Weekend lunch Korean BBQ in Moran, Seongnam: A Set, Mat Chandeul

Hey everyone, it's cute Gwangpali here. Long time no see, right? Enough chit-chat, let's get into the post haha.

There are just some days when hanging out with my boyfriend on the weekend, we suddenly crave meat starting from lunch. That was one of those days — we looked for a lunch-meat place, but the problem was there aren't actually that many pork belly restaurants open from lunchtime. That's how we found Mat Chandeul Wang Sogeum Gui Moran Branch!

Where Mat Chandeul Moran Branch is and when it opens

• Address: 1F Vision Building, 16-7 Dunchon-daero 101beon-gil, Jungwon-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
• Hours: 12:00 – 23:00

This place opens from noon, apparently. I liked that we could get pork belly starting from weekend lunch, so we headed straight over lol.

And after eating, it was better than expected, so I'd really recommend this to anyone looking for good restaurants in Moran.

Inside Mat Chandeul: far bigger than it looks from outside

From the outside, Mat Chandeul Wang Sogeum Gui Moran Branch looked like it might be spacious, but once inside it was way bigger than I thought. A lot of grill houses cram tables right next to each other, but here every table had a partition, so we didn't have to worry about the neighboring table while talking. There's also a private room, whoa. There looked to be plenty of room for groups too, so I thought this place would actually work well for a Moran group dinner.

Looks like once you order, they pull the meat out from over there and cut it themselves?

Samgyeopsal from noon: weekend lunch grilling in Moran

We visited on a weekend for lunch. Most grill houses focus on dinner business, so quite a few don't even open at lunchtime. And on weekdays, there's a separate lunch special menu too. It has everything from the samgyeop set to pork kimchi jjagulee (a thick kimchi-pork stew), a kimchi jjigae set, and a doenjang jjigae set, so it looked like a good option for office workers craving meat at weekday lunch. (Looks like if you reserve ahead, they might even grill it for you too, whoa.) We visited on a weekend though, so we didn't get to try the lunch special lol.

A Set, 47,000 won: 400g pork belly with kimchi jjigae

Instead, that day we ordered the A Set for ₩47,000. It's a set that comes with 400g of meat and a stew together. You can choose between pork belly or pork neck, so we went with pork belly plus kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew).

Here are the basic side dishes. Shredded scallions, wild garlic leaves, mukbap (acorn jelly), white kimchi, lettuce wraps and more — so much variety, whoa.

After I mixed up the scallions like crazy and was scooping up the mukbap, the kimchi jjigae came out first.

The kimchi jjigae comes first, rich and packed with pork

Not long after ordering, the kimchi jjigae arrived first. The broth was pretty rich, feeling like it was made with well-fermented kimchi. Best of all, there was quite a lot of meat inside, which I loved.

(Note: the A Set doesn't come with rice!! You have to order it separately.) We ordered rice separately to eat with the meat.

How thick is the pork belly at Mat Chandeul?

And finally, the pork belly arrived. First of all, the meat was really thick. Seeing the thickness, I thought for a second, can we actually grill this well?... but it was a needless worry lol. A staff member grilled it for us directly.

They grilled the thick pork belly on the pan really skillfully,,, (impressive). They cut it up piece by piece, nice and even, into bite-sized pieces.

Cut this nicely, right?? Amazing?

Pretty, right? So what's left for us to do? Just eat lolllll. Having staff grill it for us was seriously convenient. I can't grill meat well myself anyway... and when you go to a grill house for a group dinner, the junior members always feel pressured to grill, right? This place is the best for that.

How to eat it: grilled baek-kimchi (white kimchi) with green chili

The staff also taught us the tastiest way to eat it — grilling white kimchi on the pan and putting it on top of the meat, then adding chili on top of that too. At first I thought, how good could that possibly be... but this was seriously delicious. Putting grilled white kimchi and chili together with a piece of meat, this combo was oddly addictive. I just tried it once at first, but it was so good I kept eating it this way after that lol.

One cut of pork belly, several ways to taste it

There were also quite a variety of ways to dip or wrap the meat. There's pink salt, ssamjang (dipping sauce), and for wraps there's wild garlic leaves and shredded scallions prepared too. Since mukbap (acorn jelly) also comes as a basic side, having a bite here and there in between helped cut the greasiness.

Same pork belly, but dipped in salt one moment, wrapped in wild garlic leaves the next, eaten with scallions, then topped with white kimchi and chili...

The taste changed completely depending on how you ate it, so it felt fresh the whole time. Before we knew it, the 400g was just gone, whoa.

Seriously so, so good, ugh.

Is Mat Chandeul worth it for pork belly in Moran?

We ended up here while searching for a grill house that opens early on weekend lunch, and it turned out way!!! more satisfying than expected. The restaurant is spacious, the tables have good spacing, and with the private room too, it seemed like a solid choice for a Moran group dinner. And best of all, since the staff grilled the meat for us directly, we could enjoy the thick pork belly comfortably. There's also a weekday lunch special, so it looked good for office workers dropping by for lunch too.

If I'm craving pork belly in Moran again, I think I'd come back here. I've been to over 10 pork belly restaurants in Moran, and this one genuinely ranks in my top three. Can you feel my sincerity? Okay, that's a wrap 20000!