Cheongju Korean BBQ restaurant with pork jowl seconds: Baeksan Hwarro

Where is Baeksan Hwarro Cheongju?

Baeksan Hwarro Cheongju is a Korean BBQ restaurant in the Techno Polis area of Songjeol-dong, Cheongju, with the official name Baeksan Hwarro Techno Polis Songjeol Branch. There's dedicated parking right next to it.

Baeksan Hwarro Techno Polis Songjeol Branch

Address: 7-12 Songhwa-ro 166beon-gil, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju, Chungbuk, South Korea, 1st floor (Songjeol-dong 829) Hours: Fri–Wed 11:30–1:00 the next day / last order 00:30 Every Thursday 14:30–23:00 / last order 00:30 Notes: group seating available, reservations, Wi-Fi, high chairs, parking

A Cheongju pork belly restaurant / this is the exterior of Baeksan Hwarro Cheongju. One of the biggest headaches when driving somewhere is parking, but Baeksan Hwarro has a spacious dedicated lot, which is really convenient. I parked right next to the restaurant and took a photo of the entrance.

Baeksan Hwarro ages all its meat in-house.

Baeksan Hwarro Cheongju's price list.

What we ordered: scored pork jowl and aged pork neck

We first ordered the scored pork jowl (160g) and aged pork neck (200g).

Side dishes and the self-serve bar at Baeksan Hwarro

The side dishes came neatly arranged in round white ceramic bowls, big and small.

Green onion kimchi and pickled celery, baek-kimchi (white kimchi) and salad.

Sesame oil with salt, wasabi, ssamjang (dipping paste), garlic, and salted seafood to eat with the meat.

The shredded green onion salad had a refreshing seasoned sauce that was delicious.

Can you tell how fresh it looks? Lettuce, perilla leaves, and peppers.

The self-serve bar was clean, and the wrap vegetables were very fresh. In particular, the shredded green onion was cut into short pieces, which made it easy to eat, and it was great that you could season it yourself with the sauce provided to make your own green onion salad.

Today's menu

Do the staff grill the pork for you?

A staff member placed the meat on a well-heated grill for us. The fire was strong, so the pork neck and pork jowl cooked quickly!

After the meat came out, the cheonggukjang followed.

The kimchi cheonggukjang that comes standard was really tasty too. I don't usually eat much soup, but when I go to a BBQ restaurant I always want at least one stew, so it's a nice surprise when it comes included. I especially like cheonggukjang, so I was even happier.

Once the meat was cooked enough, they flipped it over. The pork neck and pork jowl were nicely browned. They cut it into bite-sized pieces for us.

The pork neck, grilled in the pork jowl's own fat, was also soft, moist, and delicious.

Since the grill gets hot, they moved the meat to a separate tray set aside so it wouldn't burn. The salted seafood was simmering away in one corner too. Taking a bite of the neatly cut meat, the outside was crisp and the inside moist, with savory juices bursting out with every chew.

Choosing a drink instead of the review-event dish

I'd thought about getting the soy-sauce pork belly from the review event, but the pork jowl was so good that day that I wanted to add more of it instead. So I figured I couldn't manage the soy-sauce pork belly on top of that, and picked a drink instead.

Pepsi Zero, which I hadn't had in a while. It's nice that they give you a cup of ice along with the drink order.

Even just pouring cola into a pretty Bombay Sapphire glass makes me happy.

What does the steamed egg custard taste like?

This is the steamed egg custard we ordered as a side. It's so jiggly it feels like there's almost no water in it at all — pretty much a pudding texture! It was plated beautifully too, topped with sesame seeds, and tasted very soft and nutty.

It's been a while since I had a steamed egg custard this densely packed at a BBQ restaurant. But it wasn't dry or overcooked at all — it was very moist, soft in the middle, almost like Japanese chawanmushi. The eggs seemed to have been strained well to remove the stringy bits, giving it that smooth texture.

Why we ordered a second round of pork jowl

Finally, the extra order of pork jowl. The scored pork jowl, with its grain still visible, had an outstanding texture — soft yet chewy.

As the pork jowl's fat popped and sizzled, the texture was crisp-yet-chewy at once — really excellent. The spicy, salty salted seafood cut through the richness nicely, making it even more delicious.

The first bite I dipped just in salt, then next I tried salt with fresh wasabi on top. Since it's a fatty cut, even a generous amount of wasabi wasn't too spicy.

The green onion salad also seemed freshly prepared — crisp and pungent, and it went really well with the pork jowl.

The salted seafood was simmered with sliced garlic and chopped peppers. It was delicious spooned over the meat. This is truly top-tier meat that shows what makes pork jowl a Cheongju specialty.

As the salted seafood reduces down, its saltiness gets stronger, so later on I ended up eating it together with the steamed egg custard too.

The pork jowl was also great wrapped in lettuce! I'd usually only wrap pork neck or pork belly, but ordering extra pork jowl let me enjoy it in wraps as much as I wanted. With so many side dishes available, I threw in a bit of everything, and it all came together nicely.

Tasting it firsthand, I understood why locals in Songjeol-dong recommend Baeksan Hwarro Cheongju as one of the go-to pork belly restaurants in Cheongju.