Weekday Korean BBQ in Aewol with 24-hour kimchi stew: Nopo Dwaeji

Today I'm introducing a pork belly place, Nopo Dwaeji Aewol (노포돼지 애월)! I'll tell you about the shop and how my visit went~

Nopo Dwaeji Aewol location, hours and reservations

• Location: 1541-1 Gwakji-ri, Aewol-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju
• Hours: daily 11:00–23:00 (last order: 22:00)
• Groups welcome
• Naver reservation available
• Separate men's/women's restrooms inside the shop
• CatchTable
• Follow the shop on Naver and you get a 10% discount coupon

Outside and inside: window seats and round tables

This is the outside of Nopo Dwaeji! The signboard and interior look clean, and the windows are floor-to-ceiling glass, so sitting by the window and looking outside while you eat meat is really nice.

There are round tables too, so I think a group could sit close and cozy together~ I sat by the window.

If you reserve ahead, they seem to set the table in advance like this! It was a reserved seat~

The restroom is inside the shop, which was convenient.

It's separated into men's and women's, so I could use it comfortably!

There's a self-serve bar too, so you can take only as much as you want to eat. Only what you can finish!!!!

Lettuce, perilla leaves, chili peppers, ssamjang (wrap sauce) and other side dishes are all stocked there.

Weekday afternoon visit: pork belly 400g for ₩48,000

These are the side dishes that are set out by default! The cucumber chilies and ssamjang at the bottom are what I brought from the self-serve bar, just as much as I'd eat!

We visited on a weekday afternoon. We'd had lunch not long before, so we ordered just 400g of pork belly first!

✨ They say if you save Nopo Dwaeji and write a receipt photo review, they give you a tasty jjigae (stew) as a free service! Why wouldn't you review?! Do the review event and try the tasty stew for free. The stew is a winner too, I fully admit it 👍

Pork belly 400g ₩48,000. The staff grilled the meat for us, so all I had to do was eat happily! If we'd grilled it ourselves it might have burned, so having them do it was so, so convenient.

The pork belly is grilling nicely!!! It smelled so good I wanted to eat right away, haha.

Once the pork was fully grilled, they moved it aside so it wouldn't burn. That way we could eat it warm the whole time.

24-hour aged kimchi jjigae ₩8,000 and kelp rice ₩1,000

24-hour aged kimchi jjigae ₩8,000. From the meal items I ordered the kimchi jjigae. Which do you prefer, kimchi jjigae or doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew)?? I'm absolutely a kimchi jjigae person!!

The jjigae had lots of ingredients: meat, kimchi, tofu and more. Hearty, right?! There was really a lot of meat in it, and it was so tender and delicious 🤤

I scooped some onto my small plate, and the moment I tasted the broth I thought, this has to be eaten with rice! So I ordered rice right away. Maybe because the jjigae is made with aged kimchi, just like the menu name says, it had a deep flavor. I don't know how to explain it, but if you try it you'll understand what I mean .. >_<

Kelp rice ₩1,000. The rice was nutty, and true to kelp rice, you could faintly taste the kelp, so it was delicious. While eating I went, why is this so good? and my partner said, it's kelp rice! And I was like, oh, it's not just plain rice? Kelp rice went well with both the meat and the jjigae, so definitely get it!

What about the wait? Booking on Naver is recommended

When we finished eating and were about to pay, I looked around and the shop had gotten really crowded! Of course, a tasty place draws a crowd!! I visited in the very peak season, around dinner time, and if we'd come a little later we'd probably have had to wait. I recommend booking on Naver beforehand~~

If you visit Jeju, please do go to Nopo Dwaeji Aewol!!!