Weekend day-drinking black pork BBQ in Gajeong, Incheon: Heukdwaeji

I visited Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul (흑돼지형제들), a BBQ place near Gajeong Station in Ruwon City, Incheon, where the staff grill the meat for you.

What kind of BBQ restaurant is Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul Gajeong Ruwon City Main Branch?

Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul Gajeong Ruwon City Main Branch is a Ruwon City BBQ restaurant where you can taste black pork smoked over a briquette fire. The food is good, but what made it really comfortable is that they grill the meat over the briquette fire for you.

Is Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul good for company dinners, groups and day drinking in Ruwon City?

The inside was tidy and clean, and it's big enough to handle company dinners and group gatherings, so I think it works for anyone looking for a group restaurant in Ruwon City. One corner has private rooms, so it would also suit a wedding-invitation get-together (cheongmo), I think?!

On weekends it opens at 12, so you can have great pork with daytime drinks, which makes it good for anyone hunting for a daytime-drinking spot near Gajeong Station in Ruwon City. My group went to Heukhyeong (흑형, as people shorten the name) at around 2 p.m. and went all out on daytime drinks, haha

What side dishes come with BBQ at Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul?

These are the side dishes to eat with the meat. The owner said even the salad sauce is made in-house. They also gave a little plug for the myeongi-namul (pickled wild garlic-chive leaves), saying it's expensive stuff. The chili powder comes straight from a relative of theirs, so it's Korean-grown, they told us.

The acorn jelly in the muksabal (chilled acorn jelly bowl) side dish is also said to be made with 100% Korean acorn flour, and it had little bitterness and tasted great.

Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul menu and the 600g Yukbaek-i set

Here is the menu at Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul, the Ruwon City BBQ place.

We ordered the Yukbaek-i set (육백이, pork neck + pork belly, 600g), which includes Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul's signature pork neck. It's meat aged for 7 days, and even the color of the pork was different. Bright red black pork!

How does the charcoal briquette pre-grilling work?

At Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul they pre-grill the meat over the briquette fire first and bring it to you. The pork neck was so thick it looked like a beef steak. It's a thickness that's normally hard to grill on your own, so I liked that the staff grill it for you.

I thought such thick meat would take forever to pre-grill, but our pork neck was cooking faster than expected! They pre-grilled the thick pork neck first, and next to it did the thin pork belly too. A fire show on two burners at once! haha

It's been ages since I had briquette-grilled pork, and the smell alone was something else. A subtle smoky fire flavor soaked in. Personally I found the fire flavor even better than charcoal-grilled meat.

Even after the briquette pre-grill, they grill the pork at the table for you. All you have to do is eat, which was really convenient.

Thick aged pork neck with brine-drained Shinan salt

First I dipped the pork neck in the Shinan salt that the restaurant itself removes the brine (gansu) from. The pork neck was thick like a steak, so I figured it must have been very hard to cook over a briquette fire. Even though the meat was thick, it was cooked through, and despite being pork neck it was very moist and tender. And the juices just burst out, pop pop.

My companion said the pork at Heukhyeong in Ruwon City tastes better than beef. And the salt is really the kicker: because the brine is removed, it isn't salty and a sweetness comes through. The pork neck was great and the salt was great, and I enjoyed it so much even without touching the other side dishes.

How was the aged black pork belly?

And the pork belly, which I really enjoyed!

The skin of the pork belly at Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul was incredibly chewy, and the fat layer had no greasiness at all. It was a very nutty, rich pork belly. And juices ran down like I'd never seen from regular pork belly before.

Pairing the pork with wasabi, pickled wild garlic leaves and meljeot (anchovy sauce)

The pork neck and pork belly are delicious with just salt, but they're also really good with the wasabi that has shiitake mushrooms in it and with myeongi-namul.

The owner also said they season this meljeot (salted anchovy dipping sauce) themselves, and it had no fishy taste at all, just a deep savory flavor, and it was delicious.

If you soak the meat in the meljeot and top it with chili pepper and green onion, it actually tastes clean.

The king oyster mushrooms aren't grilled directly on the fire either; they're wrapped in foil and cooked over the fire as if steamed, so they were really moist and delicious.

Is the black pork gochujang stew a must-order?

The dish that really moved me at Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul was the black pork gochujang stew (gochujang-jjigae). You can barely see any broth, just a stew packed with solids, and it's a must-order. It has no stuffy heaviness and isn't salty, but it's not bland either.

It calls for rice, so I had no choice but to order a bowl of steamed rice and mix it in. It's a gochujang stew I really keep thinking about T_T It isn't harsh, yet it's savory and delicious.

How was the extra pork jowl?

Honestly I was full and was going to stop, but I figured I'd regret not eating the pork jowl (hangjeong-sal), so I ordered more, hehe

They just grilled the jowl at our table.

At other pork places, if you order jowl you get a cut that's half fat and half lean, but at Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul in Ruwon City the jowl has barely any fat layer at all.

Jowl is a special cut, and the owner said even they can't get enough to eat themselves, yet even with all the fat trimmed off they gave us a lot. Because it has little fat, the jowl felt light and clean. And that signature jowl texture was still fully there.

The bomb steamed egg (gyeran-jjim) has a whole 4 eggs in it, so I felt really stuffed.

Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul Gajeong Ruwon City Main Branch: final verdict

I enjoyed Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul in Ruwon City more than Jeju black pork geun-gogi (thick-cut pork). The pork is aged very well, so the juice-filled pork neck was incredibly tasty. The chewy pork belly and the richly meaty jowl were great too. Aged black pork is definitely softer and more savory than regular white pork. You could tell they put a lot of care into the ingredients and side dishes.

And most importantly, they grill the meat really well. If it were a self-grill place, I don't think it would have tasted this good. It was a pork spot I enjoyed so much that I keep thinking about it and will surely go back to Heukdwaeji Hyeongjedeul in Ruwon City again!

• Address: 15 Yeomgok-ro 464beon-gil, Seo-gu, Incheon, South Korea (1st floor, units 101–103; Gajeong-dong 619-7)
• Hours: weekdays 16:30–24:00 / weekends 12:00–24:00
• Parking: underground parking available