Terrace-seat aged pork belly with grilled minari in Siheung: Hamdon

Summer is basically gone and early fall is creeping in, haha. I've been pretty busy lately, which somehow keeps leading me to hearty dinners~

Today I was craving thick pork, so I visited an aged pork specialist in Jeongwang-dong,

Hamdon Jeongwang Main Branch

haha. This place is famous for staff grilling the meat for you, and a lot of people around me had already been, so I went in with high expectations! Let me share the basic info first :)

Where is Hamdon Jeongwang Main Branch, and what are its hours?

Hamdon Jeongwang Main Branch is at 31-1 Jungsimsangga 3-gil, Jeongwang-dong, Siheung, Gyeonggi, on the first floor of the Jeongwang-dong central shopping street. It's open daily from 11:30 to 23:00, with last order at 22:00.

• Address: 31-1 Jungsimsangga 3-gil, Jeongwang-dong, Siheung, Gyeonggi, South Korea
• Hours: Daily 11:30–23:00 (last order 22:00)
• Parking/amenities: Parking near the building, group seating available, reservations possible, separate men's/women's restrooms

Interior and cleanliness at Hamdon ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

There was even a dol hareubang (stone grandfather statue) at the entrance, and terrace seats set up like a greenhouse. It had a bit of a Jeju Island vibe! The location, right on the first floor of the Jeongwang-dong shopping street, made it super easy to find.

The interior wasn't cramped at all — spacious and pleasant, great for a work dinner, family gathering, or date, haha. I sat outside on the terrace!

What comes with the meal: side dishes and minari ⭐⭐⭐⭐

As soon as you sit down at Hamdon Jeongwang Main Branch, they give you water, basic side dishes, and small plates.

As you can see in the photo, the table itself has a slot to hold the scissors and tongs, which was really convenient.

The utensils came neatly wrapped in paper packaging, nice and clean, haha. I'm pretty sensitive about cleanliness and usually avoid tables with loose utensils, so this packaging was a plus!

As you can see, they give you minari (water dropwort) right from the start! For side dishes, they serve garlic, peppers, ssamjang, and green onion kimchi to go well with the meat.

We didn't wait long before the meat arrived, and here's the full spread — pretty neat, right?

Service and staff grilling ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — aged pork belly, 160g for 16,000 won

We ordered two servings of aged pork belly. It was ₩16,000 for 160g! It came out neatly arranged in a basket.

As soon as the meat came out, the staff put it straight on the grill and pre-cooked it for us.

I hadn't been to many places where staff grill the meat for you, but once I experienced it, it was super convenient.

After about 5-10 minutes of grilling, it turned perfectly golden brown and delicious. Once the pre-grilling was mostly done, they gave us two thin pairs of tongs, as shown. We used those tongs like total mukbang YouTubers, lol.

Perilla leaves aren't included by default, but you can order them as a side for free! Normally there's lettuce too, but that day they said the lettuce wasn't in good condition, so they only gave us perilla leaves. We also ordered rice, and interestingly the rice grains looked kind of like pollack roe — really pretty rice. The taste was just like regular rice though.

How it tastes ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — pork belly, grilled minari, doenjang jjigae

The pork belly was so, so delicious! They grilled the skin thoroughly too, so it came out extra crispy. I've been to a lot of BBQ places, and the quality here was excellent.

We also ordered the doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew), which had a bone right in the middle, giving it a bit of a gamjatang (pork bone stew) feel! There was pork in it too, so it was a whole-bowl-of-rice-gone kind of stew, haha.

And we grilled the minari from earlier too — eating it with the meat was a real delicacy! I would have missed it if it hadn't been there.

Lightly grill the minari, dip it in chojang (vinegared gochujang sauce), eat it with the pork belly — absolutely the best!!!!

Is Hamdon Jeongwang Main Branch worth a visit? Honest verdict

A great BBQ spot with the comfort of staff-grilled meat, solid meat quality, and that minari combo! If you're near Jeongwang-dong or Jeongwang Station looking for a quality Korean BBQ spot with clean side dishes, definitely check out Hamdon Jeongwang Main Branch! I'll be back soon whenever I'm craving meat again!