Renovated house pork belly restaurant in Suseong, Daegu: Matdongsam Beomeo

A pork belly restaurant in Suseong-gu, a pork belly restaurant in Beomeo-dong — Matdongsam.

Matdongsam Beomeo Main Branch store info

• Location: 15 Dongdaegu-ro 74an-gil, Suseong-gu, Daegu, South Korea, 1st floor
• Hours: 17:00 - 23:00
• Amenities: Group seating available, high chairs available, reservations possible
• Parking: 2 spots available in front of the restaurant

Today I visited Matdongsam, a restaurant near An・The Bomeo. It's a pork belly place renovated from an old house, and I loved the retro feel — the meat was so nutty and delicious! Let me introduce it right away!!

Interior seating and atmosphere

Walking in, there were 4-person and 6-person tables, and there was a separate annex room off to one side too!! We sat right in front of the AC, and thanks to the power cooling, the inside was seriously cool. I deliberately arrived at 5pm when it's usually empty, but one table was already eating haha. Once evening hit, even on a weekday, the place filled up fast!!

Menu, ordering, and how to eat it right

We ordered three servings of the special ogyeopsal, plus doenjang jjigae and rice! If you want to eat a lot of meat, I think it'd be great to get the Matdongsam combo platter with special ogyeopsal x3, gabrisal (pork cheek meat), and jjondeuksal (chewy pork cut) for variety!

They also had instructions on how to eat it best — grill the meat on top of the pan, and the kimchi, potatoes and mushrooms underneath. Since ogyeopsal is fatty, the oil pops and splatters quite a bit! So it's best to only put on as much as you'll eat right away haha.

Once you order, they bring out a set of side dishes like this — lettuce jaeragi (seasoned raw lettuce), seasoned bean sprouts, grilled kimchi, white kimchi, barley doenjang, roasted salt, and herring roe, plus a generous amount of mushrooms and potatoes to grill on the pan, which was really nice 😭👍

Special ogyeopsal (3 servings): skin-on pork belly taste

And right away out came the special ogyeopsal, three servings!!! Ogyeopsal is pork belly with the skin left on — the pork skin was attached on top, and you could see the layers of fat and lean meat, which looked delicious even before taking a bite haha.

First we put on just enough meat to eat, and set the vegetables below to cook in the rendered fat! The nutty pork belly smell was so appetizing, and the waiting felt so exciting haha. Since it's a retro-feeling place, even the music was retro, and it felt like eating meat at grandma's house, which made it even better.

Once the meat was cooked enough and plenty of fat had rendered out, we put the bean sprouts and kimchi underneath! Especially with the grilled kimchi, they warned it burns fast, so we only cooked it briefly and cut it up right away.

First I tried a well-cooked piece of ogyeopsal, and wow... it was genuinely tender, and the skin was so chewy — it was amazing!!! I don't usually love meat that's fatty or has a lot of gristle, but Matdongsam's pork belly wasn't greasy or mushy at all — maybe because the meat itself was so fresh, it was really springy and delicious!!

The potatoes and mushrooms grilled in the pork belly fat were also delicious!! Just as the info card said, they went great with the herring roe too, and also tasted amazing with the fresh lettuce salad haha. But honestly, the meat's own flavor was so good that dipping it lightly in roasted salt, which let the natural flavor come through, was my favorite way to eat it!

To keep the flow going without a break, we put the remaining pork belly right back on the grill. We also heated up the fermented anchovy sauce, which made it even funkier and paired even better with the pork belly!!

Wrapping up with doenjang jjigae and extra rice

And finally, we added a bowl of rice to the doenjang jjigae to finish things off — it was packed with tofu, zucchini, and onion, so it was great mixed with rice too, and since it wasn't too salty, even just sipping the broth on its own was delicious. The owner was also super kind, and the meat was so good that if you're looking for a great meat restaurant near An・The Bomeo or Beomeo-네거리, I really recommend Matdongsam.

And as I was paying and heading out, I noticed they had toothpicks and lighters like this out — they said you could even take a lighter with you, so I grabbed one!

Overall thoughts and recommendation

Today I visited Matdongsam, a great meat restaurant in Suseong-gu. It's located near Beomeo Xi and An・The Bomeo, and parking is available for 1-2 cars in front of the shop! There's special ogyeopsal along with gabrisal and jjondeuksal, and for meal items there was doenjang jjigae, steamed egg, and even noodle dishes like bibim-myeon (spicy cold noodles). There's an annex room too, so it's great for work dinners, and also perfect for family outings for meat. In particular, the special ogyeopsal had the skin still on, which made it even chewier and nuttier — next time I'll have to order the combo platter and try different cuts haha.