Korean BBQ in Hongdae: salted ogyeopsal vs dwitgogi at Chopilsal

Hahat, it's been a while, right? I haven't given up on the blog!! Haha, it just got so hot I took a short break and now I'm back haha. The weather's cooling down and it feels like the perfect season to go out and about again... Today I'm writing about a Hongdae Station restaurant, the Korean BBQ spot Chopilsal Pork Grill Hongdae Branch!

Chopilsal Pork Grill Hongdae Branch: address, hours and reservations

• 📍 172 Donggyo-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea (1st & 2nd floor)
• ⏰ Daily 12:00–24:00 (open until 2am on Fri, Sat, Sun)
• 🚗 No parking
• 🚻 Separate restrooms for men and women

A Busan pork grill famous for its queues, now near Hongdae Station

Honestly, my friend whose family is from Busan told me Chopilsal Pork Grill is the hottest Korean BBQ place in Busan right now, and I wanted to go when I visited Busan, but the wait was truly unbelievable, so I never made it in~ If you're heading to Busan, give the Busan branch a shot haha. I heard there's a branch at Hongdae Station in Seoul too, so I jumped at the chance to visit. You can also book through Naver Reservation, just so you know!

Window seats like open-air dining, back room for group dinners

I got lucky and there was an open window seat when I visited! Doesn't it look just like eating at an outdoor pojangmacha? Haha. Eating pork belly with that open-air feel on a nice day made it taste even better, ugh. There was exactly one seat available! There's more seating further in, so I'd also recommend this place if you're looking for a Hongdae group dinner spot!

Menu and prices: what four of us ordered at Chopilsal Pork Grill

Pork cuts on the menu

• Grilled pork skin: ₩9,500 << we had this
• Salted pork belly: ₩12,000 << we had this
• Dwitgogi (pork neck meat): ₩10,500 << we had this
• Choryang galbi: ₩12,000

Stews, noodles and other sides

• Country pork kimchi stew: ₩9,000
• Chopilsal mixed cold noodles: ₩8,000
• Zucchini stew: ₩7,000 << we had this
• Double cheese egg steam: ₩4,500
• Radish rice bowl: ₩2,000
• Soju / Beer: ₩5,500 << we had this

There were four of us, so we ordered 2 servings of grilled pork skin, 4 servings of pork belly, 1 serving of dwitgogi, 1 zucchini stew (doenjang stew), plus drinks haha!

What banchan (side dishes) come with the meat

The banchan (side dishes) included pickled radish, perilla leaves, chili peppers, garlic, ssamjang, radish salad, baek-kimchi, scallion salad, pickled garlic, myeong-i namul (mountain leek), and some pickled thing I couldn't name... haha. They also give you salted pollack roe and minced garlic! Just a heads up, extra pollack roe costs extra~~

Salted ogyeopsal beats dwitgogi: all four of us agreed

Prices are honestly on the cheaper side among Hongdae Korean BBQ pork belly spots in Seoul, so I wasn't expecting much? But wow, it's delicious!! I tend to read a lot of reviews before going to a restaurant, and a lot of people said the dwitgogi was amazing. Plenty of people even said dwitgogi beats pork belly. But all four of us agreed the pork belly was way better! I guess taste really varies from person to person haha.

Honeycomb pork skin grilled and cut for you by the staff

Doesn't it just look delicious from the color alone? I should've taken photos of it cooking and once it was done too, ugh. Honestly, I had such a fun time after so long that I forgot to take pictures... Guess I'm rusty from not blogging for a while... ㅜㅠ

They say this place is the original honeycomb pork skin spot, and the pork skin really is amazing... It was even better because staff grilled it and brought it to us already cooked. Grilling pork skin yourself means a ton of oil splattering everywhere, ugh! But since they grill it and even cut it for you, there's zero risk of getting splattered!

But honestly, you can tell good meat just by looking at the raw cut before it's even cooked, right? Haha. I loved that it came pre-cut to a good size, and the thickness and the meat-to-fat ratio? Haha, that was great too! I'm happy to have found a Korean BBQ spot I really like after so long haha.