Jongno 3-ga Korean BBQ before a play, pork neck and potato wraps: Cham

What is Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch?

Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch (참돼짓간 종로본점) is a Korean BBQ restaurant in Jongno 3-ga that uses Jirisan black pork. I had plans in Jongno on the weekend, so I stopped by! I'd been looking for a good pork belly place in Jongno, and the Jirisan black pork made me curious. It's close to Jongno 3-ga Station and lots of reviews said the meat was great, so I went in with high hopes. (La la~🫧)

It's only a few minutes' walk from Jongno 3-ga Station, so it wasn't hard to find!

Even from the front, you get a real black pork specialty vibe 🐷

Is Cham Dwaejitgan busy at a late weekend lunch? Is there a wait?

I went a bit after the weekend lunch rush, but there were still quite a lot of diners. Customers kept coming in while we ate! (There may be a wait at dinner, so I recommend booking ahead on Catch Table!)

The tables are spaced generously so it didn't feel cramped, and the ventilation is good, so the smoke wasn't heavy and the clothes-soaking BBQ smell wasn't a problem. It felt comfortable for a date, a company dinner or a family meal 😊

What we ordered at Cham Dwaejitgan

You order on the tablet at each table. This is what we got.

• Pork neck (moksal)
• Doenjang stew (soybean paste stew)
• Fried rice
• Mul naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles in broth)

Honestly, BBQ and alcohol go hand in hand… 🍻 but I was heading straight to a play after the meal, so I held back this time 🥹 I'll have to come back for a drink next time‼️

Do staff grill the Jirisan black pork neck for you?

The black pork neck was so thick it surprised me the moment it arrived. Even though it's neck meat, the marbling was nicely there, and it looked fresh before it even hit the grill 🥩

A staff member grills the meat for you, so you can just relax and eat :)

Minari and kimchi grilled in the pork fat

The staff recommended grilling minari (water dropwort) and kimchi together with the meat. The minari grilled in the pork fat was fragrant yet clean-tasting, and with well-fermented kimchi it cut the richness, so I kept reaching for more.

How do you eat potato wraps at Cham Dwaejitgan?

For the potato wrap, you top golden grilled potato with meat, pickled garlic scapes (maneuljjong jangajji) and shiitake wasabi 🥔 After the meat is all grilled, the staff grill the potatoes. It's a slightly different way of eating that they have here.

At first I thought it sounded like an unusual combo, but the mild potato brings out the flavor of the meat, and the garlic scape pickles and shiitake wasabi cut the richness, so it worked much better than I expected! If you visit, I recommend trying the potato wrap at least once 👍👍

The black pork neck was golden outside and still moist inside, so the texture was really good. It wasn't tough, it was tender, and the juices came out the more I chewed, which I loved. It's tasty with just a little wasabi, and it went well with the special sauce too.

Are the side dishes from a self-serve bar?

The basic side dishes are self-serve from the bar, so you can take as much as you need. Lettuce, perilla leaves, kimchi, bean sprouts and vegetables were neatly laid out, and it's nice that you can refill without feeling awkward.

Why we added naengmyeon, doenjang stew and fried rice

Halfway through the meat I started craving cold noodles, so I ordered mul naengmyeon right away, haha. Meat just needs mul naengmyeon, right,,

After finishing the meat, we ordered doenjang stew and fried rice too! Actually, I'd been to a café before this and said, "I'm not even hungry, let's just eat a little"…? But once we started eating, we kept adding naengmyeon, stew and fried rice 🤣 We ended up having a proper full meal.

Little extras after the meal: mouthwash, hand cream and more

There's candy and toothpicks to freshen up after eating. They even have mouthwash and hand cream out, and I was impressed by how they cared about the small details 😊