Korean BBQ near Asan City Hall, easy with a baby: Dongbaek Seokgalbi

Hi everyone! It had been a while since I'd planned to eat with my sister's family :) I wanted meat, but since my niece is still a baby, I tend to avoid places where you grill it yourself right at the table. So I decided to visit Dongbaek Seokgalbi, an Asan hanjeongsik (Korean set-course) restaurant known for serving the meat already grilled.

Where is Dongbaek Seokgalbi? Hours and parking near Asan City Hall

Dongbaek Seokgalbi is a hanjeongsik restaurant located at 100 Chungmu-ro, Asan-si, Chungcheongnam-do (unit 102), near Asan City Hall. Hours are 11:00 - 21:00, closed every Monday, with a break time from 15:00 to 17:00.

Given the location, it felt clean and had a great atmosphere! There's a parking lot beside Dongbaek Seokgalbi, and another lot on the other side too!

Reserved tables fill up even on weekdays, and Dongbaek Seokgalbi has private rooms

We came fairly early, but a few tables already had reservation signs on them! Considering it was a weekday, this really is a proper Asan hanjeongsik spot. As soon as we sat down, tables filled up one by one — I realized just how famous Dongbaek Seokgalbi's hanjeongsik really is.

Asan has plenty of good hanjeongsik restaurants, but this place has beautifully appointed private rooms, and honestly, it just feels upscale! Hanjeongsik should mean a clean, tidy table setting. The interior is just as neat and full of atmosphere as the food. To think you can feel this kind of atmosphere in Asan — even a true local like me was surprised.

Dongbaek Seokgalbi menu and what our family ordered

Here's how the Dongbaek Seokgalbi menu is set up. There's a weekday lunch special, and a hanjeongsik course too. As the name suggests, we came for the seokgalbi (stone-grilled short ribs). No secret that we ended up ordering Korean pork ribs too because the meat was so good. And when you're eating meat, you've got to order doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) — that one was non-negotiable.

The side-dish spread that makes Dongbaek Seokgalbi work for family and group meals

We booked ahead. As I mentioned above, this Asan hanjeongsik spot is quite popular even on weekdays, so reserving felt like the right call.

After reserving and checking our seats, the basic side dishes were laid out so neatly! The tableware felt quite upscale, and the banchan (side dishes) were arranged beautifully to go with the meat, so I felt good even before eating. The atmosphere in particular has that neat, tidy feel that older generations tend to love, so I'd really recommend it for a meeting-the-parents dinner or a company group meal too. My sister kept whispering in my ear about how good the vibe was.

Fried monkfish and gamtae seaweed potato pancake

Before the main meal, they brought out fried monkfish and a gamtae (seaweed) potato pancake with barley shrimp, like an appetizer. The fried monkfish was so good that even my niece ate it! Since it suited a baby's palate, it suited ours perfectly too.

Dining out with a baby: high chair and phone stand at Dongbaek Seokgalbi

My niece is still a baby, so I was grateful just for the baby chair, but they even gave us baby tableware and a dried seaweed snack! What I really thought showed genuine thoughtfulness was that when the babies got a bit noisy and needed a video playing, they gave us a phone stand!!!! I thought this part was so considerate. Playing a video like that meant we could actually focus and eat our meal. We kept the sound at zero, of course.

Why we ordered the doenjang jjigae twice

When you're eating meat, you've got to order doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew), right! It was appropriately spicy and paired really well with the meat. It was so good we ordered a second bowl haha. Doenjang jjigae and meat truly are inseparable!

Seokgalbi that arrives already grilled, so no smoke and no burns

This is the reason to come to Dongbaek Seokgalbi as an Asan hanjeongsik restaurant — it's served already cooked like this. Thanks to that, no smell clung to our clothes, and since there was nothing hot on the table, there was no risk of my niece getting hurt, which made things so much easier. It's a great way to just enjoy the meat itself. And somehow they knew to include onion, garlic, and mushroom to eat right alongside the meat — the whole set is put together so well!

Best combos: pa-kimchi (green onion kimchi) with wasabi, onion with baek-kimchi

There are so many side dishes to eat alongside the seokgalbi that I was genuinely too busy haha. You have to try them all. Dongbaek Seokgalbi's pa-kimchi (green onion kimchi) is truly a work of art. Pa-kimchi plus wasabi with the seokgalbi is an absolute power combo. You'd think pa-kimchi and wasabi wouldn't go together, but their spiciness balances each other out and completely cuts through the richness of the meat. That's exactly why I recommend this combo so much. And meat plus onion plus baek-kimchi (white, non-spicy kimchi) is another great combination. The onion cooks underneath the meat, so it comes out lightly seasoned and delicious~~

The extra Korean pork galbi: thick-cut and the best order of the night

We ended up ordering more meat because it was too good haha. This time we tried the Korean pork ribs. There was a bit of a wait for this dish to come out, so I'd recommend ordering it early. Ribs are definitely all about that thickness being the ultimate power move. I swear you can almost smell the meat just looking at the photo of those thick ribs.

Everyone, ribs go with myeong-i namul (mountain garlic leaves)!!! It genuinely pairs so well and tastes amazing.

With a baby niece in tow, I wanted to eat meat somewhere clean, and my sister's family was so happy with it that I felt proud too. To think there's a hanjeongsik restaurant this refined in Asan — next time I'll bring my parents along.