Uijeongbu pork belly with coupon bibim noodles: Cheonpo Hoegwan

Today was a day trip to Yangju, so on the way I stopped by Cheonpo Hoegwan in Uijeongbu, famous for its minari pork belly.

Where is Cheonpo Hoegwan Uijeongbu Main Branch, and is there parking?

• Location: 21 Beomgol-ro 145beon-gil, Uijeongbu-si, Gyeonggi-do, 225m from Exit 1 of Uijeongbu Station (light rail)
• Hours: Mon–Sun 11:00–23:00
• Parking: 2–3 spots available in front of the restaurant

Cheonpo Hoegwan stands out from far away with its blue tile roof. The clean hanok-style exterior was the first thing that caught my eye. You can park right in front, but only 2–3 cars fit.

Inside Cheonpo Hoegwan: a wide hall for families and groups

Stepping inside, there was more space than what you could see from the entrance, so it felt bigger than expected. Everything was kept clean, the ceilings were high, and the tables were spaced fairly generously — nothing felt cramped. This would be great for a family meal or a group gathering with friends.

Even though it's a meat restaurant, the menu had stone-pot rice.

What we ordered: 3 servings of pork belly at 16,000 won each

Looking at the menu, the lunch special caught my eye. Comes with stone-pot rice, so it'd make a great value lunch option. I hesitated a moment over the beef rolls, but in the end we ordered pork belly (₩16,000) for 3 servings. The plan was to finish the pork belly and then move on to kimchi cheese fried rice haha.

The basic side dishes that came out after ordering.

Minari beef tartare and uroeng ssamjang, included with the meal

I was surprised once before at a Yangju meat restaurant to see beef tartare served as a default side dish, and here too, minari (water dropwort) beef tartare came standard. The portion wasn't small either — just right for two.

And uroeng (mud snail) ssamjang with vegetables mixed in.

A soy sauce with garlic and scallion.

Pork belly grilled with minari, kimchi and shredded scallion

Today's star, the pork belly, arrived. Once the grill was hot enough, the staff loaded it up with pork belly, minari, kimchi, and shredded green onion. They only put on 2 servings of pork belly to start.

The pork belly sizzled away on the grill. The fragrant smell of minari rising up, the delicious scent of kimchi wafting over, plus the smell of grilling pork belly on top of all that — suddenly I got so hungry.

They flipped it over and over until it was nicely browned.

How the self-grilled kimchi pancake works at Cheonpo Hoegwan

Here, they give you the kimchi pancake batter and you grill it yourself.

So while the meat was cooking, I quickly whipped up a kimchi pancake with my 20 years of experience. A bit of a hassle, but I couldn't skip kimchi pancake. The visual left a little to be desired, but it was chewy and tasted great.

By the time I finished the kimchi pancake, the meat was all done 😍🤤

Garlic sauce, minari and perilla leaf wraps: how we ate the pork belly

First, just the meat dipped in garlic sauce. Wow, as expected — delicious even just dipped in the sauce alone. The pork belly was thick, with insane juiciness. This sauce is clean and tasty.

Next, with the slightly overcooked minari.

Then I put pork belly on my favorite perilla leaf, added shredded green onion, piled on a generous scoop of uroeng ssamjang, and ate it as a big wrap. This combo was also super tasty. Their uroeng ssamjang is really well made too~

Five-color bibim noodles free with the Naver notification coupon

The five-color bibim noodles came from the notification coupon I'd registered when booking on Naver. I hadn't even mentioned it, but they brought it out on their own. The colors were bright and pretty to look at.

I grabbed a big bite with my chopsticks and dug in! Eating bibim noodles after pork belly — this combo works too. A different flavor from naengmyeon (cold noodles). After the pork belly, the sweet and tangy noodles brought my appetite right back to life haha. So then it was back to the meat!

They finished grilling the rest of the meat.

600g of pork belly for two, and why the kimchi cheese fried rice never happened

We ate it all the way through with kimchi and minari, deliciously. The savory taste of pork belly, the fragrant minari, and the flavor of grilled kimchi added up to a perfect combination. And the kimchi cheese fried rice... I really wanted to try it, but I was too full to manage it ㅠ.ㅠ I thought 3 servings of meat for two people was standard, but looking again, each serving is 200g. So the two of us ate a full geun (600g) of meat by ourselves haha. Today was a truly satisfying meal.

Today's meal was grilling pork belly together with minari and kimchi, and finishing it off with a hearty bowl of five-color bibim noodles. I personally love grilling kimchi when eating meat, and adding minari on top made it even more unique to enjoy. Cheonpo Hoegwan Uijeongbu Main Branch has generous portions and great value for the price, so I'd recommend it as a great-value Uijeongbu restaurant. I think I'll be thinking of Cheonpo Hoegwan again the next time I'm craving pork belly.