Banga leaf wraps at a Dal-dong BBQ restaurant in Ulsan: Daewol

What is Daewol Charcoal Barbecue, a Dal-dong BBQ restaurant in Ulsan?

Hi, this is TT. I went looking for a place to eat meat in Dal-dong, Ulsan and ended up at Daewol Charcoal Barbecue. It's run as a Jirye black pork and galbitang (short rib soup) specialty restaurant. As the name suggests, it's a barbecue place where you grill meat over charcoal, so it's a spot many people pick for dinner, family outings, or work dinners.

Opening hours and closing day

Mon–Sat 10:00–22:00, last order 21:30, closed every Sunday.

How to find Daewol Charcoal Barbecue and where to park

1F, 6 Samsan-ro 122beon-gil, Nam-gu, Ulsan, South Korea. It's about a 1-minute walk from the main entrance of Goodmorning Hospital, so it wasn't hard to find, and if you're coming from the Dal-dong restaurant street, you can find it by walking along the main road toward Goodmorning Hospital.

Parking is often a worry when eating out in Dal-dong, but Daewol Charcoal Barbecue lets you use the True Parking Ulsan Dal-dong lot. It supports up to 2 cars per table for 3 hours. We drove that day and used it comfortably.

The storefront stands out with a pretty large signboard.

Inside Daewol Charcoal Barbecue: seating and atmosphere

Inside, every table is set up so you can put charcoal in, and there's ventilation ductwork installed on the ceiling. There are quite a lot of tables, so the space felt fairly spacious overall, and with several tables together, it seemed well suited to family outings or group meals.

Since we visited with a reservation, they had it all set up for us in advance.

What is on the menu at Daewol Charcoal Barbecue?

Daewol Charcoal Barbecue sells a variety of meat menu items centered on Jirye black pork. There were set menus, which was nice because we could order without much thought at first. There's also a good range of meal menus for lunch, like the mul-naengmyeon (cold noodle) set and galbitang (short rib soup), so it's a good spot to visit for lunch too.

Side dishes, the self-serve bar and silkworm pupa soup

The basic side dish spread came out well, and there was a self-serve bar too, which was nice.

Silkworm pupa soup comes out too.

The Jirye black pork platter: thick-cut pork over charcoal

What we ordered was the Jirye black pork platter. It's a menu where you can try several cuts at once, so instead of ordering multiple individual dishes that day, we went with the platter. The thick, well-trimmed cuts came out on one plate, along with vegetables like scallion, mushroom, garlic, chili, and cherry tomato.

Once it hit the charcoal, my mouth was watering.

Since the meat was fairly thick, it was better not to cut it too small right away — better to cook it a bit first, then cut it into bite-sized pieces to grill.

We ate the golden-browned meat little by little, cutting it on the grill as we went, and with that thickness, it felt totally different from the usual thinly sliced meat.

Pork belly, then neck, then shoulder: the order to eat in

How to eat it deliciously! It was written that for the first bite you should dip it lightly in plain salt to taste the Jirye black pork's own savoriness, then eat the platter in the order of pork belly → neck → shoulder. We're the type who actually follows this stuff haha.

Dipping it right into the salt, the charcoal-grilled aroma really came through, and it was delicious.

Following the recommendation, wrapping it in banga leaf gave it a really nice aroma too.

Finishing off with plum tea made it a perfect meal.

Would I go back to Daewol Charcoal Barbecue?

This time we tried several cuts at once with the Jirye black pork platter, but next time I'd like to pick the cuts I liked best and order them individually. If you enjoy grilling meat over charcoal and pairing it with all sorts of side dishes, this kind of atmosphere would be really satisfying. Stopping by for galbitang at lunch, or coming for black pork with a shot of soju at dinner, both sound good. This time it was just the two of us, but next time I'd like to come with family or friends in a bigger group and order the platter plus meal menus generously :)