Yangyang Korean BBQ with a review raffle: pork tail at Yeoyejeong

My husband said there was a great pork belly restaurant in the Yangyang mountains, so we went to check it out. It even has a fun raffle event — let me introduce this spot.

Yeoyejeong's hours and the weekend wait in Yangyang

Yeoyejeong is a barbecue restaurant on Ssangsolbaegi-gil in Seomyeon, Yangyang, Gangwon. It's open 11:30–21:00 with a break from 15:00–17:00, and closed every Tuesday. On weekends the waitlist closed around 6:30pm, so I'd recommend getting there early.

You head from downtown Yangyang toward the countryside, but it's an easy drive following the main road the whole way.

There seem to be reserved spots for some cars too. The lot is huge, so parking wasn't a worry at all.

We arrived around 5:30pm on a Saturday and the tables were already full. We waited about 5 minutes before getting seated.

Yeoyejeong's menu, lunch special and pork tail

Yeoyejeong's lunch special looks really affordable. Come on a weekday for an even better deal! Unusually, they even have a pork tail item on the menu 🐷

Today's picks! Pork belly Pork jowl Marinated ribs (raffle event) Pork tail (review event) Pot rice White kimchi noodles Doenjang jjigae

Kaipira lettuce and Yeoyejeong's homemade side dishes

Even the lettuce at Yeoyejeong is different — it's called kaipira lettuce. They contract-grow it hydroponically through the Yangyang Association for People with Disabilities' smart farm (*a certified 'good restaurant'*). It was soft and tender, easy to eat.

The namul (seasoned vegetables), salad, and kimchi side dishes were all homemade. They use produce grown right in Yangyang's fields and buy fresh ingredients from farmers at Yangyang Market too. Tasting each one, you can feel the deep skill behind it.

The charcoal is top quality too — coffee-wood bijangtan charcoal that doesn't throw sparks. Even the charcoal is next-level here.

What does Yeoyejeong's salt-aged pork belly taste like?

Yeoyejeong's pork belly and pork jowl are salt-aged meat — a restaurant with a special technique of aging meat using salt.

Aged pork belly meets coffee-wood charcoal and grills up beautifully. Pork belly with juices flowing all through it.

👏👏👏👏👏 Thick-cut pork belly with rich juices and great umami. Now I understand why locals drive all the way out to this countryside spot and line up. The flavor is nutty and it feels tender with every bite.

Pork jowl: pink aged meat at a fair price

My personal pick — the pork jowl. Pork jowl prices have gotten pricey these days, but this was reasonable, and it's the same quality pink-hued aged meat as the belly.

Grilled over charcoal, the meat is full of smoky aroma, with rich fat wrapped around a chewy center. The aging seems to have maximized the flavor of the pork jowl.

After grilling, they set the meat on a wire rack to drain the fat, which is thoughtful — it also lets it cool a bit for easier eating. Pork jowl topped with kimchi is a perfect match.

Yeoyejeong's review raffle: what did the draws win?

Yeoyejeong also runs a review event — do both Google and Naver reviews and you hit the jackpot 👍 two raffle draws plus a free pork tail.

No losing tickets in this raffle. I got to pick one of the prizes and chose a yellow 🍌 banana squishy toy.

My husband is good at this raffle thing — he pulled a full serving of marinated ribs worth ₩18,000. Looks like we're eating even more marinated ribs now.

Someone else I saw pulled a ₩50,000 Yeoyejeong voucher. The owner seems really generous with the prizes. With so many good prizes in the mix, guests probably leave feeling well taken care of.

Round two of grilling begins — marinated ribs. Winning them in the raffle somehow made them taste even better. The pork ribs had a gentle sweetness and great umami 👍

At first my husband told me to eat all the pork tail myself, but after one bite he loved it, saying it had a chewy texture just like the ribs.

Sotbap pot rice, doenjang jjigae, loaded steamed egg and white kimchi noodles

The meat was so good that we got excited about the sides too and ordered a lot — bomb-style steamed egg, pot rice, and doenjang jjigae.

Since they make their own white kimchi in-house, we also ordered the white kimchi noodles.

The savory doenjang jjigae had radish in it for a clean, refreshing broth. The pot rice was chewy too, and you could tell at a glance it was made with good rice. Definitely try the doenjang jjigae.

The combination of nurungji (scorched rice) and steamed egg with kimchi is easy on the stomach too — highly recommend.

Wrapping marinated ribs in the clean, refreshing white kimchi noodles is a special treat too. The white kimchi and marinated ribs are so clean and delicious that one sip of dongchimi (radish water kimchi) broth wraps up the meal perfectly, no other drink needed. It's a great spot for a family meal, the raffle event is fun, but the taste of the meat is even more fun — Yeoyejeong in Yangyang.