Yangyang meat restaurant after hiking Sinseondae: Yeoyejeong pot rice

Yeoyejeong

Down from Sinseondae Peak to Yeoyejeong in Yangyang

Yeoyejeong is a barbecue restaurant on Ssangsolbaegi-gil in Seo-myeon, Yangyang, that I visited right after hiking Sinseondae Peak on Geumgangsan in Goseong. My original plan was to be down the mountain by noon, but I waited at the summit for the gorgeous clouds wrapping the peaks to clear, and before I knew it, it was already 1pm.

Sinseondae was somewhere I'd really wanted to visit, and even though I was pretty hungry, my one thought was to eat some good meat — and that's how I ended up at Yeoyejeong, a well-known barbecue spot in Yangyang.

When I first arrived, the cozy wooden building blending into the surrounding nature caught my eye right away. The exterior had a grand yet homey mountain-lodge feel that instantly washed away the fatigue from the hike down.

Is parking easy at Yeoyejeong?

For anyone driving, parking is one of the most important things to consider. Here, the open lot in front of the restaurant is really spacious, so parking was super easy.

Inside Yeoyejeong: a wood-toned hall covered in guest notes

Stepping inside Yeoyejeong, I was welcomed by a spacious, comfortable hall. The clean wood-toned interior and sturdy standard-height tables lined up in rows made it look perfectly suited for family gatherings or group meals.

On the walls were sticky notes full of warm messages and memories from past guests, giving the place a charming, cozy atmosphere.

The review raffle at Yeoyejeong: what you can win

One corner had a lucky-draw event corner set up, which added a bit of fun. Leaving a Google review or a Naver photo review gets you one draw; leaving both a Google review and a Naver photo review gets you two draws plus 150g of pork tail!

Lucky-draw prizes include: a ₩50,000 Yeoyejeong dining voucher / a ₩5,000 Nonghyup gift certificate / 3 servings of bomb-style steamed egg / 1 drink or alcoholic beverage of choice / ₩5,000 in Yeoyejeong points / 1 serving of marinated galbi / 150g of pork tail / 1 item from the display shelf

They really had such a wide variety of prizes lined up! Visiting with family and joining the event seems like it would make for a fun time!

We were told we could sit wherever we liked, so we took a window seat, and the outdoor view was wonderfully refreshing. The whole place is fitted with floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto the scenery, so the interior stays bright throughout.

What's on the menu at Yeoyejeong

Yeoyejeong's main menu items are pork and beef. The pork ranges from marinated galbi to samgyeopsal (pork belly), and the beef includes flower galbi and salchisal (chuck flap tail)!

For the lunch special, there's meat pot rice, meat naengmyeon, pot rice kimchi jjigae, and pot rice galbitang.

Until what time can you order the grill menu at Yeoyejeong?

At Yeoyejeong, you have to arrive by 13:00 to order from the meat menu. That's an important operating-hours tip to know before you visit. When I didn't see any customers near the entrance, I asked whether they were still open, and was told that the grill service had closed and only the lunch special was available. Since it was already well past regular lunchtime, finding another place felt too awkward, so I decided, a bit reluctantly, to just have the lunch special.

I asked the staff how late I'd need to have arrived to get a regular meat meal, and here's what they told me.

• You have to arrive by 13:00 to order from the meat menu
• Lunch special orders are accepted until 14:00
• And dining can continue until 15:00

It turns out their break time (for ingredient prep) runs from 13:00 to 17:00, and the actual service hours run from 11:30 to 14:00 (essentially a lunch last-order concept)! If only I'd known beforehand, I could've come down earlier and tried the salchisal I'd been wanting — genuinely a shame. If you're planning to visit this place, I strongly recommend checking the operating hours ahead of time!

Lunch special meat pot rice, 13,000 won

Setting aside my disappointment, I ordered the lunch special's signature dishes: the meat pot rice for ₩13,000 and the meat naengmyeon for ₩13,000.

After ordering, the basic side dishes came out neatly arranged — diced radish kimchi, white kimchi, seasoned seaweed, and seasoned eggplant. The meat pot rice turned out to be a hearty combination of pork marinated in Yeoyejeong's special galbi sauce and freshly cooked pot rice!

Piling the salty-sweet special galbi-marinated pork onto the glistening, hot pot rice felt like refueling my tired body with energy. Eaten together with the accompanying doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew), it wasn't the least bit heavy and tasted great.

The pot rice came with such a generous amount of rice

that even after scooping out a full bowl, there was still a whole lot of nurungji left in the pot. Pot rice is always so warm, chewy, and delicious no matter when you eat it! After scooping the rice out and pouring hot water over the nurungji, I was already looking forward to the nutty sungnyung (rice water) as a palate cleanser after the meal!

They also served seasoned chives alongside the marinated pork, and eating them together was sweet, tangy, and absolutely delicious. One serving was plenty filling enough to make a full meal on its own.

Meat naengmyeon, 13,000 won (9,000 won on its own)

The meat naengmyeon (₩13,000, or ₩9,000 if you order the noodles alone) combines pork marinated in Yeoyejeong's special galbi sauce with refreshing cold noodles — apparently a specialty unique to this place.

In particular, the mul-naengmyeon (cold noodle soup) came topped with a special sauce, making it much spicier, sweeter, and more savory than a typical version. Dipping the char-grilled, smoky marinated pork into the icy, slushy broth made for a perfect combination.

After finishing the meal, I cleansed my palate with the nurungji I'd earlier poured hot water over. Since the rice portion was so generous, the nurungji turned out well too and was enjoyable to eat.

Gift certificates and house-made white kimchi to take home

Yeoyejeong accepts payment with Yangyang local gift certificates! Good to know if you have some on hand!

They also sell house-made white kimchi, made with care. It's made entirely with domestic ingredients, including domestic albaechu (alkaline cabbage) and eolgari-baechu (young cabbage), which gave me a lot of confidence in it! It's ₩16,000 for 1150ml and ₩9,000 for 550ml. It's also served during the meal, so it might be a good idea to try it while you eat and then buy some to take home.

After finishing the meal, there was a coffee vending machine set up by the entrance, and I fell for the temptation of a mix coffee once again. Sweet, sweet mix coffee!! It's delicious no matter when you drink it!

Why the Yangyang lunch special at Yeoyejeong is worth a return trip

It was such a shame that, because of an unlucky timing mismatch after the Sinseondae hike, I couldn't try the raw grilled meat or salchisal I'd been hoping for, but the quality of the hastily-ordered lunch special meat pot rice and meat naengmyeon was so good that I still ended up thoroughly satisfied with the meal.

Thanks to the spacious, convenient parking and the warm, homey atmosphere, I think this will stay memorable as part of my Yangyang trip. Next time, I definitely want to time my visit right so I can properly conquer the meat menu! If you're looking for a hearty and special lunch special in Yangyang, this is a place worth stopping by.