Pork BBQ near Seomyeon Station Exit 7: Catch Table waitlist, Don J

Don J Busan Seomyeon: location and hours

Don J Busan Seomyeon (돈제이 부산서면점) is at 52 Gaya-daero 784beon-gil, Busanjin-gu, Busan, on the 1st floor. It is open Sun–Thu 17:00–01:00 (last order 23:30) and Fri–Sat 17:00–02:00 (last order 00:30), and there is no parking.

I'd been hunting for a good pork belly place near Seomyeon Station, and this time I think I finally found it.

Don J Busan Seomyeon is a lid-grilled (sotttukkeong, cast-iron cauldron lid) BBQ place behind Lotte Department Store in Seomyeon. It's about a 5-minute walk from Exit 7 of Seomyeon Station, so it's really easy to reach!

Don J Busan Seomyeon waiting: register on Catch Table

Don J Busan Seomyeon is popular and often has a wait, but you can register in advance on Catch Table (a Korean reservation app), so I'd check that before you go.

What's the atmosphere at Don J Busan Seomyeon?

Don J Busan Seomyeon is a retro-style BBQ place with yellow vinyl flooring and tables laid with woven mats. The retro vibe hits you from the outside!

At the entrance there's a sample display of the standard table spread, so even first-timers can see right away which side dishes come out.

The inside goes back deeper than you'd expect, so it felt roomy and comfortable. There are quite a few tables, so it looked fine for group gatherings or company dinners too.

The yellow flooring and mat-covered tables gave off a warm, countryside grandma's-house feeling, and there's even a storage space under the chairs for your belongings, which was practical.

You order by kiosk, which was convenient, and the table has spoons and chopsticks, small plates and cups all ready beside it.

It's great for small get-togethers and perfect for a drink with your meat, so it works well as a BBQ pub in Seomyeon too.

The restroom is inside the restaurant and was pleasant to use.

Don J Busan Seomyeon menu

The signature items at Don J Busan Seomyeon are pork neck-belly, pork belly and pork neck, each in a 600g portion. Side dishes include Hoengseong deodeok (bellflower root) salad and Cheongdo Hanjae minari (water dropwort),

and the meal items are quite varied: perilla-oil buckwheat noodles, young-radish cold noodles, village doenjang stew, highland kimchi stew, snail jjabak-jang stew, Daepo-dong steamed egg, pork rice and more.

With a basic order, 10 sauces and 6 side dishes come free!

Don J's basic table spread is already a hit

When you order at Don J Busan Seomyeon, the table fills up with side dishes and house-made sauces. I was surprised when I saw the spread after ordering.

The side dishes were really varied: bracken, seasoned bean sprouts, kimchi, myeongi namul (wild garlic greens), scallion salad, lettuce, perilla leaves and more. The sauces, such as egg-yolk soy sauce, ssamjang (seasoned dipping paste), salt and Don J's own homemade tonkatsu sauce, are all said to be made in-house.

They reportedly age traditional pastes themselves and make each side dish and sauce by hand, and you can taste that care in the flavor.

600g of pork neck-belly grilled on a cauldron lid

What I ordered at Don J Busan Seomyeon that day was 600g of pork neck-belly, and a staff member grilled it on the lid from start to finish. As a place already famous for pork belly near Seomyeon Station, the meat quality was really good.

Thickly cut pork belly and pork neck sizzled away on the lid, and since the staff handled all the grilling, it was so easy!

You don't have to worry about grilling at all. You just sit and chat, and perfectly cooked meat lands in front of you, haha.

Once the meat is partly cooked, they add bracken, bean sprouts, kimchi and garlic to grill alongside it, and the lid piled full like that was a joy to look at.

The meat isn't thin; it's thick and juicy, with a great fat-to-lean ratio. The pork neck was tender and the pork belly rich and savory, so both were too good to skip!

Don J sauce combos: how do you dip?

At Don J Busan Seomyeon, the staff explain the combination of egg-yolk soy sauce, homemade tonkatsu sauce and grilled salted shrimp. They walk you through the sauce combos themselves:

• Egg-yolk soy sauce with scallion salad and chili pickles
• Homemade tonkatsu sauce with breadcrumbs for dipping
• Grilled salted shrimp with bracken

Each one tastes different, so I never got tired of them and kept eating! Dipping in the tonkatsu sauce with breadcrumbs really tastes like tonkatsu, which was fun and delicious, lol.

The egg-yolk soy sauce was soft and savory-salty with the yolk and soy blending together, and it went so well with the meat. I'd never tried lightly grilled salted shrimp with pork before, and it was different but delicious.

Village doenjang stew and pork rice: don't skip the meal menu

That day I ordered 600g of pork neck-belly with one village doenjang stew (soybean paste stew) and two pork rice bowls. Don J Busan Seomyeon doesn't sell plain steamed rice, so you have to order your rice as pork rice.

The doenjang stew is made with house-aged homemade doenjang, so the deep, nutty flavor stood out. It has seafood in it too, adding extra savoriness, and the richly simmered broth went really well with the meat.

Pork rice is a dish of rice with roasted seaweed and a special seasoning, and since they don't sell plain rice, order this if you want rice!

It's simple, but eaten with the meat, a bowl vanished in no time.

Don J Busan Seomyeon: overall verdict

The writer's conclusion is that Don J Busan Seomyeon lacked nothing in meat quality, side dishes or service, and the price for 600g is good too. Bujeon is known for naengsam (thin-sliced frozen pork), but did you ever think of lid-grilled pork belly? With value and quality on par with naengsam, Don J has already claimed a spot as a top BBQ place in Seomyeon.

Now when I think of pork belly near Seomyeon Station, Don J comes to mind first. The price for 600g is really kind, so there's nothing to fault on value either. There's a clear reason it fills up fast even on weekdays. If you're looking for pork belly near Seomyeon Station, I highly recommend Don J!