Black pork belly and rice wine pairing, Bucheon BBQ: Cham Dwaejitgan

I went to Cham Dwaejitgan Bucheon Sinjung-dong Branch, a well-known samgyeopsal (pork belly) spot near Sinjung-dong Station in Bucheon! With such long operating hours, it's a BBQ restaurant you can drop into pretty much anytime. Roomy tables great for company dinners or group gatherings, plus a grilling service, meant zero stress about cooking the meat myself~

This is Shuri & Ppyori, a mixed-up pair as usual~ Weekend eating out means meat!! We found Cham Dwaejitgan, a samgyeopsal restaurant near Sinjung-dong Station in Bucheon, haha.

Location and hours of Cham Dwaejitgan Bucheon Sinjung-dong Branch

There are all kinds of shops around Sinjung-dong Station in Bucheon, but this time we went to Cham Dwaejitgan, a grill-it-yourself (well, grill-it-for-you) meat restaurant, haha.

This is Cham Dwaejitgan! The left photo is the back of the building, and the right is the side with the main entrance.

When it's crowded, you can join the waitlist through CatchTable~

It's not technically open 24 hours, but from Tuesday to Sunday it feels like it might as well be, haha. Even among Bucheon's many restaurants, hours this long are rare!

A restaurant with lots of tables, great for company dinners

The inside of Cham Dwaejitgan is really spacious! Since they use the whole building, there are plenty of tables. Roomy space is essential for group gatherings or company dinners, haha.

On the day we went, a few tables were actually pushed together with a reserved sign up!

On one side of the restaurant, you can see meat aging in storage.

Six side condiments preset at every seat

We picked a table and sat down! Each table already had side dishes set up. Six condiments for the meat — salt, garlic, ssamjang, spicy sauce, wasabi, and shiitake wasabi — were laid out at every seat, with cabbage salad, scallion strips, and lettuce wraps on the right!

Even garlic scapes were part of the basic spread! The meat sides come in so many varieties that, as someone who loves this kind of detail, I can easily recommend this as a samgyeopsal spot in Bucheon's Sinjung-dong, haha.

Once you finish, you can grab more from the self-bar.

Cham Dwaejitgan offers grilling service — meaning the staff cooks the pork belly for you! While we were ordering, a staff member had already fired up the griddle and topped it with kimchi, bean sprouts, and minari, haha.

You order through the tablet at the table.

Two servings of black pork belly, one of pork jowl — 160g per serving

Today's pick was two servings of black pork belly and one serving of pork jowl! One serving is 160g. In these high-price times, you often see skimpy portions under 150g per serving, but here the amount felt satisfying, haha.

The origin labeling is posted near the front, which I photographed on the way out!

Jirisan Gangswe rice wine as our drink

The drink we ordered alongside was a yakju (rice wine) called Jirisan Gangswe! I've been into aromatic soju lately and don't usually order regular soju, but we figured we'd just have a light drink with the meal and this seemed like a good match, so I ordered it, haha.

The full name is Jirisan Giwoonaerin Gangswe! It's a sterilized rice wine (yakju) type at 13%.

I wondered why there was a little tag hanging on the bottle — it was milk thistle! I know it's good for the liver, and it's better taken not while drinking but after the alcohol has fully broken down, when the liver isn't as stressed, so I set it aside for later~

Once poured, the Gangswe turned out to be a clear liquid with a faint green tint. I wasn't sure exactly what the distinctive aroma was, but writing this now, I think it might have been omija (schisandra berry) and sansuyu (cornelian cherry), haha.

Meat grilled by the staff, tried the classic combos

While we chatted, the staff member finished grilling the meat with great care!

Cham Dwaejitgan Bucheon Sinjung-dong Branch has a recommended classic samgyeopsal combo, so we tried following it!

The first bite was plain, with just salt! The skin side of the pork belly was grilled crispy, giving both the savory flavor and a chewy, tender texture at once! The staff's grilling skill is impressive~

We tried adding shiitake wasabi too — piling on too much makes your nose sting a bit, lol.

Wasabi needs no explanation~ A solid combo with the meat!

Something new was this spicy sauce — I expected a chili sauce kind of flavor, but while there's some sweetness, it also has a notable spiciness that paired well with the meat.

We made plenty of wraps too, haha. Lots of pork belly~ lots of veggies~

The pork jowl delivered on the crisp texture I was hoping for, plus a nice chewy, slightly tooth-sticking quality.

Of course the pork jowl needed a wrap too! Ppyori made this one, and it turned out to have both pork belly and pork jowl inside...! (No wonder it tasted so good, lol.)

How to eat the potato wraps

Also, Cham Dwaejitgan has something called a potato wrap! They grill thinly sliced potato on the same griddle as the meat,

then top it with meat and eat it like a wrap~

The recommendation was to add shiitake wasabi and garlic scapes, so we tried it that way. A little bit of carbs with meat is always the right call, haha.

On the way out, we noticed a sign about Cham Dwaejitgan's free services!

Sure enough, right next to it were candy, mouthwash, and Febreze! The attentiveness right up until the end made Cham Dwaejitgan Bucheon Sinjung-dong Branch a place I liked all the way through, haha.

Wrap-up

That's my visit to Cham Dwaejitgan Bucheon Sinjung-dong Branch, a samgyeopsal spot near Sinjung-dong Station in Bucheon~ With plenty of seating and grilling service, it's a meat restaurant I can recommend for family meals or company dinners! The side dishes to go with the meat, plus little touches for during and after eating, were all thoughtfully prepared, so I left with a genuinely good meal~