Staff-grilled pork belly with a kid in Gyeongsan: Kkotdwaeji Sikdang

A Korean BBQ spot for kids in Gyeongsan where staff grill the meat for you — Kkotdwaeji Sikdang Gyeongsan Branch.

Hi, this is Kkyuni's dad. It was Liberation Day but I still had to go to work... 😂 Still, going straight home after work felt like a waste, so I took the family out to eat. This time we went to Kkotdwaeji Sikdang Gyeongsan Branch!

It's a BBQ restaurant on Seongam-ro in Gyeongsan-si with a wide menu — pork belly, pork jowl, daechang (beef intestine) hot pot, and more.

More than anything, going with my kid, there were more things I liked than I expected.

Parking and reservations at Kkotdwaeji Sikdang Gyeongsan Branch

Kkotdwaeji Sikdang Gyeongsan Branch has its own dedicated parking lot behind the building, and it's pretty spacious. When eating out with a kid, parking is one more thing to worry about besides the food. Not having to circle the block made things easy from the moment we arrived.

We booked in advance through Naver and were seated as soon as we arrived. If you're going on a weekend or during dinner hours, booking ahead like we did seems like the way to go.

Three servings of pork belly, then a pork jowl add-on

At Kkotdwaeji Sikdang Gyeongsan Branch we started with 3 servings of pork belly. You're at a BBQ place, so pork belly comes first, right?

As we ate, it wasn't enough, of course. So we ended up adding 1 more serving of pork belly plus 1 serving of pork jowl!

Pork belly is 130g for ₩13,000, pork jowl is 120g for ₩16,000. The meat was delicious, but there was something else I liked even more.

Why staff-grilled BBQ is easier with a child

At Kkotdwaeji Sikdang Gyeongsan Branch, the staff grill all the meat and bring it to your table. When you go to a BBQ place with a young kid like Kkyuni, you're constantly on edge because of the hot grill on the table. Grilling meat while saying "Don't touch!" "It's hot!" and watching your kid at the same time is honestly chaotic.

But here, since they grill everything and bring it to you, you can just relax and eat at the table. The restaurant itself is pretty spacious too, so it worked well for a family meal out.

And a steamed egg came out as a free side dish by default, which Kkyuni ate really well. So we ended up ordering one more! Steamed egg is basically a must-order when you go to BBQ with a kid.

On top of that, we also ordered a rice ball. Having something to go with the meat was nice for eating as a family.

Finishing with Hanwoo tripe ramyeon for 7,500 won

We thought about wrapping up after the meat, but one thing on the menu kept catching my eye. The Hanwoo tripe ramyeon!

It's a dish that debuted at the 2024 Gumi Ramyeon Festival, apparently so popular that 2,200 bowls were sold there at the time. Gyeongsan Branch also serves it, priced at ₩7,500. There was no way I could skip it out of curiosity. And after tasting it... wow... this is a two-bottles-of-soju kind of dish.

Even though I was already pretty full from the meat, I kept reaching back into the bowl because of the spicy, rich broth. This isn't just an ordinary ramyeon you eat after BBQ — with the tripe in it, the broth is noticeably richer, and it would be a proper drinking snack too. Since I had to drive that day, I had to give up on the soju with a heavy heart. Instead, I wrapped up with a glass of green grape ade.

Would I take my child back to Kkotdwaeji Sikdang?

The meat was delicious, the restaurant was spacious, and even parking was easy.

But what I liked most about Kkotdwaeji Sikdang Gyeongsan Branch was, after all, the system of grilling the meat and bringing it to you! When you go to BBQ with a kid, the hot grill is often something you have to keep worrying about, but without that, we could eat comfortably. The pork belly and pork jowl were tasty, but I really want to recommend the Hanwoo tripe ramyeon.

Maybe next time I should leave the car at home... I'm still a little sad I couldn't have soju with that ramyeon, haha. This has been Kkyuni's dad's review of a pork belly favorite in Gyeongsan, Kkotdwaeji Sikdang Gyeongsan Branch.