Hamdeok black pork lunch with a smoke show and jowl: Jeju Samchun

Today I'm bringing you a review of Jeju Samchun, a Jeju black pork restaurant near Hamdeok Beach. It's a place where you can enjoy quality meat in a variety of set compositions. Let me walk you through the details below!

2 minutes from Hamdeok Beach: location and parking at Jeju Samchun

Jeju Samchun, a Hamdeok Beach favorite located in Jocheon, is about a 2-minute walk from Hamdeok Beach. Since it's so close to the beach, it's a great spot to stop for a meal after swimming or sightseeing.

You can park in the space in front of the restaurant, and if that's full, there's a nearby public parking lot. Hamdeok Beach tends to get crowded with tourists, so it's a good idea to give yourself a bit of extra time on weekends.

Jeju Samchun, the Hamdeok Beach favorite, is designated as a certified Jeju pork retailer. Since they use Jeju-raised pork, it's a great spot for anyone looking for Jeju black pork or aged pork.

Jeju Samchun's interior and group seating

The interior of Jeju Samchun is fairly spacious overall, with several group tables available. The tables are large and well-spaced, so it worked fine whether we were a small group or a bigger one.

Why we chose the Jocha Set over the lunch special

This is the full menu. We visited during lunch and thought about ordering the lunch special, but since we wanted more meat, we went with the Jocha Set — a combination of pork neck and pork belly. The Jocha Set is Jeju Samchun's signature menu item: pork neck and belly aged for 300 hours at low temperature, then smoked over vine wood before serving.

The basic side dishes are served as shown above — a nice lineup to pair with the meat.

Before putting the meat on the grill, they put on a little smoke performance for us. Smoke billowed all around the meat, which was fun to watch.

Jocha Set, ₩60,000: 500g of meat and the grilling service

Jocha Set, ₩60,000. The meat totals 500g, and besides the pork neck and belly, there were a few other cuts mixed in too. It's a good composition for two people to share and sample a variety.

They first put the belly and neck on the grill. The cuts were quite thick.

It was nice that the staff handled everything, from grilling the meat to trimming it into bite-sized pieces. You can just sit back and eat starting with whatever they place on the edge of the grill.

I'm not sure of the exact cut, but near the end they also served what looked like pork jowl. It was plenty for two of us to share at lunch 😃😃

How the pork belly, neck, and jowl tasted

Jeju Samchun's pork belly had a chewy skin and a good ratio of lean meat to fat, which I liked. It was on the thick side, but not tough — the more you chewed, the more savory it got. Really delicious.

The pork neck was also thick-cut but not dry at all — it was tender. The subtle smoky aroma paired nicely with the clean, mild flavor of the neck.

They also serve pollock roe with the basic side dishes, and it wasn't too salty, so it was perfect laid on top of the meat. It seemed to round out the savory flavor nicely.

The cut I think was pork jowl (?) had a lot of fat but wasn't greasy at all — if anything it was really savory and delicious. The springy, chewy texture was excellent too. Such a good match for a drink...

We had plans afterward so we didn't order a rice dish, but looking around, a lot of people were eating kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew). It looked like a hearty option for lunch.

Wrap-up

Jeju Samchun is close to Hamdeok Beach, making it a great stop before or after sightseeing or swimming. You can enjoy quality meat comfortably, and the spacious interior works well no matter who you're visiting with. If you're looking for a Hamdeok Beach favorite, I'd recommend this Jeju Samchun Hamdeok location for black pork BBQ!