₩20,000 white wine with Korean BBQ near Gangnam Station: Giun

Gangnam Station's go-to samgyeopsal spot: Giun Gangnam Main Branch.

It's been a while since I had a date night with my sister — Friday night, here we go!

I've been hitting the gym, so instead of samgyetang (chicken soup) for the last day of the hottest summer stretch, I went for samgyeopsal (pork belly) as protein refuel :)

I came to Giun Gangnam Station last September too, but that was a date with my boyfriend — this time it's a date with my sister! It's got a great atmosphere for both family and dates, and it's a clean BBQ restaurant where staff grill the meat for you, so I figured my sister would love it too. Totally called it — we even ended up enjoying a nice glass of wine haha.

Where is Giun Gangnam Station Main Branch, and what are its hours?

• Mon-Fri 16:00-23:00 (last order 22:00)
• Sat-Sun 12:00-22:00 (last order 21:00)
• 772m from Gangnam Station Exit 4

It's more than 10 minutes on foot from Gangnam Station Exit 4. Unlike most spots near Gangnam Station, it's surprisingly quiet, with an apartment complex right in front — you might wonder if you're in the right place, but yes, that's exactly where Giun is.

It's a Gangnam Station samgyeopsal spot, but the quiet, calm atmosphere makes for a clean meal and gives it more of a hideout vibe! It's never too crowded or loud, the tables are spacious, the sofas are comfortable, and the spaces are well divided — totally satisfied. If you're looking for a nice-atmosphere BBQ place where staff grill for you, this is it.

Giun Gangnam Station is the main branch, and apparently they recently opened a Sinnonhyeon branch near Nonhyeon Station too! It's closer and I'm curious, so I might check it out next time haha.

You can store coats, bags, and other belongings under the seats. It's nice because your things won't smell like smoke or get lost — just don't forget them when you leave!

Giun menu and prices: why we chose the Sulgiun set

As befits a Gangnam Station samgyeopsal spot, the menu centers on the signature galbi samgyeopsal (rib-cut pork belly), built into three set menus. I tried the Dongiun (money) set on my last visit, so this time I went with the Sulgiun (wine) set to enjoy a drink along with the meal. You get to try different aged cuts, plus doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew), sul-bap (rice), fried rice, or naengmyeon (cold noodles) to round it out. The drink menu covers the basics — soju, beer — plus Asahi draft, Jameson/Jack Daniel's highballs, and reasonably priced red and white wines!

You'd usually reach for red wine with meat, but the Urmeneta Sauvignon Blanc was such a great deal — a bottle for ₩20,000, half the price of the red — that I chose it, and the white wine + samgyeopsal combo turned out to be really good!

What side dishes come with the meal at Giun?

They said every side dish is made in-house except for the wild garlic leaves, wasabi, and Himalayan pink salt, and even the sauces are homemade. Every ingredient is Korean-sourced except the chili flakes!

Instead of lettuce wraps, you get lettuce tossed in chogochujang (vinegared chili sauce), miso mustard, salted squid, marinated gungchae (aster stem), scallion kimchi, and wild garlic leaves, and they even grill baek-kimchi (white kimchi), minari (water dropwort), and gosari (fernbrake) right on the pan. So you don't need lettuce wraps to feel satisfied — if anything, it boosts the meaty flavor and lets you enjoy a rich variety of tastes.

Does Urmeneta Sauvignon Blanc go with samgyeopsal?

A dry Chilean white wine, 12% ABV, 100% Sauvignon Blanc — clean and refreshing, with good quality for the price, making it an easy everyday wine to enjoy.

It has a pale lemon color, with notes of green apple, herbs, and light tropical fruit. It'd pair well with seafood, but it also worked surprisingly well with fatty pork — it left the palate clean and refreshed!

Urmeneta Sauvignon Blanc — great for refreshing your mood too. And no need to bring your own bottle — being able to drink it from a proper wine glass at such a reasonable price right at the restaurant was such a plus!

Cheers with my sister! She's usually a beer person, but wine is something we always enjoy together, so raising a glass at a great-atmosphere Gangnam Station samgyeopsal spot made us both happy haha.

Clay brazier and charcoal: can you eat without getting too hot?

They grill the baek-kimchi separately on the pan, so don't just grab it as a side straight away — wait for it!

Giun uses a specially made charcoal grill built with ochre clay on all four sides, designed for heat retention. That means the grill stays hot for a long time — you know how at other BBQ places the charcoal gets so hot and stuffy that by the end you're asking them to pull the coals?

At Giun Gangnam Station Main Branch, you don't need to worry about that — even with a cast-iron plate, the ochre clay grill is sturdy and efficient enough to stay warm and delicious all the way through without ever feeling too hot or stuffy. The overhead smoke vent works well too, so nothing got into our clothes and our eyes didn't sting.

Galbi samgyeopsal, gabrisal and hangjeongsal on the grill

They start by grilling Giun's signature galbi samgyeopsal! They bring in bone-in pork belly and cut the bone off themselves using a bone saw, so you get to taste both the deeply flavorful pork belly aged with the bone, and the intercostal meat between the belly and the rib.

They visit the slaughterhouse themselves to strictly select premium pork, trim it in-house, and age each cut for a different number of days so you can taste each cut at its optimal state.

Here's the gabrisal (pork shoulder blade) and hangjeongsal (pork jowl). They come out as thick whole pieces, but the staff grill and cut them into bite-sized portions in sequence right after the galbi samgyeopsal.

They also grill kkwari gochu (shishito peppers), zucchini, and baek-kimchi alongside the minari and gosari — a Gangnam Station BBQ spot where you get plenty of vegetables too.

The very first bite! They told me to try the first piece dipped only in Himalayan pink salt, so I did — instant dopamine hit, juices bursting everywhere! I could tell right away this was genuinely delicious samgyeopsal.

Grilled to perfect golden-brown doneness, the juices stayed locked inside the crisp exterior — truly the meat at its best.

The baek-kimchi gets even more savory once it's golden and grilled. Wrapped together with the pork, it's even better than a lettuce wrap!

Rolled up in the sweet wild garlic leaves with fresh wasabi, it's the perfect pairing too.

The gosari and minari were chewy and fragrant, going so well with the pork! Coming to a Gangnam Station samgyeopsal spot and somehow feeling healthy — what is this? The salted squid, they said, is Giun's own recipe, mixed with crushed nuts, and it's savory-salty perfection.

The crisp hangjeongsal and the chewy gabrisal were also grilled and served in perfect sequence, bite by bite. The meat was so good that the grilling speed just couldn't keep up with our eating speed... lol

In the end, the two of us finished the whole set and still added another portion of meat. Haha.

The scallions get grilled golden and sweet, then dipped in soy sauce — served up like instant jangajji (soy-pickled vegetables) to go with the meat.

Even kids who don't eat vegetables would probably love Giun's grilled vegetables. The vegetable juices don't cook off too much, so they come out golden brown and nutty — genuinely delicious.

Try combining the grilled vegetables with minari and scallion kimchi and eating them all together. The hangjeongsal was exactly as crisp-yet-tender as I'd hoped, and the gabrisal was chewy with juices bursting through!

Adding a 200g portion of pork neck

When two big eaters like my sister and me go together, we somehow eat even more than on a date... ^^ The thick pork neck comes in a hearty 200g portion, so we figured it'd be perfect for two to share more of, and added a portion. I'd already enjoyed the pork neck as part of the Dongiun set on my last visit, so I recommended it enthusiastically to my sister and ordered more!

My sister, who'd already been raving about how good the samgyeopsal, gabrisal, and hangjeongsal all were, called the pork neck the best she's ever had lol. She said it had the least fat but somehow the most juices of all! At Giun, this samgyeopsal spot, each cut has its own appeal — honestly you have to try them all.

Finishing with cold mul naengmyeon noodles

After we finished off a whole bottle of wine, I begged (?) her to just have one more soju and a bowl of naengmyeon (cold noodles) together — and successfully talked her into it. Once we actually ordered, she happily joined in on the cool naengmyeon and soju too... hehe.

Loaded with shaved ice, the noodles springy with no clumping, sweet-and-sour and refreshing — perfect to slurp down! It held its own both as a second round of anju (drinking food) and as a proper meal. Nothing beats naengmyeon to close out a summer BBQ meal.

A great-atmosphere Gangnam BBQ spot where they grill everything for you — take anyone here and you'll get compliments. Gangnam Station's go-to samgyeopsal restaurant! Head to Giun Gangnam Station and recharge your energy (giun) deliciously :)