Thick-cut pork samgyeopsal grilled tableside at Hamdon, Siheung

"Here's the spot when you want meat in Jeongwang-dong!" Thick pork done right, at Hamdon.

When you're craving thick pork in Jeongwang-dong

I've been craving good pork lately, so I went to Hamdon in Jeongwang-dong. Meat has to be thick and juicy to feel like you really ate well, right? This time I went in with the mindset of finally eating real meat, and it turned out even better than I expected — I left the meal really satisfied. If you're looking for a Korean BBQ place in Jeongwang-dong, this is one I want to recommend.

🏠 31-1 Jungsimsangga 3-gil, Units 101–102, Siheung-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea ➡️ Signature menu: Hamdon Snowflake Special (★super★highly★recommend★)

We ordered the Hamdon Snowflake Special

We ordered the Hamdon Snowflake Special!! If you go to Hamdon!! Seriously, order this a hundred times over!!

At a Korean BBQ restaurant, the side dishes that come with the meat matter more than you'd think. Eat a bite of meat, then a side dish, then more meat, then wrap something up — before you know it, the table gets pretty full. Eating only meat can get a little greasy, but the complimentary mukmuchim (acorn jelly salad), minari (water celery), and vinegar-chili sauce helped with that. The cool mukmuchim was great to eat between bites of meat, and dipping the minari in the vinegar-chili sauce with the meat gave it a fresh, fragrant lift that went surprisingly well together. Especially with a bite of meat and minari together, I kept reaching for more. 😋

Staff grill the meat for you

Once the meat arrived, the first thing that caught my eye was the thickness. It looked even thicker in person than in photos. Thick cuts like this can easily burn on the outside while staying underdone inside if you're not careful, so grilling is a bit nerve-wracking — but here, the staff grilled it for us.

As the staff grilled, the smell of the meat cooking started rising up, and that's when my hunger really kicked in… 😂

The meat was thicker than I expected and looked really appetizing. A completely different look from thin-cut meat! Thick meat like this is tricky to grill without burning the outside while leaving the inside undercooked, but at Hamdon, the staff handled it for us.

The staff grilled it to the right doneness and cut it up so we could eat right away. Finally taking a bite, the thick cut gave a great chewy texture.

Even one bite made the thickness of the meat obvious, and the flavor came through more the longer I chewed. Personally, I think thick meat like this, properly grilled, is the best kind of meat.

The complimentary minari, vinegar-chili sauce, and mukmuchim

What I really liked while eating was the minari and vinegar-chili sauce. They came complimentary, and paired with the meat, they worked better than I expected. I dipped a bit of minari in the vinegar-chili sauce and ate it with the meat — the savory pork combined with minari's distinct fragrance and the sauce's tangy taste gave it a whole different feel.

There was also complimentary mukmuchim (acorn jelly salad). Taking a cool spoonful in the middle of eating meat cleaned up my palate! Instead of just eating meat nonstop, pairing it with mukmuchim let me enjoy a wider range of flavors. Personally, when a BBQ place has good side dishes like this, it just makes me happy. 😊

The Snowflake Special comes with a variety of cuts

What stuck with me most from this visit to Hamdon, a Jeongwang-dong favorite, was definitely the thick meat. The meat itself was delicious, but having staff grill it for us made everything so easy, and the complimentary mukmuchim, minari, and vinegar-chili sauce all paired well with it.

With the Hamdon Special, you get a variety of cuts, so the flavors are really diverse — even with just a dip of salt it's delicious, and it was even better paired with Hamdon's side dishes!

Since the staff grilled the meat for us, we could enjoy it fully even without being good at grilling ourselves! The king oyster mushrooms grilled alongside the meat were also chewy just like the meat, and they were so good!

Lettuce wraps at no extra charge

We ordered the lettuce wrap greens with no extra charge and wrapped the meat up generously, haha. Wrap lovers, you absolutely have to add the wrap greens and eat it that way!! Haha!!

Among all the wraps, the one with minari inside was the best! The combo of minari and pork belly was really impressive and delicious!

Today's visit, summed up

• The meat was thick, so the texture was great
• Staff grilling made it easy to eat
• Loved that mukmuchim came complimentary
• The minari + vinegar-chili sauce combo paired well with the meat too
• A place I'd love to visit again!