Namyangju Korean BBQ, half-cheese tomato pork & sprouts: 2002 Witch's

What is 2002 Witch's Arpeggio like?

2002 Witch's Arpeggio (2002 마녀의 아르페지오) is a barbecue restaurant next to Myojeoksa Valley in Wabu-eup, Namyangju, serving tomato-marinated pork belly. It's open daily 11:00-21:00 (break time 15:30-16:30), with parking in front and dogs welcome. It's a perfect spot to soak in fall, great for a Namyangju date or a scenic drive.

The moment I arrived, the maple trees were so pretty they stopped me in my tracks, haha. Come on a weekend afternoon and you can probably eat in an even prettier setting!

Autumn foliage terrace by Myojeoksa Valley

At 2002 Witch's Arpeggio, an outdoor-style BBQ spot in Namyangju, Myojeoksa Valley's stream runs below. It's a great valley restaurant in summer, and now in fall you can eat under the lovely maples listening to the water!

The maples are gorgeous, right....! Driving out of the city to the outskirts of Seoul and eating somewhere you can really feel fall. That's my to-do this weekend, lol 📝📝 It's good for bringing your parents and for a Namyangju date too! 👍

There's a big open parking lot beside the restaurant, haha. On the way to the entrance, Myojeoksa Valley flows along one side below. The weather is just right for eating on the terrace during the day these days, so a weekend afternoon would be perfect!

There's a wood fire at the entrance! I visited late on a weekday so I couldn't use it, but apparently you can roast marshmallows, haha. The 2002 in the name means they started in 2002, haha.

Besides me there were two couples inside, and it looked like they'd come all this way for a late-night date!!!!

Tomato pork belly menu and prices

The tomato pork belly at Witch's Arpeggio is ₩20,000 per serving: pork belly aged 48 hours in a jar, with no gochujang (red chili paste) 🍅🍅 Arpeggio was originally famous for its gochujang pork belly, but now it's a tomato pork belly place.

⭐️ What we ordered ⭐️

• Tomato pork belly ₩20,000 × 3 servings
• Extra cheese ₩5,000
• Mini potato pancake ₩13,000
• Cauldron fried rice ₩5,000

There's an alcohol menu too. If I hadn't driven, I'd have had the homemade blueberry makgeolli (rice wine), sob. They brought water and tableware, and the tomato pork belly came out right away!

There were so many tips for eating it well that I was busy following along, haha.

• ✔️ Plain first
• ✔️ With cheese
• ✔️ Wrapped in a jeonbyeong (thin rice-flour wrap)
• ✔️ With seaweed and pickled radish
• ✔️ With organic wrap vegetables

Hot japchae and tomato kimchi as side dishes

The side dishes at Witch's Arpeggio were japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), freshly stir-fried and piping hot, and a curious tomato kimchi!!!! 🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅

The table was set and looked delicious! I didn't go for the cheese pork belly; I got the basic tomato pork belly and added cheese just once. I wanted to eat it half and half, haha!

I've never seen a restaurant serve japchae this warm.. it tasted like it had just been stir-fried, lol. Total holiday-feast smell, lol. It was so good I inhaled it, and they gave us a refill, haha!

This one is the real kicker!!! The tomato kimchi is insanely good 👍👍👍👍👍 The tomatoes were super firm with a sweet taste, so I asked for the recipe and they said it's on YouTube, lol. I wondered if the sweetness was sugar, and they said a little sugar goes in! They use really sweet, good tomatoes to begin with 🍅🍅

The staff grill all the meat for you! So~~ you can eat more comfortably, haha!

How big is the mini potato pancake, and how does it taste?

The mini potato pancake (₩13,000) at Witch's Arpeggio is huge even though it's called mini, lol. You can order the mini and it's plenty!!! It came with a sauce and onion jang (soy-pickled onions).

It was fried-crisp and super crunchy, haha. Like french fries~~~?? They said the recipe for the potato pancake is on YouTube too, haha. It had a scorched-rice crust feel, and my friend kept saying, lol, "Did they fry rice in it too?", haha.

Dipped in plenty of sauce, the potato pancake was really crunchy! It tasted a bit different from the potato pancakes I know, and I loved that the food here is unique across the board, lol.

Half-and-half cheese tomato pork belly, finished with a torch

The tomato pork belly sauce is so unusual that my friend got curious, lol, and tried the marinade with chopsticks first: "Oh! This sauce is good~~~~!"

The meat was sliced neatly at a nice thin thickness, haha. Then a torch went whoosh over it~~~~ 🔥🔥 When it was cooked a bit, they asked if we weren't adding cheese, so I said I'd add just one cheese and have it on only half, haha.

They asked if this was the right amount for one cheese, lol, and they really put a lot on, haha. The cheese gets torched until melted too, lol.

Perfectly cooked pork belly, perfectly melted cheese~~ Tomato pork belly is so unusual, isn't it~~~?

Big potato pancake, right!!! We finished the japchae and got a refill, lol. And then the star of the show, tomato pork belly and cheese 🧀 I'd barely eaten all day, so I was drooling at the sight, lol. Not gochujang pork belly but tomato pork belly!!! It was so unusual that I was curious, haha!

Best ways to eat tomato pork belly

The tomato pork belly at Witch's Arpeggio doesn't taste strongly of tomato; it's pork belly soaked through with a fairly punchy marinade. I first wrapped the basic one in pickled radish, and it was crunchy and tasty together.

But!!! Be sure to eat it with the bean sprouts in the middle, haha. The flavor doubles, haha. The cheese stretches and pairs really well with it, haha. Definitely add the cheese!!

Cheese this perfectly melted, you can't help but add it, haha.

They said wrapping it in the jeonbyeong is a tip for eating it well, so I tried it, haha. The jeonbyeong was chewy and good, but the 10 out of 100,000 points comes below! My friend said the jeonbyeong combo was the best, haha.

Me!!! My favorite was perilla leaf + pickled radish + meat, haha. The crunchy sweetness of the radish and the fragrance of the perilla went so well with the fairly punchy tomato marinade, haha. It was definitely not a salty marinade!!!!!

Be sure to eat it with the bean sprouts like this and it tastes even better~~ Seaweed and pickled radish is also a recommended combo so I tried it, lol. My friend said this combo was good too, lol.

The bean sprouts in the middle!!! Please eat them together with the stretchy cheese~~~~~ 🤍🤍 But still, I say take a big mouthful with pickled radish, perilla leaf, and the cheese and tomato pork belly plus sprouts, haha.

The tomato kimchi was so good that we got two more refills!!! 🍅 The tomatoes are really firm and sweet... honestly, you can't know this taste until you try it, sob.

Finishing with cauldron roe fried rice

The cauldron fried rice (₩5,000) at Witch's Arpeggio is roe fried rice made in an actual cauldron, and they bring it out once it's fully stir-fried. Koreans run on rice power! When I ordered one, lol, a real cauldron came out, haha.

Nicely stir-fried cauldron roe fried rice

It was good on its own, but the staff recommended a combo...!!! Wrap it in seaweed and top it with something like perilla pesto?, haha. That perilla was the real kicker, lol.

Back at 2002 Witch's Arpeggio: how was it?

There are so many special dishes and they were all delicious, so 2002 Witch's Arpeggio, a Namyangju barbecue spot, left me with great memories, haha. The taste is way!!! better than when I visited before, and I was very satisfied with the meal, haha.

The grilling paper is premium hanji (traditional paper), so the meat somehow doesn't burn, lol. They keep the portable burner on so it stays warm and the meat doesn't burn! Wow~~ 👍👍👍👍

Even just looking at the tomatoes, they look super fresh, right?? They looked so fresh I wanted to just pick one up and eat it! Not only the tomato pork belly but the tomato kimchi was great, and all the sides were unusual and tasty, so I recommend it as a Namyangju date spot!!👍