Milyang Korean BBQ with garlic shrimp oil sauce: Dotdot

Dinner and drinks after the Milyang festival

After looking around the Milyang festival, Yeongdaeng and I wanted some delicious meat with drinks for dinner, so we looked up good places in Sammun-dong and decided to visit this newly opened barbecue place! It is called Dotdot, and it opened in the area packed with Sammun-dong restaurants and bars. We both wanted a barbecue place within walking distance for a drink in the evening, so it was perfect~

Location and parking?

It is over by Sammun-dong's happening street, so it is super easy to find! Sammun-dong already has so many atmospheric restaurants and bars, making this a perfect route for an evening date and drinks!

For parking, you can use the alleys near the restaurant, nearby parking spaces, or vacant lots, so bringing a car is not a huge hassle. But since we were planning to have drinks with dinner, we left the car behind and walked over with total peace of mind! In short, use a nearby vacant lot for parking~

Hours and peak-time waiting

Even the exterior had a cozy, neat vibe. The sign is clean too, so it is easy to spot from a distance!

Hours are 4 PM to midnight, with last order at 11:30 PM! On a Saturday evening, peak dinner time can mean a wait because lots of guests come for a meal with drinks, so I recommend arriving a little early!

Since it has only just opened, there is no Tabling machine yet, so you need to reserve by phone! Once you are there, tell a staff member your number and party size~ We visited at peak time and had to wait~ So we took a walk nearby and popped into Olive Young, then just as we were saying, “Now where do we go?” while heading back to the restaurant, we got the call and went straight in!

A neat interior and pork barbecue menu

Inside, the interior was so clean and comfortable! The tables were nicely spaced out, and the grill tables were kept spotless, so it was just the right atmosphere for Yeongdaeng and me to chat away over drinks~

The menu has various pork cuts for grilling, including ogeopsal (five-layer pork belly) and kkodeulsal (crisp-textured pork). Alongside the meat, there is a well-rounded selection of sides and accompaniments. Without hesitating, we ordered this place's signature ogeopsal~~ Then we added chilled soju for a proper dinner-and-drinks session.

After ordering, the banchan (small side dishes) arrived. In particular, the self-serve bar on one side was kept really neat, making it easy to grab any extra sides we wanted!

The olive kimchi was especially memorable. It is something you do not find elsewhere, and it was delicious!!

Every one of the standard sauces was tasty. Even the salad was unusual, topped with anchovies, but it was not weird at all—it was good! The kimchi varieties, myeolchi jeot (fermented anchovy sauce), and that garlic shrimp oil sauce!! That is the real kicker!~~

Ogeopsal with garlic shrimp oil sauce

The moment our ogeopsal came out, Yeongdaeng saw it and said the meat quality looked great! The fresh rosy-red lean meat had just the right amount of skin attached, and it looked seriously delicious. The grill was nice and hot too, so it cooked quickly and well.

And since we both love pollock roe mayo, we spotted it on the menu and debated between steamed egg and rice, then ordered the rice. It was such a treat~~

They even give you roasted seaweed, and it was even better eaten with the meat~~

I took a bite of the well-grilled ogeopsal, and the skin was wonderfully chewy while the meat was tender—the texture was amazing. Yeongdaeng took one bite and immediately tipped back a glass of soju!

And the highlight here was absolutely the garlic shrimp oil sauce! I had never seen this sauce combination before, so I was curious and dipped the meat in it. The umami exploded. The sharp kick of garlic and the nutty, salty shrimp went insanely well with rich ogeopsal. Yeongdaeng ate almost all the meat with garlic shrimp sauce instead of the other sauces! I feel like the garlic shrimp oil sauce made the meat several times more delicious~

Kkodeulsal and kimchi noodle soup too

Then we ordered kkodeulsal,

I expected it to be mild, but it had some fat too, so it was delicious! Yeongdaeng grilled the kkodeulsal really well too, but ogeopsal was definitely more my taste!!

We wrapped the meat with seaweed and pollock roe mayo rice, and ate it with olive kimchi too—it disappeared in no time~ A sip of soju was nice and clean when things got rich, but the kimchi noodle soup was even better! It was made in the style of yeolmu kimchi (young radish kimchi), so it was salty and delicious.

There was cucumber kimchi too, and it was seriously good~~ The downside is that the noodle portion is small. Even though we were full, maybe because it was so tasty, the amount of noodles felt small~~ There were cherry tomatoes at the self-serve bar too, and they were stevia sweetened, so they were delicious!

Dotdot in Milyang's Sammun-dong was a great restaurant with nothing missing, from the quality of the meat and the strong grill heat to its unusual, delicious signature garlic shrimp oil sauce~ We had a thoroughly satisfying time grilling ogeopsal properly over evening drinks with Yeongdaeng, even finishing with cherry tomatoes from the self-serve bar~ I strongly recommend it if you are looking for an atmospheric barbecue place with excellent meat in Sammun-dong, or simply want delicious meat with a drink~~