Daejeon food alley pork bones with hangover-soup-level broth: Yeonam

Where is Yeonam Charcoal-Grilled Pork Backbone & Gamjatang in Daejeon?

Yeonam Charcoal-Grilled Pork Backbone & Gamjatang (연암숯불뼈구이&감자탕) is a pork bone grill and gamjatang restaurant in the Daeheung-dong eating alley, Jung-gu, Daejeon. It is open daily from 11:30 to 24:00, with last order at 23:30. I had some seriously good pork bone grill here a few days ago, so I wanted to recommend it!

Yeonam sits in the Daeheung-dong eating alley! The big, old-school sign stood out, so it was easy to find. Checking out the menu on the standing sign, I could already tell it was going to be good, haha.

What are the wait and atmosphere like at Yeonam?

Yeonam takes waiting-list entries through Catch Table, a reservation app, and it's a hot Daeheung-dong spot. Yep, that's the proof of a hot spot! Luckily, there was no wait the day we visited.

The inside is spacious all the way to the back, and the tables are nicely spaced out. The atmosphere was good and it felt clean, and judging by the customers, people of all ages and genders come here.

What's on the menu at Yeonam in Daeheung-dong?

Let's take a look at the menu~ For meals there were pork bone hangover soup, boneless hangover ramen and boneless hangover soup. For pork bone grill there was the Banseok (stone-plate) version in small, medium and large, the Yeonam black soy pork bone grill, and a half-and-half where you can try both sauce and salt. They also had gamjatang, potato pancake, rice balls, steamed egg, extra menu items and more.

Side dishes: pickled onions and cheonsachae

Once you finish ordering, the staff set out the side dishes. We got chili peppers, ssamjang (seasoned soybean paste for wraps), pickled onion, stir-fried anchovies and cheonsachae (cellophane-like seaweed noodles), and I enjoyed all of them~ I already love pickled onion, so that was a win, and the cheonsachae felt a little unfamiliar but has a nice crunchy bite and helps tone things down after something spicy, so I ate it happily.

Medium half-and-half pork bone grill and the free tasting broth

Medium half-and-half pork bone grill / steamed rice

We ordered the medium half-and-half pork bone grill and steamed rice. If you're at a pork bone grill place, you obviously have to eat the pork bone grill! And since we could, we went with the medium half-and-half so we could try both salt and sauce flavors. Rice is a must, haha.

Yeonam gives you a tasting dish when you order a pork bone grill, and we picked the tasting broth! It came in a whole earthenware pot with a generous amount, and for a second I thought we'd ordered a hangover soup. One sip and wow, it was incredible. The seasoning was just right and so delicious that I could finish a bowl of rice with this alone... Next time I'll probably order the hangover soup, haha.

Can two people finish a medium half-and-half pork bone grill?

The medium half-and-half pork bone grill at Yeonam was so big that we ended up taking the leftovers to go. Ta-da! The look of it was amazing and the portion was huge. I wondered if we could finish it all, and sure enough we had leftovers to pack. Then I took it home and polished off every last bit as a late-night snack, haha.

How do the sauce and salt pork bone grills taste different?

Sauce pork bone grill: pleasantly spicy and addictive

The sauce pork bones at Yeonam have meaty bones and a spicy kick that's deliciously hot. We tried the sauce version first. Wow... every single bone was meaty and huge, and no matter how much I ate, there was more meat. And the sauce flavor is just so good. It's definitely spicy, but it's the good kind of spicy, so you keep eating, which makes it addictive. Mixing the sauce into rice was great too.

Salt pork bone grill: best if you can't handle spice

The salt pork bones at Yeonam are tender and savory, so they're easy to enjoy without any spice. It was my first time trying the salt version! Since the sauce was so good I was really looking forward to the salt one, and it was very satisfying. The meat was tender with a nice savory depth, a different charm from the sauce one. And if you can't handle spicy food, you'll like it even more~

Is Yeonam in Daeheung-dong worth a return visit?

Yeonam is a Daeheung-dong Korean restaurant I'd happily return to: the place is tidy, the prices are decent and the portions are big. It was filling and delicious. Next time I definitely want to try the pork bone hangover soup and gamjatang too. But... honestly, the pork bone grill is just so good, haha. Forget it, pork bone grill is a must next time too!