Jongno3-ga Korean BBQ with a double grill plate: Cham Dwaejitgan

In this post I want to introduce a restaurant near Jongno3-ga Station — a place called Cham Dwaejitgan.

First off, the meat was so fresh that it was incredibly delicious, and every single side dish paired so well with the meat that I finished it all without leaving a single piece behind. The staff were all so kind too, so it ended up being a really pleasant meal out. Alright, let's get into it!

How to find Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch from Jongno3-ga Station

Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch is easy to find — just come out of Exit 2 of Jongno3-ga Station and head into the alley of the building where you can see the CGV sign. There are also a lot of cafés around Jongno3-ga, so grabbing pork belly with friends and then heading to a nearby café afterward sounds like a great combo!

What side dishes come with the pork?

For dipping the meat, Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch serves salt, ssamjang (soybean paste dip), wasabi, a spicy sauce, and sliced garlic. Eating it together with the scallion salad really cuts through the richness — genuinely one of the best combos.

There's also lettuce and perilla leaves, plus a cabbage salad made with both white and red cabbage. It's perfect to put on the grill and eat as a little appetizer before the meat is fully cooked.

And then there's this crunchy, great-textured vegetable — I suddenly can't recall the name, but it really goes well with the meat. If you visit Cham Dwaejitgan, definitely try wrapping it with the meat.

How do you order at Cham Dwaejitgan?

As soon as you step inside, you'll see a fridge with the meat on display, wrapped up. Having the meat out where customers can see it clearly shows the owner's confidence in its freshness. I really love that kind of thing!

There's a menu board right at your table that you can order from directly. Once you've picked what you want, you just go up to the counter to place the order.

Underneath the order board, I noticed something called the 'classic pork belly combo.' Give it a read — it seems like a fun way to enjoy the meat with the sauces that are already set up on the table.

There are so many menu items — black pork ogeopsal, black pork neck, Boseong pork belly, flower pork neck, and more. You know how at Korean BBQ places we never just order one cut, we always get a bunch of different parts? This is perfect for that, especially if everyone in the family likes a different cut.

Ordering the Boseong green pork cham samgyeopsal

Not long after ordering, the pork belly arrived. A big pork belly set came out along with king oyster mushrooms, shishito peppers, and thin-sliced potatoes. The thin potato slices were stacked up so they almost looked like a flower — the whole plating was so pretty. If you like potatoes, you have to try the potato wraps.

Best of all, there was a staff member grilling the meat for us, so all we had to do was wait comfortably until it was cooked just right. And I remember the kimchi and bean sprouts being free refills.

Pork belly eaten with minari (water celery) is genuinely so good. Looking back at these photos now, I want to eat it again. Why is it that pork belly never gets old even if you eat it every week? The staff member trimmed and prepped it so quickly and cleanly.

The double grill plate: a round grill inside a square one

They cut the kimchi, bean sprouts, and minari into easy-to-eat pieces for us. What's unusual here is the grill itself — there's actually a round grill plate set inside a square one. The vegetables, minari, and kimchi get grilled in the outer square section, while the meat cooks on the round stone plate in the middle. It looked so efficient that I wanted to take one home.

Once the meat was fully cooked, they cut it into bite-sized pieces and mixed it together with the kimchi and bean sprouts from the outer ring.

Trying a potato-and-pork wrap for the first time

Thin-sliced potatoes grilled until nicely browned, wrapped up together with the meat, taste amazing. How did they even come up with this combo? It was my first time trying a potato-pork wrap, and it left quite an impression — the flavors really work together.

The heat seems to have finally eased up, and with the cool weather for once, it's such a great day for a walk.