Euljiro 3-ga bone grill, missed Catch Table call: Eulji Baektan

I finally made it to Eulji Baektan Ppyeogui (을지백탄뼈구이), the hot spot of Euljiro! I went on a Thursday evening, and, as expected, the wait for bone grill in Euljiro lived up to the fame. Eek.. I'll share the waiting info and a menu review.

You can feel it from afar: this is a famous, hot-spot kind of place! I'm finally at Baektan, wow~ I wanted to come with a big group and try lots of dishes, but..

How to book, park and wait at Eulji Baektan

Eulji Baektan is on the 1st floor of 110-2 Euljiro, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea. You register for the waitlist through Catch Table, and parking and reservations are available. If you're planning ahead, I really recommend making a reservation.

Catch Table remote waiting: you must enter within 2 minutes of the call

At Eulji Baektan you have to get inside within 2 minutes of your waiting call, and if you go over, the waitlist spot is cancelled. I checked Catch Table 5 minutes before arriving and joined the remote waitlist, but the call came out of nowhere and I got stuck at the traffic light right in front of the door. And... of course the 2 minutes passed while I stood at the light, so my spot was cancelled. Sigh... I registered again on Catch Table, and after that I waited 1 hour 40 minutes.

Please think about your arrival time before you join the remote waitlist. And book ahead for groups! There's no separate group seating and it's so busy that groups wait even longer. There were only two of us and it was still 1 hour 40 minutes T_T You can wait through Catch Table or the on-site kiosk.

After 1 hour 40 minutes of waiting, we finally got into this Euljiro bone grill favorite, Eulji Baektan!

Eulji Baektan menu and prices

The small bone grill (백탄뼈구이 소, for 2) is listed at ₩38,000 on the menu, but it's gone up ₩1,000 to ₩39,000. Here's what was on the menu.

• Lunch special bone hangover soup ₩13,000
• Lunch special beef belly and garlic chive bibimbap ₩9,900
• Small bone grill ₩39,000
• Bone grill ₩47,000
• Bone grill (large) ₩55,000
• Brisket odeuragi ₩39,000
• Grilled cuttlefish ₩33,000
• Fried cuttlefish ₩33,000
• Potato pancake ₩14,000
• Bone gamjatang ₩39,000
• Janchi guksu (banquet noodles) ₩8,900
• Kimchi-mal-i guksu (cold kimchi noodles) ₩9,500
• Rice ball ₩5,000
• Drinks menu

I picked the spice level hotter than Shin Ramyun! (Next time I'll go for Buldak noodle level.) What we ordered was the small bone grill at ₩38,000.

Side dishes: salad, white kimchi and radish kimchi

The side dishes at Eulji Baektan are salad, white kimchi and kkakdugi (radish kimchi). We got refills of the kkakdugi and the cabbage. They go really well with the spicy bone grill.

The bone grill hotter than Shin Ramyun: how did it taste?

Our bone grill! It's here! The bone grill is full of charcoal and smoky flavor, and they top it with big-cut garlic along with the sauce. I like gamjatang but don't usually eat bone grill, and now I've come to love it...

It's an open kitchen so I could watch how it's made: the bones and green onions keep getting grilled over charcoal. Then it looked like they pour the sauce over the well-grilled bones and scallions in stages.

Eaten with the grilled scallions it's sweet, soft and delicious, and I could see why it became a hot spot in Euljiro. Cut the scallions with scissors and eat them with the bones. Dunk them deep in the sauce!

The bones slip right out, so it's easy to eat

Picking meat off bones is a hassle, right? Amazingly, at Baektan the bones just slide right out. Grab a bone and it pops out, and when you press with chopsticks or a spoon the meat comes apart as if melting, so it was easy to eat. It was also delicious wrapped in the white kimchi.

I really wanted the fried cuttlefish and the grilled cuttlefish... next time I'll go with a bigger group and definitely try them!

Is Eulji Baektan good for a company dinner?

Eulji Baektan has a 2nd-floor space you can book for groups, so it's good for a company dinner and also for hanging out with friends. I can't even describe how good it was... A bone grill dinner instead of the usual pork belly dinner, wouldn't that be great?

It has just the right Euljiro vibe and flavor, and I think it'll stay popular for a long time. I hope the taste never changes! It was so good that I'm officially recognizing it as an Euljiro favorite: when you think Euljiro bone grill, think Baektan. It's a one-second walk from Euljiro 3-ga Station, honestly right when you come out of the exit, so access is great too.

I'm going back to eat it again soon!