Aewol black pork restaurant with jaerae-gi side salads: Nopo Dwaeji

On this trip to western Jeju, I ended up staying a night around Aewol and Hallim! I heard there was a popular black pork spot, so I booked ahead and went haha 😄 Let me introduce Nopo Dwaeji, an Aewol black pork restaurant!!

Where is Nopo Dwaeji Aewol and what should you know first?

📍5-1 Gwakji 9-gil, Aewol-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju-do. It's very close to Gwakji Beach even within Aewol-eup, so a lot of people who'd just finished swimming were visiting too!!

• ⏰Hours 11:00 – 23:00
• ⏰Last order 22:00
• ✅Baby chairs
• ✅Catch Table waiting
• 🐶Pets welcome
• 🚗Dedicated parking ⭕

Behind the Nopo Dwaeji building there's a big parking lot. There are plenty of spots so parking is easy haha 😆 (We arrived a bit early, around 5pm!)

A big exterior you can spot from the road

Nopo Dwaeji Aewol turned out to have a huge building! You could spot it from far away — impossible to just pass by!! haha

There's this confident, established-restaurant kind of energy about it..!! One whole side of the building is floor-to-ceiling glass, giving it a really open feel 😊

Why evening visitors have to queue

Since so many people come to Nopo Dwaeji, the wait can get long 😱 We arrived around 5pm before the dinner rush so we had it easy, but from past 5:30pm the waiting line started forming!!

If you hate waiting, I'd recommend booking through Naver Reservation! (I overheard the next table say twice, 'good thing we booked, that could've been a disaster'..haha) They keep reserved seats aside for people who booked ahead 👍 (Looking at the Catch Table app, remote table booking seems possible too..!)

Inside Nopo Dwaeji Aewol: clean and warmly lit

I was worried a place named Nopo Dwaeji ('old-school pork') might have a really old-fashioned vibe.. (personally not a fan of that old-school feel 😂) but with wood interiors and glass block walls, the inside was atmospheric and clean 👍

Seating from four-person tables to group rooms

There's everything from small tables to group seating, so it seemed like a great fit for big groups too. (There were indeed a lot of large families!)

The tidy self-serve bar

The self-serve bar was also well kept and clean. Not only could you refill the basic side dishes, but you could also grab lettuce wraps and chili peppers yourself, which I loved 😆

168-hour aged black pork and the other cuts

Overall the meat menu consisted of black pork geun-gogi (thick-cut pork), galmaegisal (skirt meat), and hangjeongsal (jowl meat), with neck and belly addable. Nopo Dwaeji Aewol ages its black pork for 168 hours! You could really feel how serious they are about black pork 😊

Is the lunch special good value?

• ※ Lunch special
• ⏰11:00 – 14:00
• 💵₩55,000 set for 2
• ☑️400g geun-gogi + choice of jjigae + kelp rice for 2

(It was such a reasonable price that we wanted to order the lunch special ourselves too!!)

Table setting and side dishes at Nopo Dwaeji Aewol

Since we'd booked ahead through Naver, our table was neatly set when we arrived. (Isn't that such a nice touch?!) The exhaust hood also had really strong suction, easing worries about smelling like smoke afterward.

Jaerae-gi and radish salad: the standout sides

The side dishes came out neat and not excessive, so it actually felt more orderly. Among radish salad, pickled chili pepper strips, wrap radish, jaeraegi (traditional pickle), and dongchimi (watery radish kimchi), our picks were the jaeraegi and radish salad.

The jaeraegi's sauce had a sharp, distinctive garlic kick that wasn't common — really appealing. The radish salad was refreshing with a savory depth that paired perfectly with the black pork 😆

Straw-fire searing and its smoky aroma

Thick-cut meat is delicious, but thick meat is also hard to grill.. an endless dilemma..!!!! But at Nopo Dwaeji, they sear the meat first over straw fire in a separate area 👍 This step seems to really let the smoky aroma soak into the meat, making it even more flavorful.

📝 What we ordered

• Black pork geun-gogi
• 24-hour aged kimchi jjigae
• 2 kelp rice bowls

How good is the geun-gogi?

One thing I always say: Jeju black pork is the best pork out there!! The cut was incredibly thick. This gorgeous sight alone made it feel like coming to Jeju just for black pork wouldn't be an exaggeration 😭

Staff grill the black pork for you

High-quality black pork that's already been seared once over charcoal, then finished off by a skilled staff member's grilling technique — nothing more you could ask for ♥️

Chewy, nutty Jeju black pork

Unlike regular pork, Nopo Dwaeji's black pork geun-gogi got chewier and more savory the more you chewed it! The juices that burst in your mouth from the very first bite were genuinely delicious 😆

My favorite combo — wasabi salt! The wasabi wasn't too spicy and had a slight sweetness, which really brought out the flavor of the meat even more.

Black pork with Jeju myeoljeot (anchovy sauce)

This right here is Jeju...ㅠ🌴🍊 black pork geun-gogi with myeoljeot (fermented anchovy sauce)... this has become my absolute favorite combo!!!! Jeju myeoljeot really is different from the mainland version — an explosion of umami... I couldn't stop reaching for it...!!!💛

Thick pork slices with grilled vegetables

I'm not usually one to wrap meat in lettuce (I hate when it masks the meat's flavor, being the meat snob that I am..^^;;), but here the meat is so thick and juicy that its presence still came through even wrapped — the meat went really well with the wrap veggies too 💚

24-hour aged kimchi jjigae with kelp rice

Maybe because it's a black pork specialty restaurant, the kimchi jjigae was absolutely loaded with meat! The kimchi's spiciness, the meat's savory fattiness, and a slight sweetness all came together perfectly — an ideal meal to finish after eating the grilled meat haha

Kelp rice packed with umami

The kelp rice was a genuinely fresh surprise to me 😱 I was amazed that plain rice could have this much umami. The rice itself already had a slight seasoning, so it was delicious even on its own ㅠㅠ You have to order this one!!

If you're looking for a great black pork restaurant in western Jeju, or near Gwakji Beach in Aewol, I'd recommend Nopo Dwaeji ♥️