Family BBQ dinner in Yongin: hanwoo sirloin & pork loin, Dongbaek

A while back, craving good meat for a family dinner, I went to Dongbaek Hanokjip Charcoal Grill Butcher Restaurant (동백한옥집 숯불구이 정육식당). It's a butcher restaurant where you pick your own meat and grill it over charcoal yourself, so if you're a meat lover, it's worth a visit at least once. What I especially liked was that there's no table charge, and there's a big parking lot right behind the restaurant, so it was easy to visit.

Dongbaek Hanokjip charcoal grill: store info

• 📍 Address: 221 Eondong-ro, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, 1st floor
• ⏰ Hours: Daily 11:30–21:30 (last order 21:00)
• 🗓 Closed every Monday
• 🚗 Large parking lot available behind the restaurant

Dongbaek Hanokjip is a butcher restaurant, but it also has a menu you can order directly at the table. On this visit, we went with the pick-your-own option and chose hanwoo (Korean beef) bottom sirloin and pork loin.

So let me walk you through how to use Dongbaek Hanokjip's charcoal grill, from the ordering process to what we ate 😊

How do you order at Dongbaek Hanokjip?

If it's your first visit, you might wonder how ordering works, but it turned out to be simpler than expected. Pick your meat from the fridge → have the barcode scanned at the counter → bring it to your table and grill it over charcoal! You choose the cut you want from the packaged meat in the fridge, bring it to the counter to get the barcode scanned, then grill it yourself at your table.

There was a wide variety of meat prepared, from hanwoo sirloin and short rib meat to pork belly and pork jowl, so you can see everything in person and choose exactly the cut you want.

There's also a separate table-order menu, including seasoned pork BBQ, a mixed beef short rib set, seasoned beef BBQ, and more. And even though it's a butcher restaurant, I appreciated that there's no separate table charge.

Grilling hanwoo bottom sirloin first

The first cut we chose was hanwoo bottom sirloin. Once we said we'd eat the beef first, they set up the charcoal and grill plate for us. We laid the hanwoo on the charcoal and grilled it until golden brown — meat really does taste better grilled over charcoal, haha. Dipping the well-cooked hanwoo bottom sirloin lightly in salt was amazing lol. Rather than dipping it in various sauces, just a light touch of salt let the flavor of the meat itself really come through. The basic table setting and side dishes came out with it, and lettuce wraps and sliced scallions to go with the meat were available at the self-serve bar, as much as we wanted.

After the beef, pork loin too!

Once we finished the beef, the staff came and swapped the grill plate for us without even asking, haha. Thanks to that, we could put the pork loin straight onto a clean plate. The pork loin, grilled golden over charcoal, was delicious too.

It was more tender and mild than I expected, so it was tasty wrapped in lettuce and also good dipped in salt. Being able to choose from hanwoo all the way to pork in one place makes this a great spot for families who like a variety of meats to each pick what they like.

Self-serve bar, plus self-serve drinks and alcohol

At Dongbaek Hanokjip, you can help yourself to lettuce wraps and side dishes at the self-serve bar. Sliced scallions, onion, lettuce wraps, kimchi, and other things that go well with meat are all prepared there, so if you run low, you can just go grab more.

And it turned out drinks and alcohol are also self-serve, lol. You just take whatever drink or alcohol you want from the fridge yourself, so it was convenient to grab as much as we needed.

Finishing with cold noodles and soybean paste stew

After enjoying the meat, of course we couldn't skip a final meal item, haha. We ordered mul naengmyeon (cold noodles) and doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew).

Finishing off the meat with cool cold noodles was refreshing and satisfying, and the doenjang jjigae was even better than I expected.

In particular, there was so much minced meat in it that the broth was rich and hearty with meat. That said, since I can't handle spice well, I found it a bit spicy, lol. If you can't do spicy food, I'd recommend asking them to go easy on the chili peppers when you order.

Looking for a meat restaurant in Dongbaek?

For this visit, I think the biggest appeal of Dongbaek Hanokjip Charcoal Grill is being able to pick exactly the meat you want and grill it yourself over charcoal. We tried both hanwoo bottom sirloin and pork loin, and both were delicious, and after finishing the beef, the staff swapped the grill plate for us without being asked, which made the meal really comfortable. On top of that, there's no table charge, and with the spacious parking lot and self-serve bar, it was a good option for a family dinner out too. If you're craving meat in Dongbaek — especially if you're looking for a butcher restaurant where you pick your own meat and grill it over charcoal — Dongbaek Hanokjip Charcoal Grill is worth considering 😊