Korean pork belly and neck BBQ by Mangwon Station: Dwaejibangatgan

I visited Dwaejibangatgan (돼지방앗간), a great pork BBQ spot in Mangwon. It's a newly opened pork restaurant that uses Korean pork (hanwoo-style domestic pork, "handon"), and it was delicious. On top of that, there are all kinds of side dishes made with oil they press themselves at the mill, which go really well with the meat.

Where is Dwaejibangatgan?

Dwaejibangatgan is at 95 Woldeukeop-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, on the 2nd floor of a building you can see as soon as you come out of Exit 2 of Mangwon Station. It's open 16:00 to 01:00, last order is 00:00, and there's no break time and no regular closing day.

The restaurant is on the 2nd floor, so just head up in the building where the jokbal (braised pig's trotters) restaurant is.

Dwaejibangatgan is also officially recognized as a Model Restaurant (모범음식점), which made me trust it even more!

Is the seating good for group gatherings?

The inside is a decent size, with tables for four and group seating. There's also a private room at the back, so it looked great for company dinners and group get-togethers.

One side has folding doors, so in weather like this you can eat with the doors open and a nice breeze coming in. Perfect.

Dwaejibangatgan menu and prices

Here's what we ordered at Dwaejibangatgan.

• 100% Korean pork pre-grilled pork belly (₩16,000) x3
• 100% Korean pork pre-grilled pork neck (₩16,000)
• Sesame oil Jjapaghetti from an 18-year oil mill master (₩6,000)
• Sesame oil bibimbap from an 18-year oil mill master (₩5,000)
• Beer (₩5,000)

The meat menu is just the essentials, pork belly and pork neck, and there are also sesame oil bibimbap and Jjapaghetti (black bean noodles), which are great for a meal.

You order, and refill any side dishes you run out of, on the tablet at each table.

The spoons are kept under the table, and a sterilizer was running, so no worries about germs.

Side dishes and the opening-event soft tofu stew

The side dishes were ssam (wrap) vegetables, garlic, myeongi namul (pickled wild garlic leaves), gat kimchi (mustard leaf kimchi), and dongchimi (radish water kimchi). The dipping sauces were salt, wasabi, and zhi ran (cumin) sauce.

As an opening event, they currently also serve a small tasting bowl of soon tubu jjigae (soft tofu stew). It was spicy and perfect as a hangover soup. There's meat in it too, so it was insanely good with rice.

Pre-grilled pork belly: how do you cook it?

The meat at Dwaejibangatgan comes out already seared once, so it was easy to grill.

Kimchi, bean sprouts, and chives came with the meat too. If you run out, you can get refills!

Since the surface is already seared, you only need to grill each side briefly. The pieces are smaller than usual, so they cooked up quickly, which I liked. Just put the meat, kimchi, and bean sprouts on the grill all at once.

Maybe because it's quality Korean pork, the meat was good wrapped in lettuce and also good dipped in salt and wasabi.

Meat and a drink, no question~! It was so hot out, and the beer was wonderfully cold.

We ordered more partway through, and it still came out pre-seared quickly!

How were the oil mill bibimbap and perilla oil Jjapaghetti?

For the meal, we ordered the bibimbap (₩5,000), and it looked impressive right away.

Add the perilla oil that comes with it, mix it all up, and it's delicious. Halfway through, putting it on the grill to make fried rice was great too.

I'd had truffle oil Jjapaghetti (₩6,000) before but never perilla oil Jjapaghetti, so I had to order it. Since this is a mill that presses its own oil, the aroma was crazy good. Perilla oil and Jjapaghetti work well together.

Restroom extras and the review event

The restroom at Dwaejibangatgan even has cotton swabs, dental floss, and hand cream, so you can freshen up your mouth before you leave.

Dwaejibangatgan near Mangwon Station also runs a review event, and if you join, you can get a perilla oil sample~!