Gochujang pork belly added three times at Euljiro Yeontan Gui, Gajeong

My boyfriend had been saying for a while that he wanted to try Euljiro Yeontan Gui, so on our way back from Costco this weekend we stopped by this Gajeong Station meat restaurant, the Luone City branch.

We arrived without a reservation just after 7pm and happened to catch the last two open seats, so we sat down right away. But people started waiting for tables right after we came in — lucky timing, haha. At first we only meant to order pork neck and marinated beef short rib, but in the end we added one more menu item at the very end, lol.

Walking from Gajeong Station and parking

Euljiro Yeontan Gui Luone City Branch is about a 5-6 minute walk from Gajeong Station, and if you're driving, you can use the 3M Tower parking lot.

The restaurant's signage says you get 3 hours of free parking with a meal, so it's decent for driving too. We drove there that day on our way home from Costco.

Weekend 7pm: waiting and the old-school vibe

A little after 7pm on a weekend evening, the restaurant was nearly full, and a wait line started forming right after we sat down. We hadn't made a reservation, and the staff member said there might be a wait, but two seats happened to be free so we were seated immediately.

Once inside, the atmosphere is completely different from most Korean BBQ places these days. Round drum-barrel tables, a handwritten menu on the wall, the whole feel of an old-school spot you'd find in an old Euljiro alley. A bit rough around the edges, but that made it comfortable, haha.

Menu prices and ordering in 100g portions

Most of the meat is sold in 100g portions, so it was good for picking a little of several cuts rather than ordering a lot of one thing. At most Korean BBQ places a single serving is usually 150-180g, which can make it awkward to order when two people want to try several cuts — here, being able to order in 100g units was great.

What we ordered first was 2 servings of pork neck (₩6,400 per serving) and 1 serving of marinated beef short rib at ₩9,800.

Along with the basic banchan (side dishes), bean sprout soup came out, and this soup was spicier and more full-flavored than expected — it was really good.

Even the slightly frozen radish salad was surprisingly tasty, so I kept picking at it, lol. Any banchan you run out of, you can just grab more from the self-serve bar.

Pork neck and marinated beef short rib, grilled over charcoal

Grilled over charcoal, the pork neck's surface got crisp while the inside stayed moist, and the marinated beef short rib had a sweetish marinade that made it good to alternate with.

We put the pork neck on first, and it was quite thick.

Grilled thoroughly front and back over the charcoal, the outside really turned crisp and delicious, with a good chewy bite too.

The inside wasn't dry at all — it stayed moist, and you could taste a faint charcoal aroma when you chewed.

It was good eaten plain, or wrapped in lettuce with a bit of sauce, and it disappeared fast.

The marinated beef short rib had a completely different flavor from the pork neck. The marinade wasn't too sweet or too sharp — just mildly sweet and a bit salty.

It had a good chew without being tough, and grilling it over the fire gave the surface a nice golden-browned marinade.

Eating the mild pork neck and then a bite of the marinated short rib, switching back and forth between the two was fun.

The gochujang pork belly we ended up adding

We added 2 servings of gochujang pork belly, which wasn't in our original order, and at the very end ordered one more serving. It ended up being the dish we ordered the most of that day. While we were eating the pork neck and short rib, we noticed the menu said the gochujang pork belly was famous. There was no way we could skip trying that, lol, so we added 2 servings of gochujang pork belly.

From the moment it arrived, the pork belly had a fairly thick coating of red gochujang (fermented chili paste) marinade. Marinated meat can burn easily on the grill, so the staff member stacked two grill plates on top of each other for it.

The meat wasn't thick, so it cooked fast, and as we flipped it, the red marinade gradually grilled up looking more and more appetizing.

The flavor wasn't the sharp, capsaicin-like spicy kick — more of a spicy-sweet gochujang flavor that lingered in your mouth. Combined with the fattiness of the pork belly, it was surprisingly addictive.

Doenjang stew, rice, and naengmyeon to finish

Eating the gochujang pork belly naturally made us crave rice, so we added a bowl of rice and doenjang stew (soybean paste stew), and at the very end ordered naengmyeon (cold noodles) plus one more serving of gochujang pork belly. Eating pork belly with that spicy-sweet marinade made us want rice so badly, lol — we ended up ordering a bowl of rice and doenjang stew too.

The rice came out fluffy, not mushy, and the doenjang stew looked unremarkable at first glance, but one spoonful and the broth flavor turned out deeper and more savory than expected.

A bite of gochujang pork belly, then rice, then a spoonful of doenjang stew in between — the combination worked so well that a whole bowl of rice disappeared fast.

We should have stopped there... lol. At the very end, we added naengmyeon plus one more serving of gochujang pork belly.

Cold naengmyeon to reset our palate, then one more bite of gochujang pork belly to finish.

We definitely started off planning to eat just pork neck and marinated beef short rib, but we walked out having properly eaten three kinds of meat plus rice, doenjang stew, and naengmyeon, lol.

If I go again

If it's a day when two people want to pick a little of several kinds of meat near Gajeong Station, this place will come to mind again. We got lucky and were seated right away, but I saw a wait line form behind us, so next time I'd go a bit earlier than this visit on a weekend evening. And next time, I think I'll order the gochujang pork belly from the start, lol.