Minari samgyeopsal grilled tableside near Gusan Station: Oktopbang

Oktopbang's location and hours

• Location: 115 Seooreung-ro, 1F Oktopbang, Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul (245m from Gusan Station Exit 2)
• Hours: Daily 12:00–22:00
• Closed: Every Tuesday

Today I went to Oktopbang, the kind of place that comes to mind when you want to eat proper meat in Eunpyeong 🥩🔥

The green sign spelling out 'Oktopbang' in big letters meant I could spot it from far away 👀

Out front there was a whole row of waiting chairs, and the moment I saw them I thought, this place must get pretty crowded normally haha 😂 A sign saying the minari (water dropwort) comes direct from the farm also caught my eye, so my expectations for the minari were already climbing before I even walked in 🌿

The interior and seating

Inside, the place was bigger than I expected with plenty of tables 😊 It had that lively Korean BBQ buzz but still felt comfortable to eat in 👍 Every table came fully set up with a grill and proper ventilation, so I was already ready to eat 🔥 All I had to do was sit down and open my mouth haha 😆

What we ordered: minari samgyeopsal, jaksal samgyeopsal, snowflake mokssal

Ordering was easy with the tablet at the table 📱 We ordered minari samgyeopsal (pork belly with water dropwort), jaksal samgyeopsal, and snowflake mokssal (pork neck) 🥩 Just from the names, you can tell this isn't your average samgyeopsal place haha 😂 Minari samgyeopsal in particular felt like a must-order at Oktopbang, so I picked it without hesitation 🌿

The basic side dishes

Once we ordered, a generous spread of side dishes arrived 😍 Seasoned lettuce, kimchi, bean sprouts, pickles, garlic, minari — all the good companions for meat, one after another. My chopsticks got busy before the meat even showed up haha 😂 With so many side dishes, mixing and matching them was pretty fun too 👍

What sauces come with it

One thing that really caught my eye was the range of sauces to pair with the meat 😋 Salt, wasabi, ssamjang (thick dipping sauce), and even a seasoned sauce meant for dipping the minari.

Same meat, but the taste changes completely depending on what you pair it with, so trying different combinations was fun 🥩 Today's goal: try a new combination with every single bite haha 😂

Meat pre-grilled over charcoal and straw fire

One thing I really liked about Oktopbang 😎: the meat doesn't come out raw, it comes pre-grilled. It said it's first pre-grilled over charcoal, then over straw fire for aroma — and sure enough, the moment the meat arrived you could catch a faint smoky scent, which felt like the real deal 🤤

The pre-grilled samgyeopsal and mokssal finally arrived 🥩🔥 The outside was already golden brown while the inside still kept its moist color — it looked properly done just from the sight of it. Since it wasn't raw from the start, it also made things much easier 👍

Staff grilling it for you

A staff member came over and grilled every piece for us 😊 The moment the thick samgyeopsal hit the grill and started sizzling, it was basically game over 🔥 For once I didn't even need to hold the tongs, I just sat and waited, which was really nice. Why does meat someone else grills for you always taste better? 😂🥩

Alongside the meat, vegetables like fernbrake and shishito-style peppers went on the grill too 🌿 And on one side, cheese was set out as well 🧀

Eating only meat can get a bit heavy, but tossing in some grilled vegetables in between cleaned the palate right up 😋 With cheese in the mix too, my happiness levels shot up mid-meal haha 😂

With samgyeopsal, mokssal, and a mountain of minari all piled on the grill, it looked seriously satisfying.

Staff cut the meat into bite-sized pieces and moved the fully cooked ones to the top of the grill 👍 All I had to do was pick up each piece at its best moment. At this point I was less a customer and more a baby bird waiting to be fed haha 😂

Combinations the staff recommended

Another fun part of Oktopbang: staff walked us through the best ways to eat the meat, one by one haha 😆

We ate it with minari, with a dab of wasabi, wrapped in seaweed 🌿 It's literally the same samgyeopsal but the combos kept changing so it never got boring — every bite came with the fun of deciding what to top it with next 🤤

Following the staff's suggestion, I tried topping the meat with myeongi namul (wild garlic leaf) and minari 😋 The salty myeongi namul, fragrant minari, and savory meat together worked really well 👍 Dipping it lightly in the minari sauce was also a treat 🌿 Personally, I also really liked adding a bit of wasabi — as long as you don't overdo it, it's clean and delicious 😂

Staff also recommended pairing it with baechu kimchi (napa cabbage kimchi) and galchi sokjeot (salted hairtail entrails), so I did just that 😋 Grilled meat with a piece of kimchi on top needs no explanation 🔥 The galchi sokjeot had a real punch of umami, and it held its own strongly against the meat. There was clearly a reason it was recommended 👍

Yeolmu bibim guksu and the complimentary kimchi jjigae

We'd eaten plenty of meat but stopping there felt like leaving something unfinished 😎 So we ordered yeolmu bibim guksu (cold noodles mixed with young radish greens) as an extra 🍜 It came with a spicy-tangy sauce, plenty of yeolmu, and a generous portion of noodles.

Eating it after the meat really cut through the richness 👍 I forgot who even said they were full — the noodles kept disappearing haha 😂

Oktopbang also brought out a complimentary kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew) 😍 I expected something light since it was free, but it came out properly simmered 🔥 The bubbling stew alone made me want rice.

Looking inside the kimchi jjigae, there was plenty of meat 🥩 The kimchi was well fermented and gave the broth deep flavor, and there was even tofu in it for good measure 😋 Even after all that meat and noodles, one spoonful of the broth made it hard to put the spoon down haha 😂 It's a problem when a 'free' kimchi jjigae is this serious about being good.

Final thoughts

Full to the brim, I went to pay and found a whole basket of candy by the register 🍭😆 After eating all that meat, I still naturally grabbed a piece of dessert candy.

A perfect finish for the palate 😊 I came for samgyeopsal but ended up having a genuinely fun meal thanks to the minari, the variety of sauce combinations, and staff grilling everything for us at Oktopbang in Eunpyeong 🥩🌿 If you like enjoying meat in lots of different ways, this place is worth a visit 😋 That day, I discovered less about the meat and more about just how much my stomach can actually expand haha 😂