Seoul Korean BBQ with a 20-minute evening wait: Sansol Sinnonhyeon

Today I finally checked out Sansol, a well-known spot near Sinnonhyeon Station. I'd walked past it so many times, but when I actually went to visit, it turned out to be a real must-visit with an actual wait! Let me show you around.

Sansol Sinnonhyeon hours, parking and corkage

• Hours: Weekdays 16:00 - 23:00 / Weekends 12:00 - 22:30
• Group dining and reservations available
• Corkage available (free or paid depending on the bottle)
• Parking available — 2 hours at the mechanical lot of the Designers Hotel across the street (₩3,000 small car, ₩5,000 large car)

How long is the wait? 20 minutes at 7:20pm

Sansol near Sinnonhyeon Station specializes in aged pork BBQ. This is the exterior, and the entrance is over on the right. Sansol is on the first floor.

When I arrived there was already a small wait. I got there around 7:20pm and waited about 20 minutes before getting in~

While waiting I noticed a grilling meister certificate hanging on the wall. Apparently it's a certification for knowing how to grill meat deliciously...

Once it was time to be seated, we went in and waited briefly inside. Right away you can see the meat, and it looked fresh and neatly stored.

I thought only beef had grades, but apparently pork has grades too~ Sansol is 1+ grade!! Thanks to antibiotic-free pork and a specially made grill plate, you get to enjoy really good quality meat deliciously.

Inside Sansol Sinnonhyeon: window seats and atmosphere

Here's the inside of the restaurant~ I liked the old-school interior style. There were a lot of people, and it seemed like a place people really use for work dinners too. With so many people there, it felt like a proven spot, so I was excited.

The country-of-origin sign... everything is domestic except the aged kimchi~! We got lucky and were shown to an empty window seat! It was spacious, so there were glasses, bottles, and cups along the window.

What we ordered at Sansol Sinnonhyeon and what it cost

You order using a tablet... we ordered

• Sansol aged flower pork neck (150g) ₩17,000
• Samgaksal (150g) *limited quantity ₩17,000
• Country doenjang jjigae ₩9,000
• Kkakdugi fried rice (2 servings) ₩10,000

That's what we ordered.

When there's a wait, the seating time is limited to 2 hours~!

This is the water... was that a Del Monte bottle? There was ice water inside it so it stayed cold for a long time...

Maldon salt, dressed lettuce and the side dishes

Here are the basic side dishes~ There's really a lot of variety... I especially loved the Maldon salt, aged kimchi, and dressed lettuce. That dressed lettuce is seriously so good...

They also showed us an explanation of the side dishes as they came out. I really liked that.

The yuzu radish salad was refreshing and really delicious... and the aged kimchi seemed like it would go perfectly with the meat. As for the lettuce, it's the kind of flavor you keep wanting to eat.

Flower pork neck and samgaksal, grilled by the staff

Then the meat we ordered arrived. I got flower pork neck and samgaksal. Flower pork neck is the signature menu item, and samgaksal is the limited one..!!

The staff grill it for you, but they said you can also grill it yourself~

Country doenjang jjigae and kkakdugi fried rice

While the meat was grilling, the doenjang jjigae came out right away too. It was served boiling in a stone pot, so it stayed hot for a long time. It was packed with tofu, radish, and meat, and it was so delicious.

The meat in the doenjang jjigae was really so good.

And the kkakdugi fried rice came out right away too! Personally I think mixing in the seaweed flakes for half of it and eating it right away, then eating the rest plain, makes it taste even better...

This is what my boyfriend was eating... I thought it was just plain wasabi at first, but it turned out to be wasabi mixed with pollock roe..!!!! Little details like this set it apart from other BBQ places.

How the meat tastes: chewy samgaksal, pork neck with pa-yukjang dip

While grilling, you can set the meat up here to stay warm from residual heat. And for meat, Maldon salt is truth... a BBQ restaurant using Maldon salt? I feel like that shows they're serious about their meat. And this is the samgaksal — it's really tender and just chewy enough... the more you eat it, the chewier it gets.

There's also the flower pork neck, which is diced pork neck. They said it's delicious dipped in Sansol's pa-yukjang (scallion soy sauce), so I tried it that way. The pork neck was tender and thick, and it was full of that great meaty aroma.

They also grilled the aged kimchi right away.

I ate the aged kimchi together with ssamjang. This was the first time I'd seen white aged kimchi served at a place like this, and I enjoyed it a lot. Eating it, it was so good that I understood exactly why there's a wait.

My boyfriend was eating it up happily haha. It was nice being able to enjoy it in so many different ways.

And the mushrooms..! Usually you'd eat them with ssamjang, but here it's Maldon salt, so we dipped them in salt haha. Really delicious.

While eating, I looked outside and the atmosphere was so nice, with pretty lighting too. And the nice touch of handing out candy on the way out — such a nice detail...

Is Sansol Sinnonhyeon good for group dinners in Gangnam?

So that was my visit to Sansol Sinnonhyeon in Gangnam. It's very close to Sinnonhyeon Station, and since the staff grill the meat for you, it seems like a great spot for gatherings or work dinners. The meat was so tender and chewy that it was genuinely delicious.