Geomdan pork BBQ protein fix: jjolmyeon in flat dumplings, Taedon

I'd been overdoing it lately, so I figured I needed some protein. Whenever I'm worn out I crave pork belly, so I headed to Taedon near Geomdan Sageori for dinner. It was my first time there, and the meat quality was good with no gamy smell at all. I left very satisfied!

Where is Taedon in Geomdan Sageori, and what is the restaurant like?

Taedon is a Handon (domestic Korean pork) BBQ restaurant on the way from Geomdan Sageori to Majeon Station. The exterior says "Handon pork belly specialist" in big letters, so it was easy to find.

Inside, the restaurant was much roomier than I expected. There are lots of tables and everything is kept clean, so it felt like a comfortable place to come for dinner.

Once we sat down and ordered the meat, the staff put seasoned radish, kimchi and bracken on the grill first. Grilled in pork fat, that combo is never bad, so I was already excited before the meat arrived!

What free extras come with Taedon's large Handon mixed platter?

Two of us ordered the large Handon mixed platter. It lets you try both pork belly and jjonduksal (chewy pork cut), and the color and thickness of the meat looked fresh at first glance. A 5-type mixed mushroom plate came with it, and surprisingly that was free too.

Free spicy jjolmyeon and flat dumplings

We only ordered meat, but the freebies kept coming! First came the bibim jjolmyeon (spicy chewy noodles), piled generously on a big plate.

I mixed the vegetables, noodles and sauce myself, and the portion was pretty generous. The tangy, spicy sauce and crunchy vegetables made it perfect to nibble on between bites of pork belly.

Napjak mandu (flat dumplings) came out free too. I grilled them on one side of the grill until golden, then wrapped them with jjolmyeon on top, and the combo was better than I expected.

Steamed egg and Dubai chewy ssamjang

And it didn't stop there: a fluffy steamed egg was free as well! Personally I need steamed egg whenever I eat meat, so I loved that it comes by default.

Then came the Dubai chewy ssamjang (dipping paste), which you can only try at Taedon. It has kadayif in it, so the texture was unusual. Since it's a one-of-a-kind item, I was curious and wanted to eat it with the meat right away.

How do Taedon's pork belly and jjonduksal taste grilled together?

Now it was time to actually grill! I cooked the kimchi, bracken and mushrooms to go with the meat.

Then I put the pork belly and jjonduksal on the grill together. Rather than cooking them one at a time, I wanted to eat a bit of everything at once! Hehe.

Maybe because the meat quality is good, there was no gamy smell while it cooked, and the pork belly in particular had a nice ratio of lean meat to fat.

I flipped it back and forth so it wouldn't burn, and it came out golden outside and juicy inside! I was so hungry that I couldn't wait to take a bite.

I'd been curious about the Dubai chewy ssamjang all along, so I put it on a nicely grilled piece of meat and ate it right away. The crunch of the kadayif on tender pork belly was a better combination than I expected.

The jjonduksal went great with the jjolmyeon, and wrapped in lettuce with golden grilled mushrooms, it was absolutely delicious.

Is Taedon's free dessert ice cream worth trying?

After we'd eaten our fill and were about to get up, they gave us ice cream for dessert. Since it was a free ice cream, I didn't expect much and planned to eat just a little, but the first bite tasted so upscale that I finished it all even though the portion was big. It was also perfect for cleansing a greasy mouth after all that meat.

I felt properly treated right up to the end at Taedon in Geomdan Sageori, so I'll probably go back soon the next time pork belly calls my name.