Hongdae Station Korean BBQ with outdoor grill seats: Chopilsal

Wait-list territory by evening. Chopilsal Pork Grill Hongdae Branch was the place near Hongdae Station that had an unusually large crowd gathered outside. With a name like Chopilsal ("ultra deadly"), I was curious whether the taste would really be as overwhelming as the name suggests-

Chopilsal Pork Grill

• Mon-Thu 12:00-24:00 / Fri-Sun 12:00-2:00 (last order 1 hour before close)
• 172 Donggyo-ro, 1st & 2nd floor, Mapo-gu, Seoul
• No parking

How to get to Chopilsal Pork Grill from Hongdae Station, and the wait

Chopilsal Pork Grill Hongdae Branch is easy to find from Hongdae Station, and its bold red sign catches your eye from far away. That day, my sibling was performing in a company musical, and right after the show ended we headed straight to Chopilsal for dinner.

There were quite a lot of foreign guests too. We showed up on the spur of the moment and put our name on the Catch Table waitlist while we waited- Naver reservations are also accepted for regular and group guests.

There's also a coupon you can use if you visit at lunchtime. Up to ₩4,000 off for guests visiting between 12:00 and 16:00.

Chopilsal started in Busan, and this was my first visit — turns out the flagship store is in Haeundae, Busan? Starting in Busan and expanding all the way to Seoul. My expectations for the taste were high. The restaurant is split across the 1st and 2nd floors, and the 2nd floor seemed to be mainly for group guests.

What is on the menu at Chopilsal? Pork skin is the signature

The signature dish at Chopilsal Pork Grill Hongdae Branch is the deadly pork skin (필살 껍데기). Looking at the menu, there's a wide range of meats and meal items — pork skin, pork belly, dwitgogi, pork ribs and more — but usually pork skin is treated as a side dish at other BBQ places. Here it's the signature menu, so I couldn't not try it.

There's also an ongoing event: write a Naver photo review and get 80g of pork skin free.

2 servings of salted ogyeopsal, 1 serving of dwitgogi, and the side dishes

We ordered 2 servings of salted pork belly plus 1 serving of dwitgogi. Chopilsal Pork Grill Hongdae Branch requires a minimum of 3 servings for the first meat order.

Side dishes come out neatly — pickled radish, myeongyi namul (mountain garlic leaf), fresh vegetable salad, and cheongyang chili peppers — plus salted pollack roe (myeongnanjeot) as a default.

Between bites of meat, the palate-cleansing doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) had a rich, savory broth. The tofu was diced small, making it easy to eat spoonful by spoonful, with a nice texture too.

Salted ogyeopsal grilled at the first-floor outdoor seats: the flames flared up

We started grilling in earnest at the 1st-floor outdoor seating of Chopilsal Pork Grill Hongdae Branch, beginning with the salted pork belly-

One thing that was a bit disappointing: because it's outdoor seating, the wind occasionally caused the flames to flare up suddenly. We even swapped the grill plate once, but the flames still jumped up startlingly a few times, which was a bit of a downside. Still, the salted pork belly was very tasty..!

Since it's seasoned with salt, you don't even need extra sauce — the clean, savory-salty flavor was really delicious..

Pour a little soju into the salted shrimp sauce (melljeot) and finely chop in some cheongyang chili peppers. Dip a piece of pork belly in and it instantly makes you want a drink- and then, minari time.

More and more BBQ places serve minari (water celery/dropwort) alongside meat these days, and it's a combination that never fails.

Minari's fresh aroma cuts right through the richness, doubling the savory flavor.

What does dwitgogi (off-cut pork) taste like?

Next, we grilled the dwitgogi (pork neck meat)

Almost no greasiness, with a distinctly chewy texture. Easy to enjoy without any strong love-it-or-hate-it reaction.

Chopilsal's signature honeycomb pork skin

The signature dish of Chopilsal Pork Grill, the deadly pork skin, was grilled by a staff member and brought to us already ready to eat.

Dense honeycomb-pattern scoring! Apparently Chopilsal was the first place to develop and introduce this honeycomb-cut pork skin back in 2015?

The sauce soaks in with a sweet richness, and the more you chew, the chewier and springier it gets. Dip it in the soybean powder for extra nuttiness on top of the clean flavor. Collagen recharge complete!

After tasting it, I understood exactly why pork skin is the signature dish here. From pork belly to pork skin, we ate until thoroughly full. If you're looking for a Korean BBQ restaurant near Hongdae Station that does pork belly and pork skin right, Chopilsal Pork Grill Hongdae Branch comes recommended.