5 PM opening run at Hapjeong Korean BBQ: pork ribs at Champpoppo

My husband and I had a Hongdae date after a long time and decided to head over to Hapjeong to refuel on meat! Out of all the meats, we picked jjokgalbi (pork rib), which we hadn't had in a while! A jjokgalbi place called Champpoppo Jjokgalbi had opened in Hapjeong, so we went to check it out~

Located on the Hapjeong-Sangsu restaurant strip!

Champpoppo Jjokgalbi, a Hapjeong hotspot so new it still had a congratulatory flower wreath out front. Even the name is cute — Cham Poppo ("real kiss") 🫪

First customers at the 5 PM opening of Champpoppo Jjokgalbi Hapjeong Branch

Champpoppo Jjokgalbi Hapjeong Branch opens at 5pm. We arrived right on time and were the very first customers! Maybe because it's so new, the interior was quite clean.

Champpoppo Jjokgalbi menu and how to order at the table

The menu at Champpoppo Jjokgalbi is centered on jjokgalbi but is actually quite extensive, including sets, meals, and side dishes. Orders are placed via the tablet on the table.

• Soy jjokgalbi / Seasoned jjokgalbi (regular/spicy)
• Pasta set / Tear-gas set / Combo set
• Whole galmaegisal / Seasoned galmaegisal
• Boneless charcoal-grilled chicken feet / Honeycomb pork skin
• Doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) / Grandma's doenjang rice bowl / Sundubu ramyeon
• Poppo cream pasta / Yeolmu kimchi cold noodles
• Kaljjebi (hand-torn noodle soup) / Spicy kaljjebi
• Cheese bomb steamed egg / Tuna mayo rice ball
• Tear-gas rice ball / Steamed rice / Chicken porridge / Extra corn cheese

The receipt review event is really generous, so I'd definitely recommend joining it.

Here's what we ordered!

• Soy jjokgalbi, 2 servings
• Seasoned jjokgalbi (regular), 1 serving
• Cheese bomb steamed egg
• Soju
• Draft beer
• + Whole galmaegisal

Free sides at Champpoppo: chicken porridge, corn cheese and pork skin

The basic side dishes at Champpoppo Jjokgalbi Hapjeong Branch start with four sauces. Onion soy sauce, seasoned sauce, what looks like ranch, and curry sauce!

Pink pickled radish plus the nostalgic cabbage salad. This cabbage was actually really fresh and crunchy, though.

And this chicken porridge comes free too! A warm, soft porridge with generous ingredients like this being free is insane! 💛

The glasses are on the small side, but they do serve draft beer, so my husband had draft while I had soju — cheers~

Then the corn cheese arrived along with the charcoal grill. Wow... corn cheese is included too! 🔥

And it doesn't end there. While the jjokgalbi was getting its initial grilling, they gave us pork skin and sliced potatoes too, so our mouths wouldn't get bored!

The regular side dishes were already great, but throwing in pork skin and potatoes too — is there any profit margin left for them?

2 servings soy jjokgalbi plus 1 seasoned: why the first order is 3 servings

Soon the main star arrived: 2 servings of soy jjokgalbi and 1 serving of seasoned jjokgalbi. *Note: the first order must be at least 3 servings of jjokgalbi!

I always have to have steamed egg at a Korean BBQ place! They called it cheese bomb steamed egg, but honestly it wasn't quite a cheese bomb! Still tasty, of course.

Put on the cotton gloves and plastic gloves provided at the table, ready to properly tear into the jjokgalbi~!

Honestly I thought it would be mostly bone weight~ but wow, the meat was actually quite thick on it!

Depending on the mood, dip in the onion sauce, or the spicy seasoned sauce~

Doesn't the seasoned jjokgalbi kind of remind you of Kyochon Red Combo? Jjokgalbi is usually skinny or mostly bone, but here there was seriously, seriously, seriously a lot of meat to tear off.

How spicy is the seasoned jjokgalbi, regular or geommae?

Champpoppo Jjokgalbi's seasoned jjokgalbi comes in regular and geommae (extra spicy)..? I do like spicy food, but seeing "geommae" written down scared me off, so I chickened out and ordered regular haha. So it wasn't super spicy, but I still enjoyed the seasoning a lot.

The jjokgalbi is so tender. It was delicious no matter what I ate it with! We were reasonably full, but my husband suggested ordering one more

Whole galmaegisal at Champpoppo: how does it compare to the pork ribs?

So we ordered the whole galmaegisal (skirt steak)~ It really did come out as one long whole piece, exactly as the name says.

The whole galmaegisal was also generously sized, and the sweet seasoning made it delicious. Personally, though, the jjokgalbi suited my taste a bit more!

We finished off the rest of the jjokgalbi without leaving a bite~

Personally, this went best with the ranch sauce. We were too full for a second round and headed straight home.

Is Champpoppo Jjokgalbi Hapjeong Branch worth going back to?

With the doors wide open, it had that outdoor-tent vibe, and most of all, the jjokgalbi had so much meat on it that we ate really well. The free sides plus the review event make this an excellent place all around! Definitely planning to come back!