Balsan Station pork galbi with kiosk wasabi add-ons: Ihwajeong

An honest review of Ihwajeong Galbi Myeongga, the pork rib spot near Balsan Station I visited because I was craving meat. Let's go.

Where Ihwajeong Galbi Myeongga Magok-Balsan Branch is and when it opens

Ihwajeong Galbi Myeongga, a pork rib restaurant near Balsan Station

• 🏠Address: 42 Gangseo-ro 54-gil, 1st floor, Unit 1, Gangseo-gu, Seoul
• ⏰Hours: Mon-Sun 11:00-22:00 (last order 20:30)
• Chuseok holidays 24th (Thu)-26th (Sat) 11:00-22:00
• 📍No break time, open 365 days
• 🚗Parking: private parking lot available

Tiled entrance and private rooms: what the interior feels like

Ihwajeong Galbi Myeongga Magok-Balsan Branch had a gorgeous look from the entrance — traditional tiled roofing with a full glass wall on one side. And the inside was even fancier!!! Haha.

There's a patent certificate proudly displayed right at the entrance!! Looks like they got a patent for making a marinade with pear.

The interior was really spacious and the tables had plenty of room too.

On the way to find the bathroom I spotted a room. There were a few more like it, and the inside was genuinely spacious and comfortable. Good spot if you're near Magok for a family gathering or looking for a restaurant with private rooms?!

Marinated pork ribs for two, 600g, 46,000 won, with 10,000 won corkage

The menu looked like this, and these two sets seemed to be the signature push, but we were craving pork ribs so we ordered pork ribs for two!

📍Pork marinated ribs for two (600g) ₩46,000

They have a lot of drink options too, and corkage is allowed, which is great. The corkage fee is only ₩10,000. While we were eating, another table had brought their own wine for corkage, and staff even set up wine glasses for them. If there's a drink you're craving, paying ₩10,000 for corkage is highly recommended 👍🏻

There's a little review event running too, so if you want a free drink, joining the review event might be worth it.

What side dishes come with the galbi

Even the basic table setting paper mentions the organic pear patent thing. While I was looking around, the side dishes made their entrance.

They seemed simple but each had its own thing going on — genuinely tasty side dishes. Even tasting them before the meat arrived, the seasoning felt like it would pair perfectly with the ribs.

This one in particular is a guaranteed refill, and the fact that they stick purple sweet potato chips into it as a garnish shows how much care they put into even a single side dish — it made me feel extra pampered! Haha.

Pork ribs basted with pear juice and grilled by staff

And then our ribs arrived 🤎 Before grilling, the staff poured something from a bowl all over the meat, so I asked what it was — turns out it was pear juice! After all that pear talk, they really did drizzle pear juice all around before grilling.

These days real life is exhausting enough that I've started gravitating toward restaurants where staff grill the meat for you, and here too the staff kept grilling from start to finish, so it was nice to eat comfortably. Haha.

Since there was a lot of meat, they split it into portions and set some aside, grilled a bit first, then came back to grill the rest — keeping the flow going so we could keep eating without interruption.

Our pork ribs, grilled beautifully to a nice finish.

Adding ssamjang with garlic and wasabi with salt from the kiosk

Ihwajeong Galbi Myeongga's kiosk request list had an option to add ssamjang-garlic and wasabi-salt, so I tried it out. I forgot to take a photo right after adding it and ended up snapping it mid-meal, haha.

With so many side dishes, you can try the meat in all kinds of combos~ The meat was cleaner-tasting than expected, and since the side dishes had a slightly bolder seasoning, eating them together with the meat was fantastic. The tastiest was the trio of jangajji (soy-pickled vegetables) side dish, but I ate it up too fast to photograph it, haha.

How is the mul-naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles)?

You can't have galbi without naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles), right? Ordered it right away~

I wanted to drink the broth so I got mul-naengmyeon (cold noodle soup), and it came with floating ice shards — refreshingly cold and sweet-tart, really delicious. The noodles weren't anything super special, but unlike some places that taste overly MSG-heavy, too sweet, or too sharp, this one was just right.

Pear sherbet, the free dessert at Ihwajeong

Finally, I went ahead and ordered everything listed in the dessert request section. No extra charge for dessert. As we were almost done with the meat, someone who looked like the owner came by and told us to be sure to order dessert too, so I went straight to the kiosk and ordered it.

This too, of course, was a pear-based dessert — since they emphasize pear so much, even the dessert got taken over by pear. It's a sherbet made from pear? Did anyone recognize it right away, haha? It tasted just like the Tank Boy ice cream we all know. A familiar taste really is a powerful thing... It was so good and the perfect way to finish the meal.

Who should book a table at Ihwajeong Galbi Myeongga

— Wrapping up — near Magok and Balsan,

• ✅Recommended for those looking for a comfortable restaurant with private rooms
• Great atmosphere for enjoying with family or coworkers in a group, so ✅recommended for those looking for a group-friendly Korean BBQ spot
• ✅Recommended when you want clean-tasting, quality pork ribs rather than something overly seasoned

It was a solidly likable place that everyone would enjoy. The price might look steep at first glance, but it's 300g of pure meat with no bones, so it's a good place to come to when you're craving quality meat once in a while.