Jongno3-ga Korean BBQ at 9pm, pork belly for three: Cham Dwaejitgan

Hey everyone, it's not pig... I mean, it's Takgu... My appetite has been way too good lately, honestly a bit worried about myself...

A few days ago I went out for pork belly with a friend at 9pm... Honestly 9pm is basically a midnight snack, so I'm seriously reflecting on my life choices right now haha 🫠 But lol the pork belly was so damn good, let's get into the review

This time I went to Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch (참돼짓간 종로본점)!

Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch at a glance

• Staff grill the meat for you from start to finish
• A variety of side dishes, all the way to minari and potatoes
• The kimchi is genuinely amazing (raise your hand if you love sour kimchi)
• You can absolutely finish with fried rice

Great for a date or a hangout, but I especially recommend it if you're looking for a ✔️Jongno 3-ga work dinner✔️ spot. Reason: they give you milk thistle when you order beer. Perfect chance to pretend you're the thoughtful junior staffer who planned ahead~~ (acting like I prepared it myself)

What comes with the meal: table setting and self-serve bar

First, the table setting! Wasabi and ssamjang come out as standard, plus a sweet-spicy sauce too. You can pick and choose depending on the type of meat or your taste!

For side dishes, you get perilla leaves, scallion salad, and a salad. Staff set the basics up at first. After that, it's a help-yourself self-serve bar! Personally I think this self-serve system is more comfortable... calling the staff over and over feels a bit awkward, tbh. The self-serve bar is also kept nice and clean.

Minari and potatoes come out too. Someone who loves grilled minari = me 🙋🏻‍♀️ Minari as part of the standard table setting... honestly so touched. The staff grill the potatoes for you after the meat is done. Apparently you're supposed to wrap the meat in it? I'll show you in photos later, hehe.

Pretty clean overall, right? Ugh, I'm hungry.

Three servings of pork belly, grilled for you by the staff

The staff really grilled every single piece for us, so we could eat comfortably, and above all the meat was genuinely delicious. We ordered three servings of pork belly and cleaned every bit of it, lol. Looking around, there were plenty of tables clearly there for work dinners, and quite a few Japanese customers too.

Potato wraps: pork belly wrapped in a slice of potato

Now it's potato time! The potatoes are sliced thin, so they cooked faster than I expected. Wrapping the meat in potato adds this nutty flavor that surprisingly works really well. It was my first time eating it wrapped in potato, and it was so much better than I expected — I ended up finishing it all, oops.

Sweet cold noodles, halfway between mul-naengmyeon and bibim-naengmyeon

It was hot out, so we ordered cold noodles too. Heh heh heh... the sweet seasoning was exactly my type. I usually like something right in between mul-naengmyeon (cold noodle soup) and bibim-naengmyeon (spicy mixed cold noodles), you know? And this place hit that exact style, totally my taste... ugh, I loved it.

Ta-da, here's my beloved pork belly, finally fully grilled! Kimchi, minari and meat all lined up together — it's basically art, seriously. It didn't splatter much oil either, so it was easy to eat comfortably, and eating the meat together with minari and kimchi was such a great combo. Best of all, you can eat it warm the whole way through.

Finishing the night with fried rice

For dessert, we ordered fried rice too. Seriously, how am I supposed to resist fried rice as dessert... Maybe because the kimchi is so good, the flavor doesn't disappoint at all. Some Korean BBQ places these days don't even offer fried rice, but here it's an absolute must-add, hehe.

Next time I want to try the pork neck too... The ogeopsal (five-layer pork belly) must be popular, because it ended up sold out, sob. I think this will become one of my regular spots I keep coming back to... If you're looking for a good Korean BBQ place in Jongno, I completely recommend it!!! I'll be back with more piggy-hardworking reviews next time~!!