Gwangjin family Korean BBQ: cheese bomb egg custard at Sanggu's

Today I'm introducing a place my feet keep carrying me to whenever I crave meat near Guui Station. Kids and adults all love it, the pork quality is great, and it's a bargain too. It's Sanggu's Sotttukkeong Samgyeopsal Guui Branch (상구네솥뚜껑삼겹살 구의점), where domestic 1+ grade female pork belly is grilled for you on a pot lid. Let's start the review!

Location and hours of Sanggu's Guui Branch

Sanggu's Guui Branch is at 444 Achasan-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul (1st floor), a 5-minute walk from Guui Station Exit 3. Parking is available. It's open daily from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., with last order at 1 a.m.

What is the atmosphere like inside?

The restaurant is big with plenty of group seating, so it's perfect for family meals, gatherings and company dinners. You walk in and are surprised by how spacious it is, haha. The mood is lively and bustling.

Ordering is easy with the tablet at your table,

there's a coffee machine,

and the self-bar is set up inside the restaurant too ^^

The walls are covered in celebrity autographs, and apparently it's a brand that the comedian brothers Lee Sang-ho and Lee Sang-min are involved in running. I didn't know that, but once I did it felt oddly more fun, haha.

Is the self-bar veggie refill unlimited?

All the wrap vegetables at Sanggu's Guui Branch self-bar are unlimited refills. Whenever I come here, I check the self-bar first, haha.

Lettuce, perilla leaves, napa cabbage, romaine, red mustard greens, garlic scapes, zucchini and mushrooms: it's packed with vegetables you rarely see at regular BBQ places, and the fact that everything is refillable is the real charm, haha. Bean sprouts, bracken (gosari) and kimchi also come on the pot lid by default, and once you try bracken with pork belly you can't forget it.. T_T The kids loved going to fetch the vegetables too, haha.

Menu and prices at Sanggu's

À la carte, fresh pork neck and quick-frozen pork belly are ₩15,800, and the chewy cut, pork jowl, gabrisal (pork neck-end) and beef short rib meat are ₩17,800.

• Half set ₩43,000 (500g + 2 draft beers or 2 drinks or 1 fried rice / choose minari, siraegi (dried radish greens) or scallion kimchi)
• Full set ₩77,000 (500g + 3 draft beers or 3 drinks or 2 fried rice)
• Sides: egg custard ₩5,000, doenjang stew (soybean paste stew) / kimchi stew and more
• Draft beer ₩1,900 / soju ₩2,900

The minari half set: how was it for a family?

That day our family chose the half set (₩43,000) with the minari (water dropwort) option and added egg custard (₩5,000).

When we saw the pot lid piled with minari, my husband and I both got way more excited, haha.

The set came with fresh pork belly plus fresh pork neck, and the meat was rosy and thick, so you could tell the quality at a glance.

Maybe because they use domestic 1+ grade female pork, the fresh pork belly turned golden on the pot lid and felt full of juice inside.

It gets nuttier and richer the more you chew, and wrapped in lettuce I really couldn't stop, T_T The fresh pork neck has more lean meat, so it's milder than the belly but still chewy, which makes it perfect if greasiness bothers you. Alternating the two cuts, there was no chance to get tired of it, haha.

Do staff grill the meat?

Yes, the staff at Sanggu's Guui Branch grill the meat for you. Even on a busy weekend they were kind to every table, so we had a really nice meal. They put the meat on at just the right doneness and even set up a splatter guard around the grill, which was thoughtful, haha.

The minari.. needs no explanation, it's amazing. It's fragrant and crunchy and wipes out the greasiness of the meat, so wrapped together with pork belly it just keeps going down, T_T

Bracken and bean sprouts, grilled in the meat fat on the pot lid, turn into total rice thieves, lol.

The pickled onions are tangy and cleanse your palate, so I kept grabbing some in between.

Cheese bomb egg custard and a fried rice finish

The ₩5,000 egg custard is a cheese-topped bomb style, fluffy and nutty, and the kids ate it up with their rice, haha.

At the end we cleaned out the fried rice too, and adults and kids alike were properly full and satisfied.

Weekend wait: what time should you go?

Sanggu's Guui Branch already had quite a few people before 6 p.m. on a weekend evening. Worried about a wait for our weekend family dinner, we went early before 6, and there were already plenty of people; the waiting line started right behind us. Perfect lucky timing, haha.

Easy parking, a generous self-bar, staff who kindly grill the meat even when busy, kids who love it, and a fried rice finish: it's a well-rounded BBQ place, haha. No complaints on value either. A Guui meat spot I want to go back to, highly recommended!