Skewer omakase set with beef nabe at Sutori, Cheongju izakaya

Sutori, a Bongmyeong-dong spot in Cheongju

I went to Sutori in Bongmyeong-dong, Cheongju, wanting skewers with a warm nabe (hot pot) on the side! The moment you walk in, it has that proper izakaya vibe, so the atmosphere already won me over.

The place was bigger than I expected too, so it looked comfortable whether you're going as a couple or in a bigger group.

And best of all, parking is available right in front of the restaurant, so you don't have to stress about parking in Bongmyeong-dong.

Sauce combos

There's even a recommended sauce combo, so you can try tare sauce, spicy sauce, sansho pepper, and shichimi all together!

What's in the Charcoal Omakase A Warm Soup Set

What we ordered this time was the Charcoal Omakase A Warm Soup Set for ₩42,900! You pick either canapé or potato salad, and it comes with 13 skewers plus a soup.

Charcoal Omakase A Warm Soup Set ₩42,900 / [canapé or potato salad] + [13 skewers: yakitori (4p) / tsukune (2p) / bacon or pork belly roll (1p) / kushikatsu (5p) / vegetable skewer (1p)] + beef brisket nabe

The vibe here was completely great!

We went with potato salad, and for the soup we picked the beef brisket nabe.

The basic side dish, shrimp chips, comes out first, and they were perfect to nibble on while waiting for the skewers. The potato salad was soft and light too, a nice gentle start before diving into the skewers proper.

What order do the skewers come in

The first skewers to arrive were cheese skewer, lotus root, quail egg, chicken breast, and vienna sausage! Several kinds arrive at once, so it was fun picking through them one by one. Eating the lotus root and quail egg in between kept things from getting too heavy, and the combo worked well.

The receipt review event lets you choose a drink, highball, sherbet, or takoyaki!

The cheese skewer especially, eaten while still warm, had cheese pulling in long stretchy strings, which I loved.

Next came the chicken cartilage and heart skewers, and both were genuinely delicious. They're good plain, but dipping them lightly in the sauce that came alongside made them even better.

The cartilage had a nice crunch, and the heart was chewy, both totally suited to drinking snacks! Personally, these two are ones I'd want to order again next time.

Beef brisket nabe with a broth that wasn't salty

While we were still working through the skewers, the beef brisket nabe arrived right away. The broth wasn't too salty and had just the right seasoning, so I kept scooping up spoonful after spoonful.

In the middle, the shishito pepper skewer and pineapple bacon skewer came out too. The shishito peppers, eaten between the meat skewers, felt like a palate reset, and the pineapple bacon combo of sweet pineapple with salty bacon was better than I expected.

Then came the skirt steak and shoulder meat skewers, a lineup that would satisfy anyone who loves meat!

Rather than everything coming out all at once, each skewer arrived warm one at a time, so you could eat it right away before it cooled down, which I really liked.

Tsukune: try it with egg yolk and seaweed

And then the tsukune (Japanese-style chicken meatball) skewer I'd been looking forward to! The texture and taste were like tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patty), and dipping it in egg yolk then wrapping it in seaweed made it genuinely delicious. The soft tsukune, the savory yolk, and the seaweed came together perfectly. I'd really recommend eating tsukune with yolk and seaweed rather than plain.

We ate the beef brisket and the other ingredients in the nabe too, and dipping the solid ingredients into the nabe sauce gave a whole different flavor.

Skewers alone can get a little heavy, but having the warm broth alongside them made the whole combo work really well.

The beef brisket nabe stayed not-too-salty all the way through, so it was easy to keep eating without feeling weighed down, and the meat and vegetables in it were tasty enough that we scraped the pot clean at the end.

Watching baseball while working through skewer after skewer and warm nabe broth felt like properly enjoying a Korean-style pub.

Wrap-up

If you're looking for a good-atmosphere pub in Bongmyeong-dong, Cheongju, or want to try a bit of many different skewers, Sutori was solid. The place is spacious and parking is available right in front, so it was easy to visit, and the charcoal omakase set was substantial enough with the beef brisket nabe alongside it to work well as dinner plus drinks. From the cheese skewer to the cartilage, heart, skirt steak, and tsukune, everything was delicious one by one, and with the beef brisket nabe too, it was an overall satisfying spot!