so I never know when it's done or when it's best to eat, no matter how much I look at it. It's always a bit awkward when I go to a BBQ place with friends because of this, so this Myeongdong favorite, where they comfortably grill everything for you, seemed like a great place to bring foreign friends too!

It had been a while since I'd visited Myeongdong — during the pandemic, Myeongdong basically went dead, and it felt like it was taking a piece of my memories with it, which made me a little sad. So seeing it lively again brought back all these old feelings, and it was really nice.

Yuktongnyeong Myeongdong Main Branch draws not just Korean locals like me but also plenty of tourists. It's run by one of Korea's top 3 meat masters, has appeared on various broadcasts including tvN's Wednesday Food Talk as one of Seoul's top 3 pork belly restaurants, and has been Blue Ribbon-selected for 5 years running.

The dinner wait, the seating and high chairs at Yuktongnyeong

We timed it for dinner and there were so many people... haha. We put our name down for a wait and got seated after a bit. Yuktongnyeong Myeongdong Main Branch is comfortable to visit even with a baby — high chairs are available.

Yuktongnyeong Myeongdong Main Branch

It's located near Exit 5 of Myeongdong Station, toward Shinsegae Department Store, so it wasn't far to get to even coming from Hoehyeon.

The interior wasn't huge, but the dining area with its large tables wasn't cramped, so we could eat comfortably. For our first round we ordered omija-aged black pork yukgyeopsal 150g, omija-aged Gwanggaeto black pork neck 150g, tojang stew, rice, and cider, then later added an extra portion of meat.

Six sauces and charcoal-grilled black pork

Along with the basic side dishes, the charcoal grill came out, and they set us up with a whole six sauces — wine salt, wasabi, salted shrimp, and more.

This Myeongdong favorite serves up pork belly full of charcoal aroma.

Since this Myeongdong favorite grills the meat for you, all we had to do was sit back and eat. My personal pick was the pork neck! Mochi-gun said he liked the pork belly better.

Pork belly is delicious on its own, but it's even better with sauces and side dishes, right? I feel like pork tastes even better paired with those savory, salty jangajji (pickled side dishes).

King oyster mushroom dipped in wine salt

You know how a well-grilled king oyster mushroom feels almost like scallop? Maybe that's why it went so well with the salt. This tasty mushroom was a great match dipped right into the wine salt this Myeongdong favorite prepared for us.

Tojang stew with a whole potato inside

The tojang (fermented soybean) stew took a bit longer to arrive after ordering — it came out just as we were nearly finished with the meat. I'd only recently learned that