BYOB whisky beef BBQ in Yeonsinnae: ₩65,900 three-cut set, Golmokjip

What kind of Korean BBQ restaurant is Golmokjip Galbisal in Yeonsinnae?

Golmokjip Galbisal is a beef galbisal (rib meat) BBQ restaurant that opened in Yeonsinnae (a while ago now, haha). My husband and I went on a weekday evening, brought our own whisky, drank it corkage-free and ate the Golmok mixed set.

I think it was early after opening when I walked past in daylight, and it was packed. I figured a Yeonsinnae BBQ spot with a crazy waiting line had appeared. After my husband got back from his reserve forces training, it was still early and nobody was there yet, so we slipped in for a quick meal.

Honestly, at first I thought the difference was just opening-week hype and that it was disappointing enough to be this empty... (totally wrong). While eating, I saw the meat itself is excellent, and the set's doenjang sulbap and the self-serve ramyeon are all great. No wonder it has reservations even on weekdays, plus a full house and a wait. 👏👏

On top of that, my husband wanted whisky and bought a bottle at the PX, and since corkage is free we got to drink it too!! Here's my review of this Yeonsinnae BBQ place, made even better by how friendly everyone was~

Golmokjip Galbisal Yeonsinnae Main Branch: location and seating

Golmokjip Galbisal Yeonsinnae Main Branch is at 12-9 Yeonseo-ro 27-gil, Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, 1st floor, in a Yeonsinnae alley, open 16:00–23:00. Groups and reservations are possible, and corkage is free.

You can check the menu briefly out front, though not the prices in detail. But they give so many freebies that I bet you'd be tempted walking past 🤭🤭

The place is deeper than it looks, so there are lots of seats. Besides the entrance area, there's a row after row of tables for 8 further inside. Some tables were reserved that day, and we were the first customers, haha (we came on a weekday just after 6). By the time we left it was full with a waiting line!! If you're a group, I recommend reserving.

The restroom is inside too. I noticed later that they keep all sorts of things in front of it: mouthwash, floss, wet wipes, hair ties, hand cream and some kind of boosting cream..? too.

Does Golmokjip Galbisal have free corkage? Bringing your own whisky

Yes, Golmokjip Galbisal is corkage-free. It's not a fancy bottle, just a whisky you can buy cheaply at the PX, haha. I told them when we arrived and they brought shot glasses for us!!

Corkage-free, nice~~ If you're looking for a corkage-free restaurant in Yeonsinnae, I highly recommend this one. The meat is good, you can cook ramyeon, the seating is roomy and the staff are kind, so there's no reason not to come.

Golmokjip Galbisal menu and how to order

At Golmokjip Galbisal you first order a platter (hanpan) menu, then add single items if you need more. It doesn't say a platter is mandatory, but you should order one, because that's how you get the side and ramyeon freebies.. haha.

• One free doenjang stew (sulbap) when you order a platter or mixed set
• 2 free Hangang ramyeon per table

Even though corkage is free, the drink list is surprisingly varied, so you can pick what you like! (They said you can bring non-alcoholic drinks too.)

What we ordered at Golmokjip Galbisal

• Golmok mixed set (brisket + beef galbi + marinated beef galbi) ₩65,900 (+₩1,000 to swap in sulbap)
• Mul-bibim banban naengmyeon (half cold-broth, half spicy-mix cold noodles) ₩6,900
• Soft drink ₩2,000
• Corkage free

If you write a receipt review you might get a side dish. We skipped the review event and just ordered. (Even though I'm a top-300 receipt reviewer, I usually don't do them.)

The doenjang stew or sulbap isn't an option when you order the set; it's listed separately, so be sure to order it on its own!! We swapped to sulbap and paid +₩1,000.

Golmokjip Galbisal side dishes and dipping sauces

The basic banchan (side dishes) are dried radish strips, napa cabbage kimchi, pickled onion and pickled perilla leaves, and they set them all out in a flash once you sit down. I recently saw a place that lays out the sides before customers arrive, and that makes them dry out, which isn't good~~

The soy sauce next to the salt was a little unusual. The flavor is familiar, but it's kind of sticky, if that makes sense~

They give you lettuce wraps, ssamjang, fresh wasabi and whole-grain mustard, lots of things to dab on, so it's great.

The fire is here~~ At first the heat was so strong it almost gave me a headache 😂😂 Even though I grill slowly, the fire never died down till the end, so I could grill everything nicely, haha.

What's in the Golmok mixed set? (brisket, rib meat and marinated rib meat)

The Golmok mixed set at Golmokjip Galbisal is brisket 100g, galbisal 150g and made-to-order marinated galbisal 250g, so it's all beef!! How does the set look?!?!

The set menus in reviews I read before coming looked disappointing, so I thought I'd end up with a plain beef rib platter, but this Golmok set was good!! (Personally the ratios of each were to my taste too.) And doesn't the brisket look especially good..? That marbling, wow.. The beef ribs are good too, but the brisket feels like a different class on its own 😂😂

I prefer beef galbisal that's a little marinated, but here you get 150g of the plain, clean-tasting kind and 250g marinated. The marinated beef galbisal at Golmokjip in Yeonsinnae isn't soaked for ages; it's the made-to-order style that gets seasoned and comes out quickly.

Beef brisket with salt and fresh wasabi

Oily brisket causes a blaze if you put a lot on at once, so grill just a little at a time. The grill plate has lots of little holes, so I wondered if it would be okay, but grilling two slices at a time quickly worked great, haha. Just salt and fresh wasabi is the best 👍👍 Such nutty, crisp brisket~~

Beef galbisal: sear the outside hard over high heat

Ugh, the beef galbisal is delicious too.. The heat at Golmokjip is strong, so you can sear the outside properly and leave the inside a little pinkish and underdone, which I loved!!

I'd also recently eaten some not-so-good beef galbisal, so.. the galbisal I ate here was so good. I was getting emotional all by myself, going 'wow, I feel kind of.. good right now..?' and my husband across from me cut me off, saying it's tasty but not that good... lol. It probably tasted better because of the failure right before, but it's still a great beef galbisal place 👏👏

I've kind of gotten out of wrapping ssam lately, but the meat was so good it felt like a waste.. I ate the galbisal as is and only wrapped the brisket. I wrapped a few, but this is meat too good to wrap 😂😂

How does Golmokjip's doenjang sulbap taste?

The doenjang sulbap (soybean paste stew over rice) at Golmokjip Galbisal is a mild style with no spiciness, and it was tastier than I expected. The doenjang sulbap you usually know is a tasty, slightly spicy, salty doenjang stew with a hit of MSG-ish flavor mixed with rice, right? But the sulbap I had here isn't spicy at all.

Are they making it this way so kids can eat it too, or.. am I so pickled in spicy food that I can't taste it.. Anyway, with no punch you might expect to be underwhelmed, but I don't know what's different: my husband and I both loved the sulbap and were sad it ran out at the end 😂 even though it wasn't a small serving..

Is the made-to-order marinated galbisal too sweet or salty?

The made-to-order marinated beef galbisal at Golmokjip Galbisal is clearly lighter in seasoning than the marinated beef galbisal you usually see. I had a glass of iced cola and moved on to the marinated galbisal, and it's not the kind that makes you want rice. Yes, I mean it's not salty and not sweet ^~^

I like pork that's sweet and salty so I crave rice, and beef with only very light seasoning. Here the beef flavor itself comes through better, so it was to my taste, but if you like things that aren't mild, you might find it lacking.

How big is the mul-bibim banban naengmyeon?

The mul-bibim banban naengmyeon (₩6,900) at Golmokjip Galbisal is generous, about 1.7 servings by feel. I wondered if "banban" (half-and-half) was like jjamjjamyeon with two halves, but it was just a mul-bibim style. The amount, though.. it was as if someone just made one mul naengmyeon and one bibim naengmyeon and mixed them together 😂 It doesn't look it, but the pot-style bowl is quite deep, and there's tons of broth.

I deliberately ordered it midway through grilling the marinated meat and it came out at just the right time, so I ate it in a yuk-ssam-naengmyeon style (meat wrapped with noodles), haha. The noodles were really so much that I wondered if I could finish, but hmm~~ I finished it, haha lol. The sides here are big, and my appetite really has grown..😂

How does the free self-serve ramyeon work?

Golmokjip Galbisal gives up to 2 self-serve ramyeon per table as a freebie when you order a platter or mixed set. We passed this time~~ There are 4 kinds of ramyeon, and more people than I expected were cooking them, so next time we'll come and have ramyeon too!! I bet Shin Ramyun with grilled beef ribs would go well, haha.

The owner was kind and lovely, so I gave a thumbs-up on the way out, and I hope other people come to Golmokjip Galbisal and enjoy it too. Thanks for the meal again today~~