Jongno team-dinner Korean BBQ, a hood per table: Gogikkun Kim Chunbae

These days, picking a bad place for a company dinner means being told you have no taste. So choosing the venue matters quite a bit! I just discovered a great Korean BBQ spot for company dinners in Jongno: Jonggak-ap Nosang Gongyeong Juchajang (고기꾼 김춘배 종로직영점). There's a grilling service, so the juniors have it easy, and the lineup and flavor are good enough that the seniors will like it too.

Location and hours of Jonggak-ap Nosang Gongyeong Juchajang

Jonggak-ap Nosang Gongyeong Juchajang is at 17 Samil-daero 17-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 5th floor, and is open daily from 12:00 to 23:00 (last order 22:00). There's no parking, but you can use the nearby Bosingak public parking lot, and reservations are available through Naver Reservation and CatchTable.

• Name: Jonggak-ap Nosang Gongyeong Juchajang (고기꾼 김춘배 종로직영점)
• Address: 17 Samil-daero 17-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 5th floor
• Hours: Daily 12:00 - 23:00 (last order 22:00)
• Parking: None; nearby Bosingak public parking lot available
• Reservations: Naver Reservation, CatchTable

Getting there from Jonggak Station

Come out of Jonggak Station Exit 4 and it's a 3-minute walk into the food alley. Take the elevator up to the 5th floor.

Step out of the elevator and turn left and you'll find it right away. It's the only restaurant on the 5th floor.

What's the atmosphere like for a Jongno company dinner?

The tables are separated by walls, so it's not a full private room, but you still get a fair amount of privacy for a company dinner. The mood is homey but not old-fashioned, so every age group can sit comfortably.

As soon as we walked in, we saw a fridge packed with meat, and further inside there were loads of tables. With walls between the tables it isn't a complete room, but there's some privacy, and the way the space is divided looked great for a company dinner. It feels homey without being old-fashioned, so I think the mood works fine for all ages.

Every table has an exhaust hood, so you can worry a little less about your clothes picking up the smell of meat. Maybe because we'd reserved ahead, the table was already set for our exact head count, which felt very thoughtful.

Jonggak-ap Nosang menu and what we ordered

The menu has well-built set meals, and the à la carte options are varied too, from hanwoo (Korean beef) to pork. There's an English menu on the back of the menu, so it looked good for hosting foreign guests or business meals.

I'd also heard the sides here are great and that you should definitely order them. I hear K-BBQ is trending abroad again, and with an English menu this seems like a good place to bring foreign guests. From the Kim Chunbae sets, I ordered the recommended set, kkakdugi fried rice and half-and-half naengmyeon. The recommended set is today's hanwoo, pork neck and pork belly, so you get to enjoy several cuts.

The recommended set and grilling service: why it's good for company dinners

The recommended set (today's hanwoo, pork neck, pork belly) comes with mushrooms and corn. Staff grill the meat for you, so the youngest person at a company dinner doesn't end up grilling the whole time.

The recommended set arrived looking delicious, with mushrooms and corn alongside. The reason this is a great Korean BBQ place for a company dinner in Jongno is the grilling service. At BBQ company dinners, the juniors are often so busy grilling that they don't get a single bite themselves. Here, with the grilling service, you can chat and eat comfortably.

They grill each cut in turn and set it down neatly, and I really didn't have to lift a finger, which was so comfortable. The meat was cooked to absolute perfection too, so it was tender to chew.

The corn they grilled alongside was sweet and delicious, a total kick, and the meat tasted even better eaten with kimchi.

What does the kkakdugi fried rice taste like?

Kkakdugi fried rice (깍뚝밥) is a fried rice made with kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi) that you can order instead of plain rice. It's not as spicy as I expected, mild enough for all ages.

Koreans can't eat meat without rice, right? This is the kkakdugi fried rice I ordered instead of the standard bowl of rice. It looked special from the start. Most places give you kimchi fried rice, but here they make the fried rice with kkakdugi.

No more mul-naeng vs bibim-naeng dilemma: half-and-half naengmyeon

Here you can get half-and-half naengmyeon (반반냉면), which lets you eat mul-naengmyeon (cold broth noodles) and bibim-naengmyeon (spicy mixed cold noodles) in one go. Even if your group splits between the broth camp and the spicy camp, one half-and-half bowl solves it.

Any naengmyeon fans here? I love it so much. Every time I eat it, deciding between the broth and the spicy kind is the big job, but the nice thing here is that there's half-and-half naengmyeon, so there's no need to worry.

Also, when a group goes to order naengmyeon, someone's always on team broth and someone's on team spicy. Now you can skip the awkwardness and just order half-and-half. One of the reasons this place is good for company dinners is that it doesn't create situations where you have to read the room.

Verdict: is it a good Jongno Korean BBQ for company dinners?

Jonggak-ap Nosang Gongyeong Juchajang is close to Jonggak Station, so it's easy to reach, and with the grilling service and a variety of side dishes it's a great Korean BBQ for company dinners in Jongno. I hope this eased a little of the worry for Jongno office workers who can't decide where to go for their company dinner!