Saturday mungtigi restaurant in Jongno, Daegu: Chulgeungil Saenggogi

Chulgeungil Saenggogi Jongno Branch

My husband and I went to Jongno for a light weekday drink. There was no debate about the menu this time — raw beef. Daegu has no shortage of mungtigi (Korean-style raw beef) places, but this one lets you choose between Gyeongsang-style and Jeolla-style, and best of all, they sell same-day butchered raw beef even on Saturdays, which had caught my eye. The spread turned out to be pretty generous too, so here's my review of Chulgeungil Saenggogi, a mungtigi spot in Daegu.

Where is Chulgeungil Saenggogi Daegu Jongno Branch, and where can you park?

Chulgeungil Saenggogi sits right across from Manggyeonggwan, at the entrance to the Jongno restaurant strip in Daegu. It's also close to Jungangno Station, so if you're planning on drinking, taking the subway is by far the easiest way to get there. Since raw beef plus drinks was the whole point of the evening, we walked over from public transit :)

There's no dedicated parking lot, so if you're driving, you'll need to use a nearby paid lot. Parking around Jongno isn't easy in the evenings, so keep that in mind!

• 📍Location: 51 Jongno, Jung-gu, Daegu, South Korea
• 🕒Hours: 4:00 PM – 1:00 AM (Fri & Sat until 2:00 AM)
• ❌Closed: No regular closing days
• 🅿️Parking: None

What is the inside of Chulgeungil Saenggogi like?

Inside, Chulgeungil Saenggogi is fancier than I expected. There's a big cherry blossom decoration on one side of the restaurant, which gives it a different feel from your typical raw beef place.

Tables are mostly for four, with menu boards standing upright between tables like dividers. It's not a fully separate space, but it does cut down on that right-next-to-the-next-table feeling, which made it easy to chat over drinks.

The menu: three kinds of mungtigi at Chulgeungil Saenggogi

The main draws are, of course, mungtigi and raw beef. There's also a good variety of other drinking snacks like brisket, odregi, yukhoe (raw beef salad), and gopchang (beef intestine) hot pot. If you want to try a bit of everything, you can order a set, and for two people, the medium size looked like the right call.

The fun part is that mungtigi isn't just one thing here. It's split into Gyeongsang-style, Jeolla-style, and Jeongak mungtigi, each with the differences written out on the menu so you can pick with your eyes open. If it's your first visit, I'd still recommend starting with Gyeongsang-style, since you are in Daegu after all.

Same-day butchered raw beef, served on Saturdays too

Mungtigi places often can't serve on weekends because of butchering schedules, but Chulgeungil Saenggogi says they sell same-day butchered raw beef even on Saturdays. So if you're specifically hunting for Saturday-butchered mungtigi, this one's worth remembering.

There were also Naver coupons for yukhoe bibimbap and for drinks, so make sure to check for coupons before you visit.

Gyeongsang-style mungtigi, medium (59,000 won), and the side dish spread

We ordered the Gyeongsang-style mungtigi, medium size.

But before the mungtigi even arrived, our table was already full. Tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), tofu kimchi, mini gimbap (seaweed rice rolls), braised pollack, jeon (savory pancakes), fish cake soup — the banchan just kept coming! At this rate you could finish a whole bottle of soju before the main dish even shows up!!! 🍻

Liver and cheonyeop (beef stomach lining) came out too — I couldn't eat them, but my husband, who loves cheonyeop, cleaned them right up.

Gyeongsang-style mungtigi, medium (₩59,000)

And finally, the main event arrived. Even the medium size was plenty for two people as a drinking snack, and the color of the meat alone was beautiful.

The dipping sauce really matters for raw beef, right? The sauce here was delicious! Passed with flying colors!!

Dip the meat deep into the garlic-heavy mungtigi sauce and you really get the signature chewy texture of raw beef. The downside (?) is that the garlic smell doesn't leave your mouth for a while afterward... but hey, if it tastes good, who cares... haha

And how can you sit in front of raw beef without a drink? We ordered somaek right away hahahaha. A chewy bite of mungtigi followed by a sip of somaek, and the whole day's fatigue just melts away!!!!!

Final verdict: would we go back to Chulgeungil Saenggogi?

With such a generous banchan spread and chewy Gyeongsang-style raw beef, Chulgeungil Saenggogi Daegu Jongno Branch made for a great night out for drinks in Jongno. It's especially worth checking out if you're after Saturday-butchered mungtigi. We'd definitely go back! Next time, I want to try other mungtigi styles or the odregi too.