Saturday lunch pork BBQ buffet in Jamsilsaenae: Jeju maeljeot dip

Long-term couple special: can't eat Western food. We were on a Jamsil date and started craving shaved pork belly, so — Muhan Paldo Daepae, a Jamsilsaenae must-visit! There's no all-you-can-eat BBQ place in Seoul with better value than this, and it's genuinely delicious too, word is spreading fast 💨💨

Where Muhan Paldo Daepae Jamsilsaenae is, and its opening hours

𓏸 Location: 57 Baekjegobun-ro 7-gil, 1F, Songpa-gu, Seoul 𓏸 Hours: 11:00–24:00 (last order 23:00) 𓏸 Parking: nearby paid lot (₩1,000 per 10 minutes) Muhan Paldo Daepae is a Jamsilsaenae must-visit, and it's easy to find — just 2 minutes on foot from Jamsilsaenae Station Exit 3.

Is there a wait at Saturday lunch?

We arrived at noon on Saturday. Since opening time is 11am, I was worried about waiting, but luckily it wasn't crowded yet at that point. But about 30 minutes later, it turned into full-on Friday-night-dinner chaos...

What the ₩18,900 all-you-can-eat price includes

Meat + bibimbap + ramyeon + slushie, all for ₩18,900 per person! Ages 5–7 are ₩8,900, ages 8–10 are ₩10,900. Just add ₩5,900 more and you get unlimited soju too . . . nothing better for the drinkers among us 😌 You can also add pretty much any side menu a decent BBQ place would have — mul naengmyeon, bibim naengmyeon, bomb-style steamed egg, doenjang jjigae, and more.

There are 6 types of meat total‼️ ✔️ Shaved samgyeopsal, flower samgyeopsal, frozen samgyeopsal ✔️ Korean pork shaved, shaved beef brisket, shaved pork neck

The self-serve bar: wrap vegetables and side dishes

The wrap vegetables and side dishes also came in a reeeeally wide variety. ✔️ Wraps: perilla leaves, zucchini, onion, garlic, chili peppers, scallion shreds ✔️ Kimchi, sausage, bracken fern, rice cakes, sweet potato ✔️ Seasoned bean sprouts, potato, tofu, king oyster mushroom, enoki mushroom

What we grabbed from the self-serve bar: scallion shreds, bean sprouts, bracken fern, garlic, chili peppers, onion, roughly...! ⚠️ FYI the chili peppers here are seriously spicy. Since there's a ₩5,000 environmental fee if you leave food over, we tried to take a little at a time, frequently.

First round: frozen pork belly and shaved pork neck

First target: frozen samgyeopsal + shaved pork neck! I really, reeeally love frozen samgyeopsal, so I've gone looking for BBQ places from Jamsudaegyo on that reputedly do it well. So of course, even at an all-you-can-eat place, I had to get the frozen samgyeopsal...!

Since shaved samgyeopsal cooks fast, early on we ate it with sauces, scallion shreds, and bean sprouts. We put garlic, onion, kimchi, bracken fern and other side vegetables on the grill together with the meat, and cooking those ingredients through properly was the best. They keep the vegetables fresh at the base level, so whether cooked or not, everything was tasty 👏👏

Why it's called 'Paldo': the eight-province sauce bar

I was curious why the restaurant is called Muhan "Paldo" (eight provinces), and it turns out they really have specialty sauces from 8 different provinces...!!! ✔️ Jeonju gochujang / Wando shrimp jeotgal / Gangwon perilla oil soy sauce ✔️ Jeju maeljeot (fermented shrimp sauce) / Busan mustard / Daegu makjang ✔️ Goesan cheonggukjang / Seoul soy sauce (signature) Next to it there's a squeeze bottle station with a spicy-sweet sauce that reminds you of yangnyeom chicken, and a sweet soy sauce too!

To dip our meat, we took small amounts of three: Jeju maeljeot, Daegu makjang, and the spicy-sweet sauce. Afterward you can also make fried rice with meat, or grill it as yangnyeom-style. We were sooooo full from just the meat that we couldn't manage the fried rice, but I kept thinking about how good it would be stir-fried finely with meat and kimchi... 🤤

Always room for ramyeon: Yeolramyeon and Samyang ramyeon

Funny thing though: we still ate ramyeon. Honestly, filling up on ramyeon at an all-you-can-eat BBQ place feels a bit wasteful... But the whole restaurant was filled with the smell of yeolramyeon, and I truly couldn't resist... 🥺 I genuinely believe meat-stomach and ramyeon-stomach are separate.

✔️ Kimchi ramyeon, yeolramyeon, beef-flavor ramyeon, shin ramyeon ✔️ Sesame ramyeon, jinsun Samyang ramyeon, odongtong noodles and more . . . There were as many ramyeon options as sauce options. I wanted yeolramyeon, my boyfriend wanted Samyang ramyeon — to cut through all that meat grease, spicy was the way to go...! You can cook it easily using the Hangang ramyeon machine, and even mix in plain rice for a fried-rice-style finish!

Building a 'Paldo burger' with dinner rolls

Honestly, up to this point, these are all things you'd commonly see at other all-you-can-eat BBQ places — but this is where things get really unique... There were dinner rolls and a microwave set up so you could make a "Paldo burger" using shaved meat, wrap vegetables, and sauce.

We're normally a cola-loving couple, but the reason we didn't order extra drinks here was because there was heotgae-su (hangover tea) + slushies available!

Was the Jamsilsaenae pork buffet worth it?

Honestly, I didn't have high expectations since it's all-you-can-eat, but the meat and vegetables were all managed cleanly, and both the staff and part-timers were super, super kind 😌 Thanks to eating happily, we walked out patting our stomachs going "ahh, so full." Next time we're back in Jamsilsaenae looking for a good meal, we're definitely returning to Muhan Paldo Daepae! 🤍