Yangju galbi restaurant lunch set with two naengmyeon: Manpo Galbi

I visited Manpo Galbi Yangju Main Branch, a Yangju rib restaurant famous for giving out free naengmyeon (cold noodles), and had such a satisfying meal that I wanted to write about it in detail!

Manpo Galbi Yangju Main Branch: location, hours and parking

📍Location: 1F, 65 Songnang-ro, Yangju-si, Gyeonggi-do, Manpo Galbi ⏰Hours: 11:00-22:00 (daily) 🚘Parking: available ⭕️

The parking lot for Manpo Galbi Yangju Main Branch is right in front of the restaurant, so parking was easy!

Inside Manpo Galbi: a galbi restaurant with private rooms

The interior had a neat, well-organized rib-restaurant vibe! There were also separate private rooms, which looked great for family gatherings or meals with a larger group.

The table spacing was also comfortable enough during the meal, and the staff were friendly, so we could eat in a good mood haha.

Overall the vibe wasn't so much formal as it was a relaxed place to enjoy meat, which made it easy to drop by without any pressure!

Ordering the lunch special hand-made galbi set

The menu at Manpo Galbi Yangju Main Branch is centered around galbi (ribs), with various meat dishes and meal options too! We ordered the (lunch special) hand-cut pork rib set (pork galbi + naengmyeon + doenjang sulbap).

Side dishes at Manpo Galbi, including yukjeon and yukhoe

We started by trying the side dishes that came out by default, and there were more varieties than I expected!

At rib restaurants you usually just get a few basic side dishes, but here we got yukjeon (pan-fried beef), yukhoe (beef tartare), julienned radish, salad, and more, all together haha.

It was also nice being able to lightly eat the yukjeon or yukhoe before grilling the meat!

Working through the side dishes one by one while the meat cooked meant the wait wasn't boring at all haha.

How the pork galbi is grilled and how it tastes

Then I grilled the pork galbi we'd ordered as the main dish! Since it's meat coated in marinade, it was better to flip it often over the fire rather than grilling it long over high heat, so it wouldn't burn.

Tasting the pork galbi once it was cooked just right, I could taste that sweet-and-salty flavor characteristic of seasoned galbi haha.

The marinade flavor was strong enough that the meat was fine to eat on its own without rice, and eating it together with side dishes like julienned radish or salad gave a different feeling altogether.

In particular, pairing each bite of meat with a little of various side dishes made the same pork galbi feel different depending on the combination!

Eating the pork galbi together with rice worked well too haha.

And if meat is dry, you can get tired of it after just a few bites, but since we cut into it right while it was warm, it stayed tender and easy to eat!

Finishing with brisket doenjang sulbap

After eating a good amount of pork galbi, we also tried the brisket doenjang sulbap (rice in doenjang soup).

Along with the savory flavor characteristic of doenjang, the brisket added even more richness from the meat haha. Being able to eat the broth together with rice made it a filling way to finish off the pork galbi.

Eating rice in the warm broth after the meat especially felt easy on the stomach!

Bibim naengmyeon vs mul naengmyeon at Manpo Galbi

Next we tried the bibim naengmyeon (spicy mixed cold noodles)! The sweet seasoned galbi paired well with the tangy, seasoned bibim naengmyeon haha.

We also tried the mul naengmyeon (cold noodle soup)! If bibim naengmyeon is about eating with the seasoning, mul naengmyeon was a much cleaner, more refreshing dish.

Eating the mul naengmyeon after the pork galbi was great when I wanted to refresh my palate haha.

Dessert: iced coffee and bbeong-screem

For dessert there was iced coffee and bbeong-screem! Ice cups were also prepared separately, so you could drink it even colder.

Bbeong-screem is a dessert of crunchy ppeongtwigi (puffed rice snack) eaten together with ice cream, and it suited the craving for something sweet after the meat.

Eating soft ice cream between crunchy puffed rice snacks was also fun texture-wise haha.