Jongno 3-ga Seoul Korean BBQ with a 2-hour wait: Meongseokjip
In short
Meongseokjip Jongno 3-ga Branch is a Korean BBQ restaurant on the Jongno 3-ga outdoor-dining street in Seoul, grilling aged pork belly and pork collar. Registering at 5:20pm put Meongseokjip 26 teams deep in the queue, and after a 2-hour wait four people sat outside at 7:30pm and finished two 55,000-won combo sets plus extra pork collar and kimchi fried rice. The self-serve green onion kimchi and the kimchi fried rice at Meongseokjip are the two things not to skip.
Good to know
- Combo set
- ₩55,000 (aged pork belly for 2 + pork collar for 1) × 2
- Pork collar
- ₩19,000
- Kimchi fried rice
- ₩7,000
- Soju
- ₩5,000
- Wait
- 26 teams ahead when registering at 5:20pm, seated at 7:30pm
- Seating
- Choice of outdoor street seating or indoors; the indoor area has an open ceiling
- Self-serve bar
- Side dishes, salt, sesame oil dip and green onion kimchi, refill yourself
- Restroom
- Inside the restaurant
- Price reference
- ₩55,000 ≈ $41 · ₩19,000 ≈ $14 · ₩7,000 ≈ $5.2 (2026-09-15)
as written by the visitor on Sep 14, 2026
With the weather finally cooling down, I rushed out to enjoy patio dining before the ice age hits — here's my review of Meongseokjip Jongno 3-ga Branch, a Korean BBQ spot in Jongno 3-ga.
How long is the wait at Meongseokjip Jongno 3-ga Branch? 26 teams, 2 hours
When we registered for a table at 5:20pm, there were already 26 teams ahead of us, and we didn't get seated until 7:30pm. If you want patio seating, make sure to select the patio option when you register your wait!
My friend went ahead and put our name down, and since it didn't look like 26 teams would clear within two hours, we waited it out with beers at a pojangmacha (street food tent) nearby in Jongno 3-ga. Then our number was finally called and we hurried over.
The crowd was no joke even from a distance, right? Meongseokjip's wait was seriously intense.
Street seating or indoors at Meongseokjip: which should you pick?
The indoor space at Meongseokjip Jongno 3-ga Branch looks like this, and the ceiling is actually open!
The outdoor area has this vibe — the patio atmosphere is so good, it hurts haha.
There's also a clean restroom inside, which was a nice bonus.
Ta-da — we got seated at the very last table, which actually made things more comfortable!
What four people ordered at Meongseokjip, and what it cost
- Meongseokjip combo set ₩55,000 × 2 (aged pork belly for 2 + pork collar for 1)
- Pork collar ₩19,000
- Kimchi fried rice ₩7,000
- Soju ₩5,000
They gave us garlic, ssamjang (dipping sauce), bean sprouts, kimchi, lettuce, and peppers as basics, and you can grab more from the self-serve bar if you run out.
The combo set plus pork collar.
We were going to eat and then order more, but since there were four of us, they suggested adding more meat to the combo set, so we added pork collar first. It came out in a cute little jar haha.
We were hungry, so we piled it all on right away. The flame was really strong, so the meat cooked fast!
Can't resist soju on the patio!
This is what the patio looks like — coming on a weekday afternoon would probably feel even more relaxed. Still, the cool weather that day was amazing.
A cute couple grilling the meat diligently.
Ta-da — the meat cooking up nicely, and the bean sprouts and kimchi get grilled on the side of the pan.
The meat was really thick too. Cheers again today.
What to grab from the self-serve bar: salt, sesame oil dip, green onion kimchi
There's no salt or sesame oil dip pre-set on the tables at Meongseokjip Jongno 3-ga Branch, so you have to make your own at the self-serve bar. Once the meat was mostly cooked, I noticed we had no salt or anything like that, so I went to check out the self-serve bar.
You can scoop your own salt too — I made one dish of salt and one of sesame oil dip.
And there was green onion kimchi — it's genuinely delicious, so if you're into it, make sure to grab some!!
Wrapped up some lettuce ssam neatly and ate it with well-grilled garlic too.
Eating this well, the soju just kept flowing.
Round two: a second 55,000-won combo set
So we ordered another combo set~!
Round two begins again.
They grilled more bean sprouts and kimchi, and cooked the meat until nicely browned.
This time they cut the meat smaller, so it looked like there was a ton of it, haha.
The well-cooked meat got wrapped up neatly into ssam.
Eating it with kimchi and bean sprouts — how good is that? It was a shame there wasn't naengmyeon (cold noodles) as a side, but I guess we had to have the fried rice, right?
Finishing with Meongseokjip's kimchi fried rice, ₩7,000
Kimchi fried rice.
Here comes the kimchi fried rice to cut through the richness of the meat! Honestly, this calls for one more bottle of soju.
One more bottle of soju, please~!
We mixed it up nicely with a soft-boiled egg on top, and the kimchi fried rice was so good — I highly recommend it haha.
It was spicy enough that the soju just kept going down.
And that's the aftermath of two food-loving friends who cleaned every plate. The atmosphere and the food were both great at this Jongno 3-ga Korean BBQ restaurant, Meongseokjip Jongno 3-ga Branch — perfect weather for patio dining these days, so go before the ice age hits!!
Where it is
7 Donhwamun-ro 11da-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea서울특별시 종로구 돈화문로11다길 7 멍석집
