Jongno 3-ga Korean BBQ, early dinner with Mom before 5 PM: Cham

On the day of a business trip I got off work at Seoul Station a bit earlier than usual, so I decided to meet Mom in Jongno 3-ga for a protein refill. Last Thursday's happy memory: stuffing myself with delicious meat grilled by a pro.

Where is Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch and how do you find it?

Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch (참돼짓간 종로본점) is 54 m from Exit 2-1 of Jongno 3-ga Station, on the ground floor of the Picadilly CGV cinema. It is open 12:00–23:00, there is no parking, and there is Wi-Fi.

It really is right next to Jongno 3-ga Station, a literal Jongno 3-ga pork belly spot. It was just a little hard to find for people with no sense of direction, haha. We should have checked the map and got our bearings right away, but we followed the directions blindly and hit a wall.. (Kakao Map looks convenient, but sometimes its directions are weird)

The restaurant is near the Picadilly CGV cinema, but around there it's nothing but a gold and silver shop building, so we went around in circles, haha. If you followed the map into the gold shop building, head out through the door on the side opposite the entrance. You'll see a friendly pig picture right there.

Rice-husk-smoked charcoal direct-fire grilling... I can't fully understand what that means, but my gut says it's going to be insanely good.

An early dinner spot in Jongno 3-ga with no break time

Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch opens at noon and has no break time, so it's a place where you can go for a hearty meal relatively early, which is why I picked it. There were waiting seats outside, so I guess there's usually a wait.

A Jongno 3-ga pork belly spot with a professional grilling service

And then, the interior. There are quite a few tables, and I was happy that they're spaced pretty far apart.

We came before 5, even earlier than the early dinner hour, so there was hardly anyone. People came in later, but the spacing is wide enough that it didn't feel disturbing at all.

Cham Dwaejitgan menu: Boseong green pork and black pork

The menu splits broadly into Boseong green pork (nokdon) and black pork. Since it's a pork belly place we obviously should have started with samgyeopsal (pork belly), but Mom wanted black pork, so we went with the similar black pork ogyeopsal (five-layer pork belly).

What are the 6 sauces?

The 6 sauces were set out as soon as we ordered.

Garlic, ssamjang (seasoned soybean paste) and salt are the basic sides, while the mushroom wasabi, plain wasabi and spicy sauce on top added a lot of savory punch to the meat. That spicy sauce in particular isn't overly hot, and whenever the meat gets a bit greasy(?), a bite of it makes you suddenly feel like you could eat one more serving.

Jirisan black pork ogyeopsal ₩19,000, grilled by the staff

Tender black pork ogyeopsal that melts in your mouth

Once the lettuce wraps, salad and scallion salad are ready,

a special grill topped with kimchi, bean sprouts and minari (water dropwort) is set up at the table. The Jirisan black pork ogyeopsal is ₩19,000.

I'm always most excited about the bright pink color of the meat when it's just been brought out, haha. Besides mushrooms, Cham Dwaejitgan also gives you peppers and potato slices to grill. After I took my photos with great passion, a staff member came over and started showing off the grilling service properly.

They fill the grill with mushrooms and meat,

and first cut the kimchi into bite-sized pieces. Then they patiently cook both sides just right, snip the meat into bite-sized pieces and line them up on the grill.

They said they use a handmade grill that doesn't splatter oil, and sure enough, even while grilling fatty ogyeopsal there was zero sizzling or splatter. The bite-sized pieces then get grilled a bit more,

and the finished meat is pushed over to the section with kimchi and minari where there's no charcoal, so it doesn't overcook. The potato slices stay in place on the grill where the meat was. Once cooked, the potato pieces wrapped with the meat are quite a treat.

Dipping it in salt, eating it with bean sprouts, enjoying ogyeopsal where the fat and lean were balanced and it vanished happily in my mouth. Of course, the origin of my food radar: Mom has an outstanding ability to pick delicious-looking dishes. Black pork ogyeopsal is definitely good.

How was the flower neck (Boseong green pork) at ₩16,000?

This time I ordered the flower neck (kkotmoksal, ₩16,000) from the Boseong green pork section... It was cooked just right and I enjoyed it, but it's different from the richness of ogyeopsal, of course.. I think I'd have been even more satisfied if I'd eaten the neck first and then moved on to the ogyeopsal!

Finishing with fried rice, ₩3,000

It felt too early to stop, so we ordered one more fried rice (₩3,000).

After mixing the fried rice well in the seasoning, they cleared a space in the middle and cracked an egg in. They scramble the egg right on the griddle and mix it into the fried rice for you, hahaha.

And that's not all, haha. Mom snipped up the leftover kimchi and minari too, and added just the right amount of kimchi so it wasn't salty. With our bellies stuffed tight, we walked out and hopped right onto the Jongno 3-ga Station line.

Verdict: a place with a grilling service is the best!