Korean BBQ near Eungam Station with zero-alcohol beer for pregnant

Yukjjip is a hot spot in Eunpyeong-gu right now. I went on a weekend a little later in the evening and there were 7 parties waiting, so I bailed and tried again on a weekday instead. Ugh, the ₩1,000 soju and ₩2,000 beer event was supposed to end in August, but I visited in September and it's been extended through October, haha.

I didn't even expect it, but there was 0.00 zero-alcohol beer for me since I'm pregnant (of the domestic 0.00 beers, Terra is the tastiest, and they have Terra!), free baby rice and a high chair for kids, and they even grill the meat for you. Honestly, it felt like the perfect place.

My neighbors in Eunpyeong had raved about Yukjjip's soondubu jjigae, and I ended up ordering three side dishes on top of that, so let me recommend what's worth recommending. Very, very satisfied.

Hours and amenities

• Mon–Sat 12:00–24:00 / Sunday 12:00–23:00
• 558 Bulgwangcheon-gil, Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul (Eungam-dong 112-24)
• Group seating / high chair / reservations / corkage (paid)
• No parking / Zero Pay / Seoul Pay

When does the wait start at Yukjjip near Eungam Station?

On a weekend I came around 7:20pm and there was a wait, but on a weekday at 6:50pm there was none, haha. Seems like 7pm is the tipping point. When we sat down, more than half the 2nd floor was still open, but it filled up completely in just 5 minutes, wild.

Living up to the name Yukjjip ("juicy meat house"), the meat's juices really were excellent — it's Jirisan Handon pork. Outside the store there's a sign for ₩1,000 soju and ₩2,000 beer, originally through August but now extended to October. If you come before 6pm you can get a free doenjang stew or sausage, so if you've got the time, come early and grab it. I have plenty of time too, but my friends don't, so I waited for my husband and we got there around 7, haha.

1st vs. 2nd floor seating, and which spot to avoid

Both floors seem to have 6-person tables. The 1st floor was full so I only glanced at it on the way up, but yeah, that's how it looked. The tables weren't packed tightly together, which I liked.

The 2nd floor has plenty of 4-person and 6-person tables. Since there were two of us, we grabbed a 4-person table, and later I saw several 2-person parties seated at 6-person tables. I'm glad we came a bit early and got the 4-person one — when there's a wait and I have to take a bigger table than my party size needs, I get a little anxious, haha.

The kitchen is on the 1st floor and food comes up by a dumbwaiter, so I wouldn't recommend the table right next to it — it's noisy, and ash flies around every time they clear the grill.

Menu board and hearty meal set prices

You can see the menu board both outside and inside; the tablet also has galmaegisal (pork skirt meat), pork skin, and minari. There's a hearty meal set (1 stew + 1 rice) with a ₩1,000 discount, so on multiple recommendations I ordered both the soondubu jjigae and the yeolmu bibimbap. Just the soondubu alone is ₩7,000, but adding the bibimbap makes it ₩10,000 — effectively a ₩2,000 discount, what a steal.

Even after the discount event ends, soju is still ₩3,000 and beer ₩4,000, which is really reasonable, haha.

What we ordered that day

• Signature pork neck ₩17,000
• Whole pork belly ₩17,000
• Hearty meal set ₩8,000 (+₩1,000 yeolmu bibimbap, +₩1,000 spicy soondubu jjigae)
• Yeolmu mul-guksu ₩6,000
• Soju ₩1,000 x 2
• Beer ₩2,000 x 2

The "customer appreciation event" — was it an event telling customers to be appreciative...? Well, I'm very appreciative either way, haha. Extended through October 31.

Side dishes, house sauce, and the patented grill

Check the hearty meal set options and extra charges beforehand. You can choose the spice level for the spicy soondubu jjigae. The base level is called "gap-level spicy" which scared me a bit, but honestly it was more like yeolla-myeon (a spicy instant noodle) level. The tofu and egg seem to mellow it out.

Lots and lots of side dishes! The dipping sauces here were a bit unusual — there's seasoned salted shrimp, and a house sauce that looks like anchovy paste. The house sauce felt like a ssamjang base but somehow spicier, with something extra mixed in, haha.

There's also green onion kimchi, baek-kimchi (white kimchi) that you can also grill, myeongi-namul (wild garlic leaves), and seasoned bean sprouts. Whether it's the chili flakes or the sprouts themselves, that bean sprout side was spicy — eating it made me even more excited for the soondubu, haha.

The grill is apparently a patented design. I thought it was just gas underneath, but there's actually charcoal inside — good to know.

Terra 0.00 zero-alcohol beer, safe for pregnancy

Honestly, non-alcoholic beer is genuinely rare. Usually places just don't have any, so I have to ask if I can bring my own, or they say they have "zero" but it turns out to be 0.0% which I still can't drink since I'm pregnant — I've had to settle for soft drinks so many times without having brought anything. But here they actually have Terra 0.00 bottled beer that pregnant people can drink!!

(I've tried all the 0.00 beers, and Terra is the best.) My husband said seeing the non-alcoholic beer and the baby rice made him think this is a really considerate restaurant, haha.

Two servings of signature pork neck, grilled by staff

Since the name is Yukjjip, I figured the thick pork neck would be great, so I ordered that. The other cuts are fine as single servings, but if you order pork neck alone, you need a minimum of 2 servings.

They grill everything for you! Maybe because the meat is thick, but even with one staff member covering three tables at once, they flipped and cut with perfect timing, haha. They handle the whole grilling process, so Yukjjip clearly employs a lot of staff.

Delicious thick pork neck. As you can see from the raw meat photo, the marbling and fat-to-meat ratio isn't particularly gorgeous, so honestly it wasn't super tender to chew. But the juices inside were so full that dipping it in just salt was amazing. While I was taking photos of the meat, about four drops of juice actually fell to the floor, no joke.

Wrapped in lettuce with the house sauce, it's great. Both the house sauce and the seasoned shrimp are quite salty, but eaten in a wrap it's different from the usual ssamjang and I liked it, haha.

How spicy is the spicy soondubu jjigae?

I had really high expectations for the soondubu jjigae, having heard it's very spicy and delicious, and it truly was a powerful stew, haha. The first bite gives off a yeolla-myeon base vibe, and it's packed with soondubu, egg, and zucchini, making you want to just dump a bowl of white rice right in.

The spice level was honestly not quite as intense as I expected. The "gap-level" spicy noodles need a sharp intake of breath to eat, but this was more like yeolla-myeon level, maybe because of the tofu and egg. No need to be too scared of it (unless you're really sensitive to spice)!

There's also a decent amount of chadolbaegi (thinly sliced beef brisket) inside. I remember about five pieces, and it wasn't scrap meat — it was proper chadolbaegi!

Yeolmu bibimbap goes well with the soondubu jjigae

The yeolmu bibimbap (young radish greens rice bowl) turned out to be even more to my taste than expected. I didn't notice while eating, but thinking back, the portion was pretty generous — though it wasn't a full bowl of rice on its own. I thought there'd be a lot of gochujang, but it wasn't salty at all — if anything, the sweetness of the gochujang made it even tastier, haha.

If you're ordering it alongside the soondubu jjigae like we did, I'd recommend mixing it lightly seasoned and eating it together with the stew. Actually, I just recommend this combo itself, full stop.

Order extra pork belly early

The sides were so good I wanted to order more, so we got pork belly. It's a single serving, but you know it'll be good, right?! Since the place was busy, even the add-on order took a bit of time, and the meat also takes time to cook, so order extra early.

Like the pork neck, the pork belly's lean parts had a firm texture. But each piece definitely had fat attached, and chewing it together brought everything into balance nicely, haha. Having tried both, next time I'll probably just order the set — belly, neck, and gabrisal (pork skirt) set.

Finishing with yeolmu mul-guksu

Seeing another table's order go out with a mountain of yeolmu, I ordered the yeolmu mul-guksu (cold noodle soup with young radish greens) too, haha. It wasn't the tangy cold-noodle-style broth I expected, but there was plenty of yeolmu, the ice was refreshingly cold, and it made a good ending.

Hyoju (baby's pregnancy nickname), your mom and dad drank a bit too much today... Now that I know one solid place with zero-alcohol beer, I'll be back whenever I feel like drinking beer at a bar before giving birth, haha. Well, even without that, I'll probably come back just thinking about the soondubu and yeolmu bibimbap.