Seoul Korean BBQ for a wedding invite dinner at Balsan: Chamdwaejitgan

• 📍Address: 247 Gonghang-daero, 1F 115-B, 116, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, South Korea (Queens Park 9 Building C)
• 🕐Hours: 16:00-02:30
• 🅿️Parking: Free parking at Queens Park 9 Building C

Why I chose Chamdwaejitgan Magok Branch for a wedding invitation meetup

Chamdwaejitgan Magok Branch is a pork belly place near Balsan Station where the staff grill the meat for you, which is why I picked it for my wedding invitation meetup. I'm getting married in October, so I've been doing these meetups (called cheongmo in Korean) for a while now. Today's was near Balsan Station, so I searched for good pork belly spots around there. A place that grills for you is so much easier for a cheongmo, so I went to Chamdwaejitgan Magok Branch.

Parking, directions and corkage at Chamdwaejitgan Magok Branch

Chamdwaejitgan Magok Branch has free parking inside the building (Queens Park 9 Building C), and it's 90m from Balsan Station. I think it's great for people coming by car, and I came by subway and liked that I didn't have to walk far.

*I heard corkage is free, so if you're visiting, you might want to bring your own bottle too*

Can you go without a reservation? Ordering and the review event

I went to Chamdwaejitgan Magok Branch without a reservation and the seats filled up quickly, so I'd recommend calling ahead to ask about a table. Every table has a tablet, which made ordering easy. There's also a review event with free fried rice, so definitely join in.

Chamdwaejitgan Magok Branch says it smokes its meat with top-grade charcoal and domestic rice husks, which gives the pork plenty of juice and a deep flavor of its own. It's set up so customers can see this for themselves, which made me trust the place more.

Sauces and side dishes at Chamdwaejitgan Magok Branch

The basic sauces at Chamdwaejitgan Magok Branch were spicy sauce, wasabi, mushroom wasabi, ssamjang (seasoned soybean paste), garlic and salt. The mushroom wasabi went best with the meat. With so many sauces and sides, it was fun to make my own combinations✨

They put kimchi, bean sprouts and minari (water dropwort) right on the grill, and they're sides that obviously go with the meat, so my mouth was watering. Except for the minari, everything is refillable at the self-serve bar, which I loved. They also gave us a simple salad and shredded scallions. It's hard to see in the photo, but there are pickled garlic scapes too, and they paired really well.

We were planning to drink, and they handed us milk thistle, which was so nice. Little considerations from the owner like this really touch customers~

What we ordered at the meetup, and prices

At Chamdwaejitgan Magok Branch we started with 2 portions of black pork belly (skin-on) and 1 portion of Boseong green-tea-fed pork belly. They say the black pork is Jirisan black pork, and the quality looked good right away. Here's what I ordered.

• Black pork belly (skin-on) ₩19,000 × 2
• Boseong green-tea-fed pork belly ₩16,000
• Chamisul soju ₩5,000
• Beer ₩5,000
• Doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) ₩6,000
• Mul naengmyeon (cold noodles) ₩7,000
• Rice ₩1,000

Staff-grilled meat made the wedding invitation meetup easy

The owner at Chamdwaejitgan Magok Branch grills everything for you, which was really convenient. I end up at a lot of BBQ places for cheongmo, and having someone grill for you is always easier. The charcoal and rice-husk aroma soaks right into the meat, so it passes on looks alone! They even cut the minari and kimchi into bite-size pieces.

The pork belly and skin-on pork belly come lined up neatly. Maybe because of the specially made grill, the oil didn't splatter, which I liked. They cut it into perfect bite-size pieces and set the finished ones aside. I took a bite just as the juices rose, and it was so good.

Recommended way to eat: mushroom wasabi on potato

At Chamdwaejitgan Magok Branch they also grill the potatoes served alongside, and they recommended topping them with mushroom wasabi. I like making my own wraps, and that was tasty, but wrapping the meat in the potato was tasty too. They also mixed our somaek (soju and beer) nice and cold, so the drinks just kept going down.

Doenjang jjigae, mul naengmyeon and thoughtful touches

Afterward we ordered doenjang jjigae and mul naengmyeon at Chamdwaejitgan Magok Branch, and can you believe I forgot to take photos? I highly recommend the doenjang jjigae. The naengmyeon was also good for refreshing the mouth as a dessert.

The restroom has dental floss and mouthwash, and at checkout I saw they also had mints and Febreze, so I loved how considerate they are toward customers♥️