Ruwon City, Incheon BBQ family dinner with chicken feet: Heukdwaeji

A review of trying everything at Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul, a well-known Ruwon City black pork restaurant 🐷🔥

Wow... stuck living in Cheongna, I've barely wandered around Ruwon City (unless it's a nail shop or a dermatology clinic, I never go). I was surprised at how lively it was, more than I expected. Maybe it was extra buzzing because it was Friday night? Ruwon City's main street was packed with people of all ages. Among those spots, Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul in particular seemed to be one of the busiest, so my meat-obsessed family... went in a pack to check out the flavor.

Is it hard to get a table at Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul on a Friday evening?

Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul Gajeong Ruwon City Main Branch is a black pork grill house on Ruwon City's main commercial street in Incheon. We arrived right at dinnertime — a little later and there might have been a wait... but luckily there was a table, so we scooted right in. Haha. Guess we have good luck when it comes to food. 😋

There's a grilling station neatly set up near the entrance — whatever it's called, that's the spot in the photo!! They cook the meat right there, in full view, and somehow watching it grill made me even more excited. I love a good grilling performance 🔥🥢

What comes with the meal: mushrooms, meljeot and egg soufflé

The basic table setting at Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul includes an egg soufflé (steamed egg custard). These days, with eggs being pricier, a lot of places make you order it separately, but here it's included by default. If you want more, you'll need to order extra.

Before the meat arrives, they set the nostalgic charcoal fire up with mushrooms and meljeot (fermented anchovy sauce) to cook. One thing I noticed later about this restaurant's meljeot is that the signature funky flavor isn't too intense, so even people who can't handle strong fermented sauces might be able to try it.

Then came the meat, the meat 🥩 Before grilling, they show you the pork neck and belly we ordered so you can check the condition. Ooh... I'm fully locked in now, haha.

Pork neck and pork belly, charcoal pre-grilled by the staff

At Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul, the pork neck and pork belly are pre-grilled by staff over the charcoal and served in sequence. Pork neck came out first, and once we'd made a dent in that, the pork belly followed.

Since the pork neck has some real thickness, it takes a bit of time to cook, but that kind of thing has its own charm in the waiting. Sizzle, sizzle!!

The thick-cut pork neck went with dips of meljeot, salt, and ssamjang (dipping sauce) — dipping into whatever sauce we wanted, eating and eating some more. 🥰🍴

Once we'd worked through the pork neck a bit, the pork belly followed. Ooh... just the right amount of fat, giving it a bouncy, chewy~~~ texture. 💕

Once our stomachs were reasonably full, the lettuce wraps finally caught my eye. Haha, I spotted the steamed cabbage I love, so I wrapped and ate that too. 👌

Spicy fire chicken feet and pork skin, the sides we added

Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul has side dishes made for drinking, so we added fire chicken feet and pork skin. And that's not the end of it. Somehow eating just meat on a Friday night felt like it wasn't enough, so while flipping through the menu I spotted some drinking-friendly sides. So we ordered chicken feet and pork skin!

A feature of this place is that the side dishes also come fully cooked. The fire chicken feet weren't very spicy at all — just a mild kick, the kind even people who can't handle heat well could try. 🔥

As the staff explained before we ordered, the pork skin was a bit different from the usual kind you know. It wasn't the soft, thick, marinated-in-sauce pork skin — it was more like pork skin in its natural, unadorned form...? Worth trying if you're someone who genuinely likes real pork skin. But while every other menu item was a hit, this one was a bit of a stretch for our household's palates, spoiled as we are by processed food flavors.

🥩🔥🍲🍜 And that's how another Friday night meat party wrapped up for our family. Of course we didn't stop there — we stopped by a nearby bar afterward, too! Heh heh heh. We're eating hard these days. The diet will happen... eventually.