Sangbong Korean BBQ with sundubu jjigae and self-fried rice: Super

Super Naengsam Sangbong Main Branch

Sometimes I crave frozen pork belly more than fresh, and recently was exactly one of those days. A brand new frozen pork belly restaurant had just opened in the Sangbong food alley, so Jjomi and I went straight there! Let me introduce Super Naengsam Sangbong Main Branch.

The exterior and opening event at this frozen pork belly spot in the Sangbong food alley

Super Naengsam Sangbong Main Branch, a Sangbong food alley restaurant specializing in frozen pork belly, has a big sign that'll catch your eye right away if you're already a fan of naengsam (frozen pork belly).

At the time of our visit, there was an opening event running: buy 2 get 1 free on soju or beer. You can even mix soju and beer, so anyone who wants a drink with their naengsam, run over!

The interior is spacious with wide table spacing

This is the interior of Super Naengsam Sangbong Main Branch. It was bigger inside than I expected, and both the interior space and the gaps between tables were wide, making it look great for group gatherings or work dinners too.

The Super Naengsam menu and what we ordered

Here's the menu board at this Sangbong food alley spot. The main menu is a single item — frozen pork belly. Since Jjomi and I had both skipped lunch before visiting, we went straight for 4 servings of naengsam (₩9,900 each) plus sundubu jjigae (₩5,000)!

Simple but useful — the Super Naengsam five commandments, which help you eat it even better once you know them.

There were fun posters plastered all over the walls that matched the vibe of a naengsam restaurant perfectly — fun to read one by one.

Nostalgic tray of side dishes and ₩3,900 Hangang ramyeon

Once you order, a nostalgic tray comes out loaded with various side dishes. Minari (water dropwort), green onion kimchi, cabbage kimchi, seasoned bean sprouts, pickled onion/pepper, and lettuce wraps — all of it works either grilled on the pan with the naengsam or eaten as-is.

You can freely refill the side dishes from the self-serve bar, and another kicker of Super Naengsam Sangbong Main Branch is that you can get Hangang ramyeon (instant noodles) for just ₩3,900! There's a good variety of noodle types too, so it looked like fun to pick and boil whichever one suits your taste.

4 servings of naengsam at ₩9,900 for 150g — how thick is it?

Our 4 servings of naengsam from Super Naengsam Sangbong Main Branch arrived! We were both starving, so this was such a welcome sight. Since we'd ordered 4 servings from the start, the pork was stacked high on the plate.

The naengsam at Super Naengsam Sangbong Main Branch is noticeably thicker than typical frozen pork belly. For ₩9,900 per 150g, the quality-to-price ratio was really satisfying.

Straight onto the pan 🔥 they lined the naengsam up neatly for us

And of course, the unbeatable naengsam combo on the pan — kimchi and bean sprouts, plus mushrooms.

Another great thing about naengsam is that it cooks up golden fast haha.

Before long, oil starts glistening off the meat, naturally soaking into the kimchi and bean sprouts beside it — and that's when the smell coming off the pan starts driving you a little crazy...😋

Spicy-sweet sundubu jjigae

While the naengsam was cooking on the pan, the sundubu jjigae (soft tofu stew) arrived too, bubbling away in its stone pot.

Soft, pillowy tofu was packed in generously, along with a good amount of enoki mushroom and egg. It tasted sweeter than the usual sundubu jjigae — as I ate it, it actually reminded me of tteokbokki (spicy rice cake) broth. A spicy-sweet, addictive sundubu jjigae.

Grilling it the way the Super Naengsam five commandments say

You can really see how thick this is for frozen pork belly, right?⁉️ Each piece of naengsam was big enough that Jjomi went in for a full bite while I cut mine in half. Following the Super Naengsam five commandments, we flipped it just twice each side until it was golden and glossy with fat, then sprinkled on some pepper —

First, we dipped it in ssamjang (fermented dipping sauce) and sesame oil dip. Being this thick, it wasn't just the crispiness you get from thin meat — you could really taste the rich, savory chewiness that's unique to naengsam, doubled. Okay 👌🏻, the meat's clearly delicious, got it —

Now for the real work — making it even better. We cut up the kimchi that was already partly cooked and let it grill a bit longer. The pan condition was so good, probably because the place had just opened, that neither the kimchi nor the bean sprouts stuck even after grilling for a while, so we could keep grilling comfortably right to the end.

The kimchi and bean sprouts, fried golden in the oil dripping off the naengsam, went perfectly on top of a piece of meat — yum 👍🏻 That naengsam winning combo really sends the dopamine flying.

We wrapped it up properly in lettuce too. It tasted great, but it also helped that Jjomi kept grilling nonstop for us.

We ended up with 6 servings between the two of us — the extra 2 were just as good

Before we even felt full, we found ourselves adding 2 more servings as if hypnotized...❗️ 6 servings total between the two of us.... hehe, naengsam is basically a drug.

The extra 2 servings of naengsam from Super Naengsam Sangbong Main Branch were just as high quality as the first round. By the time we got full, we had a little meat left over.

Finishing with ₩3,000 self-fried rice

So we went ahead with the self-fried rice (₩3,000), which you can also order as a single serving!!!

For the self-fried rice, we put it on the pan and stirred it around evenly first

then chopped in the leftover meat and a bit more kimchi we'd grabbed, along with the salt-sesame oil dip we'd used with the meat, stirred it all a bit more, and finally spread it flat on the pan and pressed it down

and that's when it turns into properly delicious japchae-style fried rice. That's the whole appeal of self-fried rice right there.

I honestly expected to leave some fried rice behind, but we became piglets 🐷 who finished off even this Korean-style dessert fried rice. Satisfying to the very last bite.

Thoughtful touches even after the meal

At the counter, there were candies, toothpicks, hair ties and more ready to go, and there was even Febreze in the bathroom, making it easy to wrap up the meal feeling clean and put-together.

A truly satisfying meal at Super Naengsam Sangbong Main Branch, this Sangbong food alley restaurant — woohoo! haha.