Skip-the-line indoor seating at a Jongno 3-ga Korean BBQ: Chowon

Chowon Restaurant, a Jongno outdoor BBQ spot, with a light wait past the street-tent alley.

Hi, this is Three :) Looking for an outdoor BBQ spot in Jongno with a relatively light wait?

Lately, places around the Jongno 3-ga tent alley where you can grill meat outside have gotten really popular. This time I went to Chowon Restaurant, a bit further past the tent alley.

It's a Jongno outdoor BBQ spot where you can grill frozen pork belly outside, but with fewer people waiting compared to the other famous places, plus it has separate indoor seating, so it was fairly easy to visit.

Open daily 17:00–01:00, no parking.

Finding Chowon Restaurant past the street-tent alley

Chowon Restaurant is reachable by walking past the tent alley from Jongno 3-ga station. We picked an outdoor table since we wanted to enjoy the outside-eating vibe.

These days the famous places nearby sometimes have lines forming before opening, but here the wait was relatively light, so it was easy to grab a seat.

Does Chowon Restaurant have indoor tables?

Chowon Restaurant isn't only outdoor seating — there are tables set up inside as well. When we visited, there were customers outside, but we could walk right into the indoor section with no wait at all.

If you don't have to eat outside, using the indoor seats is also an option.

And personally, what I liked was that the restroom is inside the restaurant! When you're drinking at a Jongno outdoor BBQ spot, restroom location matters more than you'd think, so it was convenient not having to go far.

What's on the menu at Chowon Restaurant

The menu ranges from pork belly to beef brisket (woo-samgyeop), chadolbagi, and hanwoo strip loin. There were also side dishes to go with the meat, but yukhoe bibimbap wasn't available when we went.

If you have a specific dish in mind before visiting, keep this in mind.

Banchan and the self-serve bar

Chowon Restaurant's basic banchan included napa cabbage kimchi, green onion kimchi, bean sprouts, bracken fern (gosari), and lettuce wraps. Most of them were the kind that grill nicely alongside the meat, so even before the pork belly arrived, we were already picking what to grill first.

Any extra banchan you need can be grabbed from a self-serve bar off to the side. It was convenient being able to add more of the dishes that disappear fast on the grill, like kimchi or bean sprouts.

Frozen pork belly and makgeolli at an outdoor table

We ordered frozen pork belly (냉삼) for two out of the various meats. It came out in a full plate with the long, distinctive shape of frozen pork belly, and grilling it on the outdoor griddle was exactly the Jongno mood I'd been hoping for.

And that day, we had makgeolli instead of beer. Sitting outside, grilling frozen pork belly on the griddle, and sipping makgeolli had a totally different atmosphere from eating inside a restaurant. I think this is exactly the appeal of coming to a Jongno outdoor BBQ spot.

Frozen pork belly with kimchi and banchan on the grill

As we grilled the pork belly, they threw on bracken fern, bean sprouts, napa cabbage kimchi, and green onion kimchi too. As the banchan cooked in the fat rendering off the meat, they turned golden brown bit by bit — grilling everything together like this suited the meal far better than eating the pork belly alone.

They sprinkled on some pepper and grilled it until crisp. It had a bit more thickness than the super-thin, shaved-ice-style cut I'd imagined, so it had a nice chew to it. Not too thick and not too thin — it worked well piled on top of kimchi or bracken fern.

At the end, we wrapped it all up in lettuce — pork belly, grilled kimchi, and bean sprouts together in one big bite. It felt less like dining at a nice-atmosphere restaurant and more like a place for sitting outside, grilling meat, sipping makgeolli, and chatting comfortably.

Is Chowon Restaurant worth it for Jongno outdoor BBQ?

What I liked best about Chowon Restaurant was being able to grill frozen pork belly outdoors with relatively less waiting-around stress, in a Jongno 3-ga that's packed with people these days. Unlike places with only outdoor seating, having indoor tables too was a plus, giving you an option when outdoor seats are full or the weather is iffy.

The restroom being inside the restaurant also made it easy to sit for a long stretch while drinking. Grilling pork belly together with kimchi, green onion kimchi, bean sprouts, and bracken fern, with makgeolli on the side, was exactly the mood I'd hoped for in Jongno.

If long lines at the famous places feel like too much but you still want that outdoor-grilling feel, consider adding Chowon Restaurant to your Jongno outdoor BBQ list.