Seocho, Seoul Korean BBQ for an iron boost with mom: Ugojip

I'd been craving beef a lot lately, and I'd been feeling dizzy, kind of like anemia, so I met up with my mom for beef to top up on iron. This is Ugojip, a Gotto (Express Bus Terminal) favorite.

Getting to Ugojip: Exit 8-2 of Express Bus Terminal Station

Ugojip is a beef BBQ restaurant in the basement of Banpo Shopping Town Building 5, just out of Exit 8-2 of Express Bus Terminal Station.

Come out of Exit 8-2 and you'll see Banpo Shopping Town Building 5 in the row of buildings.

Head downstairs and there it is: Ugojip, a beef BBQ place that's great for a family get-together near Gotto!

Maybe because there's a wait in the evenings, there's a row of waiting chairs out front 🪑🪑 I thought about sitting there to wait for my mom, who was lost in the wrong building, but I just went inside and waited there, haha.

The restaurant is a little small and cozy. There are bags under the chairs for your coat, aprons, and even a receipt review event that gives you free cheese to grill!

Ugojip menu and prices

The couple set at Ugojip is ₩49,000 and the signature set is ₩79,000. The full menu and prices are below.

• Couple set ₩49,000
• Signature set ₩79,000
• Brisket samhap ₩39,000
• Perilla leaf tteokbokki ₩9,500
• Hong Kong ramyeon ₩9,000
• Two-plus Hanwoo beef tartare ₩26,000
• Brisket doenjang stew ₩8,500
• Kimchi fried rice ₩6,000

Is the couple set enough for two?

We ordered the 2-person couple set: woosamgyeop (thin-sliced beef brisket) + galbisal (rib meat) + tosisal (skirt meat), 400g, plus brisket doenjang stew. I wondered about the 600g signature set, which is recommended for 3-4 people, but we'd eaten lunch not long before and my mom doesn't eat much, so we went with the couple set. Even that was filling, plenty of food!

Ugojip's side dishes

And here's another reason Ugojip is great for a family get-together near Gotto: the sides. Scallion salad / salad / young radish kimchi / myeongi (wild garlic leaf) pickles / salt / wasabi / ponzu sauce(?), and next to the myeongi, some other kind of pickle that I couldn't identify. But every single side was delicious. I went for the myeongi, my mom mostly demolished the scallion salad 👊

Ugojip couple set, 400g: what order do you grill it in?

The couple set is 400g. At first glance I worried it wouldn't be enough, but once we started eating, it was filling 🐷🐷

• Woosamgyeop (thin-sliced beef brisket) | mild, nutty cut
• Galbisal (rib meat) | chewy cut with a rich, savory flavor
• Tosisal (skirt meat) | lean specialty cut with a clean beefy flavor

The staff told us to start with the woosamgyeop, so we grilled in this order: woosamgyeop > galbisal > tosisal.

Woosamgyeop: cooks fast, and that's its best point

Woosamgyeop's biggest plus is that it cooks fast.

Funnily enough, it's one of the most common beef cuts you can eat, yet it tasted especially good that day. Dipped in the sauce and eaten with myeongi, it was fantastic. Clean-tasting beef at a Gotto gem! Since we started on high heat, it cooked really, really fast.

Galbisal: turn the heat down and be patient

Next up, galbisal. After the woosamgyeop, grilling the galbisal suddenly felt like it needed patience, if you know what I mean?! Haha. Of course, I turned the heat down a bit here, which is our little secret~

It's chewy, and you get plenty of beefy flavor even without any other side, so delicious... 🫶

Eat the mushrooms / onions / zucchini in between too. I'm a mushroom lover, my mom is an onion and zucchini lover. Our tastes match perfectly.

Tosisal: finish with the clean, mild one

Last is the tosisal.

It looked the best of the three, and it tasted properly mild and clean. Neat and refined, which made it a really good place to bring my mom, a great Gotto spot for a family get-together.

It's just the two of us, but as a family get-together it counts. In Seoul, you have to see each other after work like this once in a while or you forget each other's faces (?) Also, whenever I meet my mom, beef somehow feels like health food, so I mostly look for beef restaurants, and it seems like I end up eating beef every time I see her, haha.

Ugojip's brisket doenjang stew, included in the couple set

The brisket doenjang stew (soybean paste stew) in the couple set is another treat. It's packed with mushrooms / tofu / zucchini. Seriously, it's so full of ingredients that the ladle was heavy, which hasn't happened in ages.

Lots of brisket too! I like the tofu more than the meat in the stew, so I mostly ate tofu, and my mom said it was delicious and must have scooped herself at least 3 times. Seeing her so happy made me proud, as the daughter who picked the place. That was my Gotto favorite, Ugojip.