Aged kimchi pork belly grill in Cheonan Sinbu-dong: Sampyeong Sikdang

Who else loves piling everything onto the grill instead of just cooking the meat plain when eating naengsam (frozen pork belly)?! Me, obviously haha.

This time at Sampyeong Sikdang Cheonan Sinbu Branch, I got to eat exactly the way I like. We grilled old kimchi and minari right next to the frozen pork belly in the meat's own fat, worked through the dirty egg custard and doenjang sulbap, and then — since we were part of a review event — we also got perilla oil cold noodles... so much for saying I was full, I ate more haha.

But funnily enough, our side dish tastes were totally split. My pick was the doenjang sulbap with the nice anchovy broth flavor, my husband's pick was the nutty perilla oil cold noodles! We went back and forth arguing which was better, and ended up piling leftover pork belly onto the noodles before we left haha.

So let me show you everything, from the pork belly to the sides :)

Where is Sampyeong Sikdang Cheonan Sinbu Branch, and when is it open?

Sampyeong Sikdang Cheonan Sinbu Branch sits in the food alley near Cheonan Terminal and Shinsegae Department Store. The address is 9 Meokgeori9-gil, 1F 102, 103-ho, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do.

• Hours: Weekdays 15:00 - 24:00
• Weekends/holidays 13:00 - 24:00
• Last order 23:00

Right outside the restaurant, the signage listed everything we needed to eat — frozen pork belly, dirty egg custard, perilla oil cold noodles, doenjang sulbap. And we... pretty much finished all of it haha.

What comes in the 45,000 won set for two to three people

We ordered the set menu for 2-3 people this time.

Per the menu, the 2-3 person set costs 45,000 won and includes 450g of frozen pork belly, a small dirty egg custard, and a choice of one side dish. Our side pick: doenjang sulbap!

Before the pork belly arrived, the basic banchan (side dishes) were set out — shredded scallions, lettuce wraps, garlic, kimchi, and more to eat alongside the meat.

Once the table was set and the pork belly showed up, the whole table filled up instantly haha. Alright, time to grill.

Grilling frozen pork belly with aged kimchi and minari

As soon as the pork belly arrived, we laid it on the grill and threw on old kimchi, minari, and garlic right beside it! You can't come to a naengsam place and not grill kimchi — that's simply not allowed haha. Sampyeong Sikdang's signage notes they use 100% domestic old kimchi, by the way.

The old kimchi sizzled away in the pork fat while the minari cooked right next to it — ah, the smell alone was already a win haha. And since the pork belly is thin, it cooked fast too, which was great.

First a bite of the nicely browned pork belly, then some minari on top, then old kimchi, then grilled garlic together with it...

Same meat, but the combinations kept changing haha. We came here for pork belly near Cheonan Terminal and ended up devouring minari and old kimchi with just as much enthusiasm.

Why the lettuce wraps kept getting bigger

It started modestly, I swear. One piece of pork belly, a little minari.

But after a few rounds, we were layering lettuce, then perilla leaves, then pork belly, then old kimchi, then minari, then grilled garlic, then ssamjang (dipping sauce)... at this point isn't it a full meal rather than a wrap? Still, a wrap's gotta be big to be good, packed into one big bite haha.

Because the pork belly itself is thin, it went well even piled high with vegetables and everything else, and adding the old kimchi and minari grilled in the meat fat gave a totally different flavor from eating the pork belly alone. So we came to Sinbu-dong for pork belly and ended up cleaning off everything on the grill, not just the meat haha.

What does the dirty steamed egg taste like?

And the dirty egg custard that kept catching our attention next to the meat! The name alone already sounded serious

The egg custard really... escaped its earthenware pot haha. It puffed up dramatically with melted cheese dripping down, so it looked striking right away. Scoop it with a spoon and you get soft, cloud-like egg and cheese together

It was great for scooping a soft spoonful between bites of pork belly. A bite of meat, a bite of wrap, then a spoonful of this... dishes like this are sneaky dangerous because before you know it, you've hit the bottom haha.

Doenjang sulbap, the side dish we picked

And now, the doenjang sulbap I picked as my side!

This was my favorite side of the day. You know how some doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) at BBQ places tastes rich and sweet, almost like they dissolved ssamjang into it?

But Sampyeong Sikdang's doenjang sulbap wasn't like that at all — it had that clean anchovy broth flavor in the soybean paste soup! So the broth was cleaner and more savory than expected, and with rice mixed right in, it was easy to scoop up spoonful after spoonful.

Fishing out tofu, mushrooms, and vegetables, then a big spoonful of rice and broth together, plus a piece of pork belly on the side...

I preferred this over the cold noodles haha. If you like eating doenjang jjigae with rice after your meat, I'd recommend trying the doenjang sulbap too.

Perilla oil buckwheat noodles from the review event

This one wasn't part of the set menu side — it's what we got for participating in the review event.

Honestly, by this point we'd already eaten the pork belly, the egg custard, and the doenjang sulbap... I was thinking "I'm full, can I really eat this too?" And yes. Turns out I could. The buckwheat noodles came topped generously with sesame seeds and seaweed flakes, plus vegetables and cheongyang chili (spicy green chili) on the side.

Mixing it all together, the seasoning coated the noodles evenly and that nutty aroma hit immediately!

My husband must have really liked this one — he said the perilla oil cold noodles were his favorite side of the day haha. Me over here scooping doenjang sulbap, him over there eating cold noodles. Our tastes couldn't have split more clearly haha.

Is Sampyeong Sikdang Cheonan Sinbu Branch worth a visit?

Me: doenjang sulbap with anchovy broth. Him: perilla oil cold noodles! Tastes split, but we left having thoroughly polished off the pork belly too haha

That day at Sampyeong Sikdang, we grilled pork belly with old kimchi and minari together, dug into the dirty egg custard, spooned up the doenjang sulbap, and in the end piled the leftover pork belly onto the perilla oil cold noodles.

This basically turned into a full-course meal that started as "let's just get some pork belly" haha. What I liked most was that it wasn't just endless pork belly — we kept switching combinations with old kimchi, minari, egg custard, and the sides. If you want a hearty pork belly meal with plenty of extras near Cheonan Terminal, check out Sampyeong Sikdang Cheonan Sinbu Branch :)

And if you're planning to try the perilla oil cold noodles too... make sure to save a piece or two of pork belly for it haha.