Seoul Korean BBQ near Dongseoul Terminal with 12-veggie bar: Sanggu's

I wanted to share this pork belly spot I stopped at right after getting off at Dongseoul Terminal from a trip. I'm a big fan of samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly), and this place was so good — they even grilled it for us, and my friends and I left totally satisfied. Here's my honest review of Sanggu's Sotttukkeong Samgyeopsal Gueui-Gangbyeon branch ♥︎

Where is Sanggu's Sotttukkeong Samgyeopsal Gueui Branch, and what are the hours?

• Location: 444 Achasan-ro, 1st floor, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul
• Hours: Daily 11:00 – 02:00

Inside Sanggu's: the smoky grill smell hits you at the door 🔥

About a 10-minute walk from Dongseoul Terminal, this place sits right between Gueui and Gangbyeon stations. I walked there from Gangbyeon station, and after eating, walked out toward Gueui station. Being exactly in the middle made it a perfectly comfortable walking distance.

The interior has that local Gwangjin-gu feel while still keeping the tables spaced generously apart, so it never felt cramped. Totally different from those tight samgyeopsal joints where you can hear the whole conversation at the next table. With everything from 2-person tables to group seating, it seemed like a solid pick for anyone looking for a dinner or work gathering spot around Konkuk University or Dongseoul Terminal. That day there were a lot of little kids and what looked like family gatherings too.

The menu was written big on both sides of the restaurant, so it was easy to read. Half-and-half sets, combo sets — the way they specialize in pork belly built a lot of trust right away. Overall, the vibe here is 'not flashy, but quietly cool.' It's not just a pretty Instagram-bait place — the interior itself radiates confidence that they're going to win on the actual pork belly. If you're looking for good food around Gueui or Gangbyeon, you can start getting excited the moment you walk in.

The 12-vegetable self-serve bar, unlimited

Right next to our table was a self-bar where we could grab unlimited portions of 12 different wrap vegetables. This was honestly great — vegetables are expensive these days, but here you could just grab whichever kinds you wanted!

Combo set review: pork belly, neck, jowl and minari at this price? 😳

We ordered the combo set and were completely starving, ready to dive into the pork belly. From the combo set we picked minari (water celery), fresh pork belly, fresh pork neck, and pork jowl, plus fried rice for two. We also got cola and rice~~~~

The 270℃ custom Korean cast-iron pot lid

And above all, the signature of this place — the specially made domestic cast-iron pot lid sitting right in the middle of the table — gave me a little thrill the moment I saw it. The thick curve of the cast iron caught the light in a way that felt almost like grilling meat by a campfire. Once I heard they heat it up to 270℃, it made sense why the meat sizzled differently the second it hit the surface.

Seeing how genuinely fresh the meat looked, I went straight to the self-bar for fresh veggies to eat alongside it. There were so many kinds of wrap vegetables that I grabbed all sorts of things, though it turned out my friends just wanted lettuce, so I didn't really need to bring so much variety — ㅜ oh well. Still, I grabbed some sweet pumpkin, and grilling that turned out to be incredibly delicious!!!!

Look how much minari there is, can you see?!?! Here it's not just about the meat — you get to eat tons of vegetables too, which I loved so much. If this place were near my house, I think I'd be coming here all the time.

Grilling service: the staff grill your pork for you

With a light drizzle of oil on the thick cast-iron lid, the pork belly went on and cooked up crispy outside, juicy inside — you could see the juices staying locked in just by looking. Another thing I loved was the grilling service.

"Meat grilled by someone else always tastes best" — you'll agree 100% once you come here.

A staff member trained specifically in grilling technique flipped everything at just the right timing, so we could just sit back and eat comfortably. And this is where the real fun of this place begins —

Aged kimchi, minari, bean sprouts and siraegi grilled in pork fat

As the pork grills, the rendered fat flows out toward the edge of the cast-iron lid, and that's where they grill aged kimchi, minari, specially seasoned bean sprouts, and specially seasoned dried radish greens (siraegi) one after another. The aged kimchi soaks up the pork fat and its tanginess pops even more, the minari's crunch cuts through the richness, and the bean sprouts and siraegi felt less like side dishes and more like a main dish thanks to the special seasoning. I'd genuinely never tried this combination before, and I got why everyone talks about this place 👍

Finishing with sotttukkeong fried rice

And the highlight came last — sotttukkeong (cast-iron pot lid) fried rice! They fry the rice using the pork fat, various vegetables, and all those tasty browned bits stuck to the pan, scraping everything up. Even though we were already completely full, we kept eating more. I thought 'whoa, this is so much, how are we going to finish it' when everyone said they were full, but they all ended up eating it like champs ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Is Sanggu's worth it? Final verdict

This place truly lives up to its name as a sotttukkeong samgyeopsal spot, and the quality for the price was genuinely excellent. If you have a dinner plan around Konkuk University, Gangbyeon, or Dongseoul Terminal, I highly recommend it 🙆‍♀️