Icheon charcoal beef BBQ with my parents, 3 under ₩100,000: Jowatso

Today I'm introducing Jowatso, a beef BBQ spot in Janghowon, Icheon! It's a great-value place where you can eat high-quality beef over really good charcoal until you're stuffed, and three of us still paid under ₩100,000. My parents said they finally had really good beef after a long time, and they were genuinely satisfied! So here's my honest Jowatso review~

• Address: 25 Seodong-daero 8809beon-gil, Janghowon-eup, Icheon
• Hours: daily 11:00 - 22:00
• Baby chairs available
• Large private parking lot in front of the restaurant

Where is Jowatso in Janghowon, and is there parking?

Jowatso is a charcoal beef specialist near the Janghowon National Sports Center, in the Janghowon new town area. It's a standalone building with a big private lot in front, so no parking worries, and the beef menu and prices are posted outside, so even though it's a beef place you can walk in without anxiety!

Inside Jowatso: good for group dinners and family meals?

The restaurant is quite big, so it looked like a great spot for a group dinner in Janghowon. It's a standalone building and every table has a good duct, so your clothes won't pick up that BBQ smell, which is nice.

One side of the restaurant has a neat self bar, where you can easily grab more side dishes. Besides side dishes, everything from sauces to small plates is stocked, which made things easy.

Baby chairs are provided too, so it's perfect as a family BBQ place in Janghowon. Every chair is the type that lets you store your bag, which was handy haha. And since it's charcoal, it can get a bit hot even with the air conditioning on, right? For that there are portable fans you can take to your table! I thought that was a really thoughtful touch.

Jowatso menu and prices: how much is the signature platter?

Jowatso's signature special-cuts platter is 850g for ₩89,000. Besides it there are well-organized set menus like the marinated platter, the bone-in rib platter and the beef short rib platter. See the value without even trying? I doubt you could buy this at a butcher's for this price, and then all the side dishes come on top.

Of course, besides the sets, you can also enjoy all kinds of beef à la carte at Jowatso! There are also solid side menu items that go well with meat, like mul naengmyeon (cold noodles in broth), udon and doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew).

The basic side dishes are generous: seasoned chives, pickled perilla leaves, pickled chili peppers, lettuce and various sauces. And the seasoned sushi rice for making beef sushi and the spicy beef soup are free. Such generosity, thumbs up~!

How the 850g signature platter tastes grilled over premium charcoal

The staff put the charcoal in, and my parents took one look and said it was premium charcoal, not the cheap stuff. Even I, who know nothing about it, could see the chunks were thick and looked really good haha.

Then the meat arrived. We ordered the 850g signature platter. The bright red color and good marbling were a work of art, and I loved the touch of arranging it like a flower in the middle. The big plus is that you get to try many cuts at once, from uidae galbi (thick-cut rib meat) to marinated galbi, flat iron (bucheosal) and bonkkotsal (chuck flap).

The fire is so good that flipping the meat a few times cooks it evenly. It's beef, so there's no need to cook it through; I ate it right away with salt or chives and it just melted in my mouth... My mom raved that it was the best beef she'd had recently.

Beef sushi on seasoned rice and uidae galbi (beef short rib)

I topped the free seasoned sushi rice with wasabi and made beef sushi too haha. The rich, fatty beef and the wasabi go so well together.

And the uidae galbi, grilled slowly from the start, was much more savory than the other cuts. It didn't look very fatty, yet it was so tender it just vanished in my mouth, ugh!

Honestly, I usually hate to wrap beef in lettuce because it feels like a waste, but Jowatso is a great-value beef place in Janghowon with so much food that I wrapped away without a second thought haha. So happy haha.

After the BBQ: nurungji, doenjang jjigae and bibim naengmyeon

For the finish, Dad chose nurungji (scorched rice soup) and doenjang jjigae, while Mom and I chose bibim naengmyeon (spicy cold noodles). We were full, but you still have to have a proper finish haha. The nurungji portion was huge and came with salted squid, so Dad ate it almost like a whole new meal haha.

The bibim naengmyeon was for wrapping with the meat, and the sauce doesn't overpower the beef flavor, which was totally my taste.

They also say ground beef is free if you ask. Such generous people at Jowatso!

Is Jowatso in Janghowon worth a return visit?

The three of us ate beef until our bellies were bursting at Jowatso in Janghowon. Honestly, because the price was cheap I didn't expect much from the beef, and it was so good I felt sorry for thinking that. It's a Janghowon spot I'd happily visit again.