Gwangalli BBQ with Jeju-certified pork and doenjang stew: Myeongseung

Today I want to introduce Myeongseung Jeju Saenggogi, a Gwangalli meat restaurant located near Exit 1 of Gwangan Station. There aren't that many places in Gwangalli serving high-grade Jeju black pork, so as a Gwangalli local, this is a spot I really want to recommend. Let me give you the full review!

They're open daily from 17:00 to 22:00.

Five minutes from Gwangan Station Exit 1: finding Myeongseung Jeju Saenggogi

I visited this Gwangalli pork belly restaurant on a weekend, early in the evening. Myeongseung Jeju Saenggogi is a five-minute walk from Exit 1 of Gwangan Station — gotta admit, the location is fantastic!

What the dining room at Myeongseung Jeju Saenggogi looks like

This is the overall vibe inside Myeongseung Jeju Saenggogi. We got there right before dinner peak hours, so the seats were still empty and I quickly snapped some photos. Right after that, customers started pouring in!

I wonder if the owner is actually from Jeju...?

Is Myeongseung Jeju Saenggogi certified for Jeju pork?

Myeongseung Jeju Saenggogi actually received quality certification from Jeju City for restaurants outside Jeju that serve Jeju-sourced pork. As you'd expect from an all-Jeju-pork menu, the origin is proudly domestic — even the red pepper powder, rice, and kimchi are all made in Korea. A very trustworthy restaurant.

If you look at the window next to the tables, you'll see a ton of stickers stuck on it — and if you look closely, the pork quality grade is written right there! Quality... you can't fake that. This level of transparency is amazing.

Menu and prices at Myeongseung Jeju Saenggogi

The basic menu at this Gwangalli favorite consists of seasoned ribs, raw ribs, pork belly, and black pork belly — all sourced from Jeju. Since we were there, we figured we might as well go for the black pork, so we ordered the black pork belly.

They even have a version of kimchi stew made with Jeju pork. There's also Jeju pork noodle soup and wild bracken salad on the meal menu. Jeju pork noodle soup, here in Gwangalli — what a nice surprise!

If you participate in their receipt review event, they give you a beer or soju — and since a bottle of beer/soju is only ₩5,000, this is a seriously generous deal.

Three servings of black pork ogyeopsal, with the logo branded onto the mushroom

Our three servings of pork belly arrived. The mushroom garnish has "Myeongseung Jeju Saenggogi" stamped right onto it.

Such a fun detail :-) Feels like this restaurant's own little signature touch.

Since it's pork belly, of course the skin is still attached, and since it's black pork, you can see some darker spots too. Being raw meat, it's got a nice glossy shine!

Whenever I go to a Jeju black pork restaurant, they always serve myeoljeot (fermented anchovy sauce) alongside it, and Myeongseung Jeju Saenggogi was no exception.

Does the owner make the side dishes by hand?

Here's the basic banchan (side dish) spread on the table. Sundubu (soft tofu), fried egg, baek-kimchi (white kimchi), gungchae (stem lettuce), and more — all served up deliciously.

The lettuce leaves for wrapping are grown by the owner herself, and all the side dishes are homemade too, apparently. No wonder it tasted like home cooking... loved it!

The baek-kimchi served with the meal... was especially delicious. Refreshing but not too sour, it was perfect paired with the meat.

This kimchi side dish also didn't seem like regular kimchi, and it didn't seem stir-fried either... visually it looked like mukeunji (aged kimchi), but when you ate it, it wasn't funky or sour at all! A really unique flavor. I wanted to pack it up and take it home...

The scallion salad is soy sauce and gochujang based, so it cuts right through the richness of the meat.

Black pork ogyeopsal vs regular Jeju ogyeopsal: what's the difference?

Since we're feeding kids, we tend to cut the meat fairly thin. Our kids have grown up quite a bit by now, and the two of them together can eat about as much as one adult, so we ordered some extra meat.

For our second order, we got the regular Jeju pork belly so we could compare it to the black pork. Unlike the black pork, the skin was clean without dark spots, just as expected.

The meat quality was great too, as expected ♥

Finishing the meal with doenjang stew and a mint candy

To cleanse our palate, we ordered doenjang stew (soybean paste stew), which came with pickled red pepper and bean sprouts on the side. The whole meal felt like eating home cooking — it was so delicious, and honestly, meat really does taste best at a dedicated meat restaurant...

They even thoughtfully gave us mint candy for dessert, and there was dental floss available too, which is so handy for cleanup after a barbecue meal!

As a Gwangalli local... restaurants right by the beach tend to be packed and often overpriced. This place is in such a great location near Exit 1 of Gwangan Station, so if you're craving good-quality, good-value Jeju pork belly, I highly recommend Myeongseung Jeju Saenggogi :-) Bye for now!