Monday 5:30pm at a Jongno 3-ga outdoor BBQ: 38 teams waiting, Tapgol

Where is Tapgol Gongwon Jongno 3-ga Branch, and what are its hours?

Tapgol Gongwon Jongno 3-ga Branch is an outdoor Korean BBQ restaurant at 111 Supyo-ro, 1st floor, Jongno-gu, Seoul. It's open from 17:00 to 01:00.

We rushed out from early this morning to hit Seosullla-gil and the hot spots of Jongno 3-ga. These days the young and cool crowd hangs out around here, and starting Monday we hit 3 places — all satisfying. I'll go through them one by one in posts from now on.

Now that the weather is getting cooler, outdoor seating (yajang) is at its best, and wow, Jongno 3-ga was basically the holy land of yajang. The place we went to was Tapgol Gongwon Jongno 3-ga Branch, a Korean BBQ spot known in Jongno 3-ga.

Already full at 5:30pm on a Monday

Tapgol Gongwon Jongno 3-ga Branch opens at 5pm, and when we arrived around 5:30, everything was already packed except for about 5 tables. And there was a waiting line the entire time we were eating.

We were seated right away and could order immediately from the menu attached to the table. On weekends and holidays, apparently the meal time is inevitably limited to 1 hour 30 minutes.

Flash-frozen pork belly price and what we ordered at Tapgol Gongwon

At Tapgol Gongwon Jongno 3-ga Branch, flash-frozen pork belly is 18,000 won per serving, and soju is 5,000 won a bottle. Our plan had been to keep it simple — 2 servings of pork belly, 1 bottle of soju, and fried rice — since we'd already had tacos and coffee, but the yajang vibe at this Jongno 3-ga spot got us and we ended up with 3 servings of pork belly and 2 bottles of soju.

Basket utensils and a tray of banchan (side dishes)

Baskets were set between tables, holding paper cups, chopsticks, spoons, beer glasses, and soju glasses for the meal. And a whole tray of banchan (side dishes) came out — green onion kimchi, seasoned squid, raw garlic, chili peppers, bracken fern, napa cabbage kimchi, ssamjang (dipping sauce), wasabi, seasoned bean sprouts, julienned radish, and a pepper shaker.

The stone-wall alley once the sun sets and the lights come on

As it got dark and the lights came on, Tapgol Gongwon Jongno 3-ga Branch got more and more amazing with that outdoor yajang atmosphere.

When the pork came out, we heated up the grill and threw it on right away. We grilled the kimchi, bracken fern, bean sprouts, and garlic from the banchan tray together in the pork fat, and sprinkled the pork belly generously with pepper as it cooked. The weather's gotten much cooler and crisper lately, so grilling meat outdoors like this made the whole vibe amazing. The soju kept going down smoothly.

Flash-frozen pork belly with grilled kimchi and bracken fern

At Tapgol Gongwon Jongno 3-ga Branch, the well-grilled flash-frozen pork belly tasted great paired with the kimchi grilled in pork fat, or with the grilled bracken fern. Honestly it was good even just with ssamjang on top, but grilling the banchan and eating it together was a real treat.

The self-serve bar: lettuce for wraps and free refills

While eating, if any banchan ran short, we could go grab more ourselves at the self-serve bar area. Lettuce leaves for wraps, which weren't part of the basic side dishes, were also there at the self-serve bar.

We laid down a lettuce leaf and piled on seasoned bean sprouts and bracken fern, then wrapped it all up. Honestly, eating it with the kimchi grilled in pork fat suited my taste the best.

After finishing 2 servings of meat, we ordered 1 more serving of flash-frozen pork belly.

Took a couple more photos while eating. This spot has a view of the Tapgol Park wall, and people passed by every now and then. The outdoor yajang atmosphere was just crazy good.

It was a Monday, but it felt just like a weekend — there were so many people. Jongno 3-ga is a bit far from home so we don't get there often, but while eating my wife and I both said we wanted to come back here again before it gets too cold.

38 teams waiting, as seen on the tablet at checkout

After finishing our meal, when we paid, we checked the waiting list on the tablet — a whopping 38 teams were waiting.

We had a great dinner at Tapgol Gongwon Jongno 3-ga Branch, a hot-spot Korean BBQ restaurant in Jongno 3-ga. If you want to properly grill pork belly at an outdoor table before this autumn ends, this is a place I'd recommend without hesitation. Autumn really does call for yajang.